Emails show what was said behind the scenes leading up to AAST, Scholars Academy changes
The idea to pursue the recently approved changes at two Horry County program schools this year was fully endorsed by the district’s superintendent, emails show.
“Let’s get it going as soon as possible!” Horry Schools Superintendent Rick Maxey wrote in an email to board member Sherrie Todd.
Todd heads the board’s newly created Curriculum and Instruction Committee, which recommended during its first ever meeting in August to turn Scholars Academy into a standalone school and eliminate the freshman and sophomore grades from Academy for the Arts, Science, and Technology’s STEM program.
Maxey’s email to Todd came three weeks before that meeting after Todd asked him whether he had the chance to discuss Scholars Academy with his cabinet.
That cabinet includes the district’s chief officers: Boone Myrick (Academics), Velna Allen (Student Services), John Gardner (Finance), Daryl Brown (Support Services), Kenneth Generette (Attorney) and Mary Anderson (Human Resources), according to district spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier.
Maxey replied that he had, expressing support for turning Scholars into a standalone school, and pointed out that such a measure is “inextricably linked with the STEM program at AAST.”
He noted that there have been instances when students from the two program schools have occupied the valedictorian and salutatorian spots at base school, which “has caused consternation among base high school students and their parents due to the fact that in most cases the students at the base schools had very little, if any, interaction with these program students.”
Maxey specifically cites an instance two years ago when both the valedictorian and salutatorian at Myrtle Beach High School were AAST students and neither chose to participate in the graduation ceremony.
The district expanded STEM opportunities K-12 this year, and Maxey wrote in his email that the expansion meant it “does not make sense to continue with a separate STEM program at AAST.”
He added that turning Scholars Academy into a standalone school, it could compete or even surpass Charleston County’s Academic Magnet School, which is currently recognized as the nation’s best high school.
The board voted to approve these changes during its Oct. 21 meeting, though amendments allowed current Scholars students to be “grandfathered in” and graduate under current rules, while future Scholars students won’t be ranked at all.
Maxey declined, through a district spokeswoman, to further discuss his email.
The Sun News acquired Maxey’s email Monday through a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all emails to or from the board members serving on the Curriculum Committee — Todd, Janice Morreale and Janet Graham — about Scholars or AAST from July 1-Sept. 30.
The Sun News submitted this request Sept. 30, while the discussion was still ongoing among the board, in an attempt to learn why this committee had made these recommendations during its first meeting.
Other emails received as part of this request, which asked specifically for emails with which these board members interacted, included parents and students expressing support or disappointment that the board was considering these changes.
One parent of multiple Myrtle Beach High School students refers to AAST as a “free private school,” primarily for kids from wealthy families.
“What they have left behind is a base school who has lost a lot of school spirit, a majority of potential student leaders and role models, and a bunch of really great Myrtle Beach kids who think they are ‘less than’ the academy down the road,” the parent wrote to board members. “It feels like the 1950s segregation all over again!! It is truly appalling.”
