On November 1, College Board released their 2nd annual AP (Advance Placement Program) District Honor Roll. The Honor roll recognized 367 U.S. and Canada public school districts that simultaneously achieved increases in access to AP® courses for a broader number of students and also maintained or improved the rate at which their AP students earned scores of 3 or higher on an AP Exam. The Second Annual AP Honor Roll is made up of only those school districts that are simultaneously expanding opportunity and improving performance.

The Fort Mill School District has achieved the AP Honor Roll for years 2011 and 2012. The Fort Mill School District is one of 2 South Carolina school districts that made the honor roll. Laurens County School District is the other South Carolina school district on the honor roll

College Board was founded in 1900 and is a not-for-profit membership organization committed to excellence and equity in education and connects students to college success and opportunity. College Board is well known for their SAT college entrance exam.

Last Tuesday night, the Fort Mill School Board voted to delay the opening of the new elementary school number 8 (Gold Hill Rd near Tega Cay) until 2014. See an earlier post about FM elementary school 8 planned to open 2o12.

The board also voted to move up the opening of the 9th elementary school near the Massey community on Doby’s Bridge Road to the same year 2014.

The Board’s sited reason for the open date changes are:

1. Cost saving advantages on construction and opening the 2 new schools at the same time.
2. Although there is an enrollment freeze at Gold Hill Elementary and and soon to be Orchard Park, there is still room at other Fort mill Elementary schools. The district wants to maximize the space at all schools and not open a new school before it is needed. Of course this means some new elementary students may have to go to a school that is in another part of town for a while. Fort Mill School District’s current elementary school facility capacity is 6,300. The district is currently at 5106 Students.
3. Redraw the district lines once for the simultaneous opening of the 2 new schools rather then twice in separate years.

Fort Mill School District Central Office is moving next Spring 2012. A new construction notice sign was installed Wednesday signalling the start of the interior construction process for the new Fort Mill School District Central Office.

The new offices will be located at 2229 Deerfield Drive in the same development area (Gold Hill Commons) as the current Knights baseball stadium.

View Larger Map

The are two exiting “shell” office buildings with a combine square footage of  34,000 on 2.92 acres. The FMSD purchased the buildings May 2011 for approx 3.380 million (per York County online tax info). The construction work will be primarily focused on the interior of the office buildings with a hope to move in during the Spring break period next spring.

From York County SC Online GIS

Next to the new central office, work should begin in about a month on a new school bus transportation facility to house and maintain approx 150 school buses.  Read the Jan 2011 FMSD press release with information on these 2 land acquisition projects and a new  Middle School next to Pleasant Knoll Elementary School.  FMSD-News-Release-January-2011-Land-Acquisition

Good news for parent. School summer is officially over August 17, 2011. The Fort Mill School District starts back to school Wednesday 17th. The 2011-2012 has been finalized and you can download it here =>2011-2012 FMSD final approved Feb 15 2011.

Many of the elementary meet the teacher and middle school open houses are Monday August 15. The new Banks Trail Middle school is official open this year. Banks trail has a slightly different open house schedule see at Fort Mill School.

If your kids are taking the bus, the district has a bus transpartation page at Bus Information.

We wish all of the Fort Mill Students a successful and rewarding 2011-2012 school year!

There is just something special about fall, back to school, and going to local high school football games. The Fort Mill  School football program is geared up for another great season and I recommend attending a high school football game for fun, excitement, and a chance to get to know our Fort Mill community.  Here are the 2 local high school varsity football schedules for this fall.

Fort Mill High School Varsity Football (Boys) 2010

Friday Aug. 27 Lugoff−Elgin High School at Fort Mill HS 7:30PM

Friday Sep. 03 Ridge View High School at Ridge View High School 7:30PM

Friday Sep. 10 Clover High School at Clover High School 7:30PM

Friday Sep. 17 Lewisville High School at Fort Mill HS 7:30PM

Friday Sep. 24 Broome High School at Fort Mill HS 7:30PM

Friday Oct. 01 South Pointe High School at South Pointe High School 7:30PM

Friday Oct. 08 Chester High School at Fort Mill HS 7:30PM

Friday Oct. 15 York Comprehensive High School at Fort Mill HS 7:30PM

Friday Oct. 22 Fairfield Central High School at Fairfield Central High School 8:00PM

Thursday Oct. 28 Nation Ford High School at Nation Ford High School 7:30PM

A link to the Fort Mill High School Athletic Page for update schedules.

Nation Ford High School Varsity Football (Boys) 2010

Friday Aug 27 Great Falls HS at Home 7:30PM

Friday Sept 3 Rock Hill HS at Away 7:30 PM

Friday Sept 10 Lewisville HS at Away 7:30 PM

Friday Sept 17 Open

Friday Sept 24 Northwestern HS at Home 7:30 PM

Friday Oct 1 Fairfield Central HS at Away 8:00PM

Friday Oct 8 South Pointe HS at Away 7:30PM

Friday Oct 15 Chester HS at Away 8:00PM

Thursday Oct 21 York HS at Home 7:30PM

Thursday Oct 28 Fort Mill at Home 7:30

(moved to Thursday Night because of district furlough days)

A link to the Nation Ford High School Athletic Page for updated schedules.

