School district leader moves to close five schools

After much debate, The Charleston County School District has announced its intent to close five of its 80 schools -- a move that will reclaim some 19% of its expected $28 million shortfall.

Read more stories on this subject in our consolidation topic page. Included in that list of five were Fraser Elementary, Brentwood Middle, McClellanville Middle, Schroder Middle, and Charlestowne Academy.

Those recommendations will be voted on by the school board on Monday.

You can head over to The Post and Courier for more on the latest development.

If you're exuberant that your child's school isn't on the list, Greg Hambrick over at The Charleston City Paper suggests that you not relax yet, saying in part:
The district will revisit this list of schools (possibly as early as later this year) and schools that were spared need to be prepared to defend themselves. For many of these schools, progress is not optional. And support from the community (or a purported lack of support from the district) needs to be well-documented.

Interesting.

If you haven't been following the school "redesign" saga, it basically boils down to the Charleston County School District needing to save money because of state Legislature's direct and indirect cuts to the district's budget. Here's a bit more on why.