Proposed attendance lines for new Socastee, Carolina Forest schools unveiled

Current Horry County students may shift to a new elementary or middle school come August 2017, depending on proposed attendance lines for five new schools.

The Horry County Board of Education gave its first approval to redrawn attendance lines for the new Carolina Forest middle, Socastee elementary and Socastee middle schools. The proposed lines will now head to school improvement councils and advisory boards before several public comment sessions.

Joe Burch, coordinator for planning, said all three proposals aim to ease overcrowding at current elementary and middle schools while leaving some room for growth at the new schools. The new Carolina Forest middle school, located off Carolina Forest Boulevard, will hold all students from Carolina Forest Elementary. Part of the current Ocean Bay and River Oaks elementary attendance lines would feed into the middle school, too.

“Students from all three area middle schools, including Black Water Middle, would attend Carolina Forest High,” Burch said.

No Carolina Forest subdivisions would be split under the proposed middle school attendance areas, Burch added. About 814 current elementary students would be moved into the new middle school.

Socastee’s new elementary school is slated to hold 900 students, and the proposed attendance lines would help break up the overcrowding at Lakewood Elementary School, Burch said. The bigger building would hold students from six area subdivisions, including Stonebridge and Cape Landing Apartments.

The new lines will also “assist in some transportation issues that were created when the U.S. 17 Bypass overpass was created,” Burch said.

Only 86 Lakewood Elementary students will be moved to the new elementary school because only that school will feed into the new Socastee middle school, Burch said.

“Because of the future growth, we didn’t want to overburden this school quickly and avoid a split,” Burch said.

Socastee and Forestbrook elementary will feed into Forestbrook Middle, thus allowing for future growth at all three schools.

After the advisory boards and improvement committees discuss – and possibly improve – attendance lines, the proposals will go to the public. Joe DeFeo, board chairman, emphasized that the public meetings are just for input and opinion.

“This is not a committee, this is just a public input,” DeFeo said.

Burch said the district is hoping for a final approval by September or October, so new principals, parents and teachers have time to prepare. The new schools are slated to open by August 2017.

This story was originally published June 6, 2016 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Proposed attendance lines for new Socastee, Carolina Forest schools unveiled."