Growth along I-20 spurs attendance line changes at Richland County schools
As some areas of Richland School District 2 grow, attendance lines at more than half of its elementary schools need to be modified, district officials say.
Most of the growth is in the Interstate 20 corridor, Richland 2 spokesperson Ish Tate said, an area near Fort Jackson and Elgin, just northeast of Columbia.
Attendance lines may be redrawn for a dozen elementary schools, according to the district. Those schools are:
- Bookman Road Elementary
- Catawba Trail Elementary
- L.W. Conder Elementary
- Jackson Creek Elementary
- Joseph Keels Elementary
- L.B. Nelson Elementary
- North Springs Elementary
- Polo Road Elementary
- Pontiac Elementary
- Round Top Elementary
- Sandlapper Elementary
- Windsor Elementary
The proposed attendance line changes, the district said, are meant to balance enrollment.
“In recent years, we’ve welcomed many new families, especially in our elementary grades,” the district wrote in an email to parents. “To make sure every student has the space and resources to thrive, we are proposing an adjustment to attendance lines.”
Will Anderson, chief operations officer for Richland 2, said about 848 students may be impacted. He said in an effort to keep neighborhoods together, there is a “snowball effect.”
“When redrawing the attendance lines the district has several priorities,” Anderson said. “One of those is keeping neighborhoods intact. Neighborhoods can be large, and if you move a neighborhood with 200 students to downsize one school, you now have to move another neighborhood to another school and so on and so on.”
A proposed map created by the district showed the boundary between Bookman Road Elementary and Catawba Trail Elementary moved from Old Two Notch Road to Two Notch Road. North Springs Elementary will pick up a portion of a neighborhood near The Woodlands Golf & Country Club. Students in Oakbrook Village who once attended Pontiac Elementary will attend Polo Road Elementary, while some Polo Road students will be moved to Windsor Elementary.
Other boundaries, like that of Bethel-Hanberry Elementary, Langford Elementary and Round Top Elementary, will stay the same.
“Together, we can make sure every Richland Two student has the space, resources, and opportunities they deserve,” the district wrote in an email to parents.
Proposed changes would take effect during the 2026-27 academic year.
A survey to provide the district with feedback will be available online through Friday.
“Your voice matters,” the district wrote. “We want this process to be collaborative, transparent, and rooted in what’s best for our students and community.”
Richland 2 has received 109 responses to the survey thus far, Anderson said. Most responses raised concerns about transportation, impacts to family schedules and attending new schools. Anderson said that some appreciate that the plan will relieve overcrowding at Pontiac and Catawba Trail elementary schools.
Pontiac is at 121% capacity, with 944 students in a building meant 780 students, according to figures provided by Richland District 2. Catawba Trail is at 98% capacity. L. W. Conder Elementary School and Windsor Elementary School are at 70% capacity and 74% capacity, respectively.
A first reading of the changes will be presented to the school board on Sept. 23, Anderson said, and the board is scheduled to vote on the attendance line changes during an October meeting.
“We hope to have a final decision by November 1st when the school choice process opens up so parents who may be affected by the attendance line changes have options,” Anderson said.
Anderson said the district works with Richland County planners and with individual developers to stay abreast of growth in the area. There has been a large influx of new homes and apartments off of Percival, Spears Creek Church, Clemson and Two Notch roads, Anderson said.
“In the short term we do not anticipate the growth to taper off,” Anderson said. “We have to continue working with our partners and keep a close eye on the housing market. The economy, interest rates, and new business impacts this significantly as well.”
Richland 2 has around the same number of students it did five years ago — about 28,000, according to data from the state Department of Education. But it has grown by some 1,000 students in the last decade.
The district is in the process of hiring a consultant to create a ten-year facility plan.
“We believe we will need a new school potentially in the I-20 corridor or in the Blythewood area,” Anderson said. But Richland 2 won’t commit to building a new school unless districtwide enrollment is over capacity, and all other solutions have been exhausted.
This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 11:45 AM.
