Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

S.C. District Breaks Ground on New Middle School

  • By Matt Jones
  • 12/06/21

Officials from Spartanburg School District Five in Duncan, S.C., gathered recently to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new middle school. The construction work began about four weeks after local voters passed a $295 bond referendum to meet the needs of rising enrollment in the district’s schools.

The groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Nov. 29, marked the first major step of a series of renovation and construction projects for the district.

“We have several renovations. We have several additions and then several new construction projects taking place as part of the successful referendum that we had a couple of weeks ago,” said Greg Wood, Assistant Superintendent for Operations for District Five.

As of August 2021, District Five has an enrollment of about 9,800 students—an increase of 700 since the end of the previous school year, and an increase of 1,000 since the end of 2019. “We’re definitely the fastest-growing district in the county, and probably one of the fastest in the state, percentage-wise,” said Spartanburg School District Five Superintendent Dr. Randall Gary. “We’re expecting to be right around 11,000 students by the year 2026.”

In addition to the new middle school, projects scheduled for completion under the referendum include a new school for Wellford Academy; a new elementary school; and renovations and additions to Byrnes High School, Beech Springs Intermediate; Berry Shoals Intermediate and Reidville Elementary. It also includes a restructuring of the school system to eliminate intermediate schools, with plans to convert Beech Springs into a middle school and Berry Shoals into an elementary.

The district is partnering with Harper Construction on the project’s first step: building a new middle school. David Wise, president of Harper Construction, spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony. “When we start moving dirt out here, we are going to be moving 300,000 cubic yards of dirt on our site to my rear,” he said. “We are going to set 757 tons of structural steel, bar joist and metal decking. There will be about 220,000 bricks that will be laid on this project and over 1,000 cubic yards of concrete.”

The new middle school will have capacity for about 700 students. District leaders said that they estimate all renovations and new construction projects to be complete by August 2024.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Haws Corporation Marks 120th Anniversary

    Haws Corporation, which provides hydration and emergency safety solutions worldwide, recently announced that the company is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year, according to a news release.

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • UNH Marks Construction Milestone on Oceanic Exploration Facility

    The University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., recently celebrated a major construction milestone with a beam-signing ceremony for the new Center of Excellence for Operational Ocean and Great Lakes Mapping, according to a news release. The facility’s ultimate goal is to support research, training and technical assistance in ocean mapping.

  • St. John Fisher University

    Classroom Revitalization – Basil Hall Room 216

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. St. John Fisher University's Basil Hall Room 216 Classroom Revitalization has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of Spaces.