Fort Mill Schools - The Freeze is on!

Fort Mill, one of the fastest growing school districts in the state, plans to open two new elementary schools in 2009. In the meantime, some of the elementary schools are resorting to enrollment freezing and attendance reassignments in ordert to control crowding and ensure the high level of quality education we've come to expect from the district.

The capacity in the Fort Mill elementary schools is about 900 students per school. Orchard Park and Gold Hill's attendance has already reached maximum levels and enrollment is frozen. New students in the Orchard Park and Gold Hill districts are being sent to Riverview Elementary. As of early December 2007, Riverview had over 850 students.

Springfield Elementary is the latest Fort Mill school to announce a freeze on new enrollment, beginning June 6, 2008. Springfield's enrollment is expected to reach 1000 students before the end of the school year, and mobile units have been installed to provide 6 new needed classrooms. After the freeze in June, new students in that district will be sent to Fort Mill Elementary, which at this time has fewer than 800 students in attendance.

With the enrollment freezes, the district has to be creative with bus transportation. Children ride buses to schools for which their home is zoned, and then a shuttle bus takes the children to either Fort Mill Elementary or Riverview.

As spots open up in the frozen enrollment schools, students will be able to transfer in based on thier date of residency and grade level. The district will consider siblings as one unit, to avoid the inconvenience to families having to manage children in different schools.

Real estate sales have been extremely strong in the Fort Mill area. New construction homes are charged an impact fee, which has helped fund school expansion plans.

In March, an $87 million bond for a new middle school and two new elementary schools will be presented to voters. If approved, those schools will be ready to open in 2011.

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