A Proud Supporter of the Fort Mill School District!

The proposed new Fort Mill School District elementary school, currently named “Number 8”, received its first structure. The new sign was recently installed to mark the location of the new school.

The new school site on Gold Hill Drive is at the edge of Tega Cay’s city limits. Mayor George Sheppard in his Fourth of July address made the following statements about the new school;

Maybe you have or haven’t heard about the property that the FM School district just purchased on the other side of the Tega Cay sign (better known as the McCall property). The 27+/- acre property will have an elementary school for 1,100 students and for the first time in FM SD history it will be a partial 2 story building. We have had conversations about the districts interest in the property being annexed into the city generating utility revenue on property we will already be first responders to in the event of an emergency. This is Annexation that would add revenue without adding excessive burden.

In the July Fort Mill School District Meeting the following update was presented to the board about elementary school 8’s progress:

Elementary School #8

The anticipated bid date is August/September 2010; the anticipated completion date is March, 2012. The property has been acquired and we are now in full swing of the site adaption design. We have scheduled a design committee review of the new site concept on July 14th and once all comments/concerns are addressed, we will move into the design development phase of the project. Once the DD phase is complete, we will make a presentation to the school board and then finalize the schedule for bidding and construction. We anticipate that the presentation can be made in August. The current design includes space for a 1,000 student capacity and remains approximately $2,000,000 over budget. We are optimistic that the current bidding environment, in conjunction with increased competition, will aid in reducing the delta. We are also identifying alternates and value engineering items to assist in bringing the project back down to budget. Key issue is site adaption.

More school updates coming soon….

To read more about Tega Cay including events go to www.seetegacay.com

To read more about Fort Mill including events go to www.aboutfortmill.com

The Fort Mill School District has recently changed the enrollment freeze for Gold Hill Elementary School. The school board has voted to keep the freeze in place with the following exceptions:

Students who live in the Gold Hill Elementary School area but are now attending Springfield Elementary school will go to Gold Hill next year 2010-2011 school year.

The enrollment freeze for Gold Hill Elementary will be back in place beginning June 3rd 2010. New students who live in the Gold Hill Elementary area after June 3rd 2010 will go to Riverview Elementary.

If you are thinking about relocating to Tega Cay and want your kids to attend Gold Hill Elementary, now is the time to make the change before June 3rd 2010.

For updates and possible changes to the Gold Hill Enrollment Freeze visit the Fort Mill School District Website

It’s election day in York County SC. There are some heated seat races this year especially in Tega Cay SC.

Incumbent Bob Runde is running for Tega Cay mayor again. George Sheppard the current Mayor Pro Tempore is running against Bob Runde. Seetegacay.com has a Tega Cay Mayor’s election poll. As of this morning the poll indicated George Sheppard has 71% of the votes. See the latest Tega Cay Mayors race poll results at Seetegacay.com.

Other seats up for election in York County SC are:

State House of Representatives District 48 Primary

Republican: Ralph W Norman

Democratic : Kathy F Cantrell

Rock Hill Municipal Election

Ward 6:

Hugh Charles Haynsworth IV

Jim Reno

Sharon Municipal Election

Mayor:

Beverly Blair

Council At Large (4 Seats):

Johnny B Barnette

Jerry C Bradham

Donald K Kropp

Kathy Montgomery

Jeff Ramsey

Tega Cay Municipal Election

Mayor:

Bob Runde

George Sheppard

Council At Large (2 Seats):

John Dervay

Thomas J Fitzpatrick

Dottie Hersey

Keen McHugh

Stephen Perkins

Katie Shive

Fort Mill School Board Trustee Election

Trustee At Large (2 Seats):

Wayne Bouldin

Marion Davenport

Michael Johnson

Chris Krieger

Clover Municipal Election

Mayor:

Donnie D Grice

Council At Large (6 Seats):

Granita Boyd

Jay Dover

Christine Bell Gourley

Ann Harvey

Bruce Henderson

Wes Spurrier

Fort Mill Municipal Election

Ward 1:

Kerry Mosher

Ward 3:

Larry Huntley

At Large (1 Seat):

Guynn Hozey Savage

Hickory Grove Municipal Election

Mayor:

Larry A Earl

Council At Large (4 Seats):

John W Blackwood

Harry James Good

David W Rhodes

Kyle N Wyatt

McConnells Municipal Election

Mayor:

Hugh John Harshaw Jr

Council At Large (4 Seats):

William D Covington

William H Nance

Kenneth Patrick

Larry M Plyler

Smyrna Municipal Election

Mayor:

William Christopher Faulkner

Council At Large (4 Seats):

Frances Latham Faulkner

Robert W Faulkner

Robert P Jackson

Ralph D Wyatt

If you need to find your voting location visit www.aboutfortmill.com to see all of the York County SC voting precinct locations. And if you can’t find you voters registration card and need to know what your voting precinct  is SC Gov has an online voters registration look up feature at http://webprod.cio.sc.gov/SCSECVoterWeb/voterInformationSearch.do.

