Official: New Carolina Forest middle school attendance zone ‘makes no sense’

Some Horry County School officials aren’t satisfied with the proposed attendance zone for the new Carolina Forest area middle school.

The Carolina Forest Advisory Board met Tuesday morning to debate the attendance zone proposal, which would split the current Ocean Bay Middle School attendance area into three parts.

“The Carolina Forest area has been a very popular area for a lot of families,” said Horry County Schools Assistant Manager of Planning Kathy Johnson. “We presently have two middle schools that serve this area: Black Water middle and Ocean Bay middle. Ocean Bay middle is extremely over-capacity right now so we needed to relieve that school.”

Students living east of U.S. 501 and south of S.C. 31 as well as along International Drive would continue to attend Ocean Bay.

Students in the current Ocean Bay zone living west of U.S. 501 and north of S.C. 31would attend the new Carolina Forest area middle school, which is tentatively scheduled to open in the fall of 2017.

Future residents of the still undeveloped area in the northeast corner of the Ocean Bay attendance zone would attend Black Water Middle School at East Cox Ferry Road in Conway, which Johnson said had room for more students.

Some advisory board members aren’t happy with the proposed zones.

“My concerns are the attendance lines here,” advisory board member Christopher Hanna said, pointing on the map to the area north of Myrtle Ridge Drive and Gardner Lacy Road. “Obviously we want to have smart growth. We’ve got (Black Water Middle School) over here that’s under-utilized. Why are we not sending these kids to that school?”

Hanna said it “makes no sense” to send students from the northern area of the current Ocean Bay Middle School zone to the southeastern section where the new Carolina Forest area middle school is being built.

“You go ahead and take these kids (north of Myrtle Ridge Drive and Gardner Lacy Road) and put them in Black Water Middle School which is maybe three miles away as opposed to busing them all the way to the new Carolina Forest middle school which is maybe seven or eight miles away,” said Hanna. “Geographically it just makes more sense.”

Black Water Middle School has a capacity of 909 students, Horry County Public Information Officer Teal Britton said in an email. This year, 640 students attended the school, and the projected attendance for next year is 651 students, putting the building at 72 percent capacity.

Britton said the district doesn’t have a projection for the number of students that will attend during the 2017-18 school year.

Johnson said the idea of sending some students in the northern section of the Ocean Bay attendance area has been considered before, and that it wasn’t a good option.

“The only thing I’m going to say is that idea has been considered before and we felt that it was not the best proposal at this particular time,” Johnson said.

She wouldn’t elaborate as to why it was a bad option.

Ocean Bay Middle School has a capacity of 900 students, and attendance at the school during the 2017-18 school year is projected at 1,350 students under the current zone.

The new Carolina Forest area middle school will have a capacity of 1,200 and would help relieve some of the pressure at Ocean Bay. Under the proposed zone, during the 2017-18 school year, Ocean Bay Middle School would have 500 students and the new Carolina Forest area middle school would have 850 students.

The new zones would mean many elementary school students would be split up when they head to middle school.

Under the new zoning proposal, over 500 students from the Carolina Forest Elementary School, 225 students from River Oaks Elementary School and 83 students currently attending Ocean Bay Elementary School would attend the new Carolina Forest area middle school.

“I understand the ramifications that our community will be split, but I know our district tries to keep the best interest of students in mind and they have some logistical ramifications that they take into account,” said River Oaks Elementary School Principal Robert Homer. “I would love to have all our students go to the same middle school, but I understand the logistics of how they plan out the process.”

The new middle school is one of five currently being built. Myrtle Beach Middle School and Socastee Elementary School are being replaced, a new middle school is being built in Socastee and an intermediate school is being built in the St. James attendance area northwest of Garden City Beach.

This story was originally published July 12, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Official: New Carolina Forest middle school attendance zone ‘makes no sense’."