Midlands district closing in on site for new elementary school. Here’s where
Lexington-Richland 5 is closing in on a new site for a future elementary school.
The school board voted unanimously Sept. 8 to approve the purchase of a property at 1709 Hollingshed Road in Irmo that will form part of the replacement campus for Dutch Fork Elementary School.
A district spokesperson said the site — which includes a house on an otherwise wooded tract of land, according to an online search — “will complete the entire tract needed for the new Dutch Fork Elementary School,” and “The district plans to close on the entire purchase later in September.”
The school district covering Chapin and Irmo included the need for a new elementary school when it asked voters to approve its 2024 bond referendum. The referendum set aside $41.4 million for construction of a school to replace Dutch Fork Elementary School on Broad River Road.
It’s the only new school planned in the district’s bond issue, partly because district Superintendent Akil Ross has expressed concern about student safety on the compact campus with buildings close to a busy street. Future expansion of Broad River could eat up even more of the existing campus, Ross said during the build-up to last November’s vote.
Voters approved the referendum plan with 70% of the vote, and the school board moved ahead with acquiring the last bit of land needed for the new elementary school.
The new site on Hollingshed Road will be three miles by car from where Dutch Fork is now, on the other side of Interstate 26.
The district will keep the current Dutch Fork Elementary site as the Richlex Education Center. The new center will host adult education services currently run out of Irmo High, the Academy for Success now housed at Spring Hill High School and the online FIVE program, moving from Piney Woods Elementary.
Other bond projects are moving forward as well. Also Monday, the board approved contracts for the redesign of Harbison West and Nursery Road elementary schools, construction of a fine arts center at Chapin High School, and improvements to the district office.
Work from the bond referendum will ultimately total $240 million.
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