The zoning discussion for the new Highland Springs Middle School in the North Augusta area is continuing.
During the Aiken County Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 28, school board members heard an update from Dr. Lance Richards, manager with MGT Consulting, presented survey information the school district gathered from the two town hall meetings held, last month and the online survey.
“All in all, as a person who kind of works in this area, I was pleased with the town halls,” Richards said. “I really enjoyed the give and take. I felt like we had a strong turnout. Your polling that’s been available to you on your website has been fairly strong for an initiative such as this, and I know as elected leaders within your school communities, you’ve also had your own conversations throughout your districts.”
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The four scenarios presented to community members to voice their opinions on were:
- Scenario 1 would pull students from the four middle schools in Areas 2 and 3, which are North Augusta, Paul Knox, Leavelle McCampbell and Langley-Bath-Clearwater. In this scenario, if a student is rezoned, they will be moved to Highland Springs.
- Scenario 2 pulls students only from Paul Knox and NAMS, and if they are moved, they will go to Highland Springs.
- Scenario 5 pulls students only from all four middle schools, but in this scenario is they could be moved to one of the five schools.
- Scenario 6 pulls the students from Paul Knox and NAMS only, but if they are moved, they could go to one of the three schools.
Richards said the first choice for survey participants was option 1 with 40% of the vote, followed by option 6 with 25.1%, option 5 with 20.5%, and option 2 with 14.4%.
Board member Brian Silas said he wasn’t in favor of scenario 1 because of how the boundary is drawn for Highland Springs and that some students would have to drive past LBC Middle School to go to Highland Springs.
Dr. Patrice Hanks, a school board member, said there will be a move across all districts with the rezoning, but scenario 1 has an equal distribution of students among all the schools.
“So where some of the schools are at almost 700, they would drop to the 400 or 500 range as well,” Hanks said.
School board members will decide on the zoning for Highland Springs Middle School at a called meeting on Tuesday, March 7 at 6 p.m. The meeting will be live-streamed on the school district website. Maps showing all four scenarios can also be found on the school district website.
