Hundreds of students to attend different schools next year in this SC district
Families at half of the elementary schools and 23 neighborhoods in Richland School District 2 may notice changes in attendance and enrollment next year.
Growth in northeast Richland County near Fort Jackson and Elgin, especially along the Interstate 20 corridor, has led to overcrowding in some schools.
Pontiac Elementary School is at 121% capacity, with 944 students in a building meant 780 students, according to figures provided by Richland District 2. Catawba Trail Elementary School is at 98% capacity. Sandlapper Elementary School and Polo Road Elementary School are both at about 94% capacity.
Implementing new attendance lines will relieve that overcrowding and balance elementary school enrollment in the area, the district said. Between 800 and 900 students will be affected.
Modifications were unanimously approved by the school board Tuesday and will be implemented in the fall of 2026.
The following schools will experience changes:
- Bookman Road Elementary
- Catawba Trail Elementary
- Joseph Keels Elementary
- L.B. Nelson Elementary
- North Springs Elementary
- Polo Road Elementary
- Pontiac Elementary
- Round Top Elementary
- Sandlapper Elementary
- Windsor Elementary
However, the district said fifth grade students and their siblings will be allowed to attend their current school.
Will Anderson, chief operations officer for Richland 2, previously told The State that Richland 2 was prioritizing “keeping neighborhoods intact” while studying the new attendance lines.
Students in following neighborhoods will be impacted:
- Savannah Oaks
- Travers Park
- Gate of Wildewood
- Oakbrook Village
- Silver Hill Mobile Home Park
- Wildewood South Apartments
- Royal Pines Estates
- Walden Place
- Spears Creek Village
- Jacobs Place
- Spears Creek Mobile Home Community
- Colony Park North Crossing
- Hunters Pond Village at the Summit
- North Crossing
- Pepper Knoll
- Summit Townes
- Woodhaven
- Tallawood
- Crossbridge
- Ellington
- Spring Park
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.
Anderson said the district works with Richland County planners and with individual developers to stay abreast of growth in the area. New homes and apartments off of Percival, Spears Creek Church, Clemson and Two Notch roads has led to the district’s influx of students. The district doesn’t expect the growth to slow any time soon.
“We believe we will need a new school potentially in the I-20 corridor or in the Blythewood area,” Anderson previously told The State.
But Richland 2 won’t commit to building a new school unless districtwide enrollment is over capacity, and all other solutions have been exhausted.
