New school to blend with neighborhood, offer nature-friendly look

Richland 2’s newest school, the $34 million Jackson Creek Elementary that opens in August near the county’s “international corridor,” is designed so students can engage each other by the warm light of a fireplace.

Yes, the first school built in the district in four years is to have a library with a mock fireplace complete with a stone-like appearance, a mantel and LED lights that mimic a flickering flame, school officials say. Preschoolers through fifth-graders also will have a rooftop, open-air classroom for art and science projects.

It’s all part of the intent that the inside of the two-story, 45-classroom school be homey in a way that promotes not just education but social skills, said Principal Sabina Mosso-Taylor. Educators call the latter “soft skills.”

“The building is designed to make that happen,” Mosso-Taylor said Friday at the worksite, which abuts Jackson Creek off North Trenholm Road.

The school’s exterior features a Frank Lloyd Wright-style design that uses earth tones to blend with the environment. That merges with bright colored glass, a nod to the flags of nations represented along nearby Decker Boulevard, nicknamed “the international corridor,” said chief architect Mary Beth Branham.

Jack Carter, who oversees all construction projects in the Midlands’ largest school district, said he expects the school, which opens Aug. 22, will become a hit.

“I think that after the first year, when people see what we do here, kids are going to want to come here,” Carter said during a tour for The State newspaper. Parents of elementary-age children anywhere in Richland 2 may apply to transfer them to Jackson Creek, he said.

District officials are planning for about 550 students – most of them moving from four nearby elementary schools that are either overcrowded or nearing capacity – when the doors open at Jackson Creek.

Some 255 students from Conder, 110 from Windsor and 55 from Joseph Keels have been rezoned to the new school, Carter said. About a half-dozen medical special needs children from Forest Lake also will move to Jackson Creek.

By design, the new school can handle 860 students, Carter said, because the elementary-age student population has been growing in that part of the district. The school will be the district’s largest elementary in student population.

Architect Branham said the exterior design is intended to be reminiscent of Wright’s Fallingwater house near Pittsburgh, Pa., a masterpiece of airy design and earth tone colors that harmonizes with its environment.

But to blend the school with its surrounding neighborhoods, Branham incorporated ribbons of red, blue, green and yellow glass into tall glass walls.

Mosso-Taylor said Jackson Creek’s ties to its community do not stop with its appearance.

“We want this to be a resource for the neighborhoods,” she said. Teachers and school programs won’t be confined to school grounds. “We will be going out into the community.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 5:50 PM with the headline "New school to blend with neighborhood, offer nature-friendly look."