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Updated January 8: While talk of closing Shell Point Elementary still has been tabled by the school board, it looks like a plan to place a public Montessori program within Beaufort Elementary School is moving ahead.
The current proposal includes plans for two Montessori classes at Beaufort Elementary, one for children in first through third grades, and the other for children in fourth through sixth grades.
The Island Packet has an update on the district's plans for new programs that hopefully will shift attendance from over-crowded schools. You can read it here.
Reported November 13: Will the Beaufort County School District close Shell Point Elementary and St. Helena Early Learning Center?
Or will the district begin a publicly-funded Montessori school in one of its existing elementary schools?
Or both?
Apparently all of those options are on the table as the district works to deal with a huge amount of excess capacity in the county's elementary and middle schools, especially north of the Broad River.
Remember when the county was booming and we couldn't build schools fast enough? Well that's not the case anymore. The population shift to the Southeast has stopped, at least temporarily, and the district has way too many empty classrooms on its hands.
Check out the Island Packet's coverage of Day 1 of the school board's retreat. The Packet has two stories:
- Potential closure of Shell Point Elementary, St. Helena Early Learning Center
- Here's the second story on creating new programs to shift enrollment from crowded schools to empty ones (read as from south of the Broad River to the north.) Potential programs include a Montessori program. Check out the story here.
