Horry County Board of Education votes against relocating most Myrtle Beach Family Learning Center tenants

Several agencies housed in the Myrtle Beach Family Learning Center are looking for a new place to operate as Horry County Schools moves forward on a school-building plan that includes the demolition of the center.

The Boys and Girls Club, Waccamaw EOC Head Start, Horry County Literacy Council and Baby Net – part of the First Steps program that helps developmentally-delayed infants – along with other programs will not be relocated by the district.

“While it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t provide a solution for everyone, we just can’t afford to provide space for non-district supported classrooms,” said Neil James, district 10 representative on the Board of Education, which voted Monday not to find space to house those non-HCS programs.

The Horry County Adult Education Center, which is supported by the district, will relocate to modular classrooms that will cost the district about $1 million from the designated reserves. The cost also includes walkways, canopies, technological elements and fire alarms, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of facilities. The district is planning to put the portables behind the current middle school in the Doug Shaw parking lot, pending city approval.

“The modular units will be able to be used in other places and be up to code, so they’ll have many more uses,” Wolfe said.

A few special needs services supported by the district – which are currently housed at the learning center – will be moved to the district office in Conway, Wolfe said.

The Family Learning Center on Oak Street that houses about seven community programs will be demolished so the district can build a new Myrtle Beach middle school on the grounds. Once the new school is built all existing programs now contained in the learning center are planned to move to the old middle school, but until then the district is trying to find a way to accommodate just district-supported programs.

That leaves some of the center’s programs trying to figure out where they can operate.

James Pasley, executive director of the Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council, said he’s working with the school district to relocate the Myrtle Beach Head Start program. Head Start, which is a federally-funded comprehensive child development program for 3 and 4 year old children, is not sustained by Horry County Schools.

“We appreciate the partnership and collaboration that we’ve been able to establish and maintain with Horry County Schools,” Pasley said. “We are working very diligently to make sure that collaboration continues.”

Pasley said Head Start is working on contingency plans in case the federal program cannot be relocated by the district, and there’s enough flexibility to move the program elsewhere.

“But the best model for serving our children is the current configuration,” Pasley said.

The district spent several months researching different places to house every learning center program, but there were no options within the same area or that could fit all the programs’ needs, Wolfe said.

Many of the possible locations would need to be renovated for any of the programs, or the locations were too far from Myrtle Beach residents, Wolfe added.

“The staff did make great efforts to find a space to accommodate the non-supported programs,” said Holly Heniford, district 1 representative. “They really did try, and I commend them for that.”

The district doesn’t have a definitive demolition date for the Family Learning Center yet, Wolfe said.

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Horry County Board of Education votes against relocating most Myrtle Beach Family Learning Center tenants."