Remember to vote today. York County voting locations are open until 7pm today.

Are you a high school football fan? Fort Mill High School and Nation Ford High School in Fort Mill start their 2009 football season in August 2009.  Carmen Miller Realtor® is a proud supporter of the Fort Mill School athletic program. Here are the 2009 high school football schedules for both Fort Mill HS varsity football teams:

Fort Mill High School 2009 Varsity Football Schedule
Aug. 29 – Chesterfield High School -  Home -  7:30PM
Sep. 05 – Lancaster High School – Away -  7:30PM
Sep. 12 – Broome High School – Away   7:30PM
Sep. 19 – South Pointe High School – Home – 7:30PM
Sep. 26 – Rock Hill High School – Away – 7:30PM
Oct. 03 – Boiling Springs High School – Away – 7:30PM
Oct. 10 -  Clover High School – Clover – Clover – 7:30PM
Oct. 17 – York Comprehensive High – Away – 7:30PM
Oct. 24 – Gaffney High School – Away – 7:30PM
Oct. 31 – Northwestern High School – Home – 7:30PM
Nov. 07 – Nation Ford High School – Home – 7:30PM

A link to the Fort Mill High School Athletic Page for update schedules.

Nation Ford High School 2009 Varsity Football Schedule

Aug 21 – Forestview – Away – 7:30
Aug 2 – Great Falls – Away – 7:30
Sept  4 – Rock Hill – Home – 7:30
Sept 11 – Lewisville – Home – 7:30
Sept 18 – Chesnee – Away – 7:30
Sept 25 – Open
Oct   2 – Lancaster – Home – 7:30
Oct   9 – Northwestern – Away – 7:30
Oct  16 – Gaffney – Home – 7:30
Oct  23 – Clover – Home – 7:30
Oct  30 – York – Away – 7:30
Nov   6 – Fort Mill – Home – 7:30

A link to the Nation Ford High School Athletic Page for updated schedules.

Fort Mill schools begin August 20, 2008. Many of you have been asking questions about an update to the elementary school enrollment freeze. Here is what is mentioned on the Fort Mill School District website:

The Fort Mill School District is now reviewing its elementary attendance areas to prepare for the opening of Sugar Creek Elementary and Pleasant Knoll Elementary in 2009. The process will take into account a number of considerations including enrollment, building capacity, demographics, transportation issues, transitions between schools, keeping neighborhoods together and creating an easily understood plan. A public meeting will be held in September to unveil reassignment options.

In the July school construction update both Sugar Creek and Pleasant Knoll elementary schools under construction are still on schedule to open August 2009.

If you are looking for specific information like the school calendar, bus routes. bus schedules, registration information, contact information and more, there is a parent information page on the Fort Mill school website.

Click to go to “parent Information page“.

You can download the 2008-2009 school calendar by clicking here.

For the bus route and information page click here.

The Bus or transportation dept phone number is (803)802-1998

If you need more information about a specific Fort Mill school like:

Fort Mill Elementary School
Gold Hill Elementary School
Orchard Park Elementary School
Riverview Elementary School
Springfield Elementary School
Fort Mill Middle School
Gold Hill Middle School
Springfield Middle School
Fort Mill High School
Nation Ford High School
Fort Mill Academy

Each school has a website. Click here for the district individual school web page. Then you can select the school website you wish to naviagte to.

Fort Mill School District Superintendent Keith Callicut wrote an update recently in the Fort Mill Times. Here is a summary of his school growth update.

Besides the two new Fort Mill School District elementary schools planned to open in the fall of 2009, the district is busy working on a plan to spend the money raised by the March 4th bond referendum that was passed. The Fort Mill School District is looking at the following areas for 3 new schools (2 elementary, 1 middle);

Possible Elementary School Locations:

• Massey home development area which is south west of Fort Mill.
• Tega Cay
• Sutton and I-77 near the planned York County Museum

Possible Middle School Location:

• An area near the southern part of the Springfield Parkway.

The district plans to finalize the sites and acquire the land for the 3 new schools by this June. By November 2008 a new “attendance plan”, I assume they mean redistricting, will be completed. The architectural firm has been identified to design the additional high school gym, new stadium, and the 3 new schools. The gym and stadium are planned for opening in the fall of 2009. The 3 new schools should open by 2011.

The State Education Department considers the Fort Mill School District to be the fastest growing school district in the state of South Carolina.

I wrote a post recently about a rumor all Fort Mill Schools are in an enrollment freeze. Here is a link to the posts  Fort Mill Schools Freeze Enrollment? 

As I stated that was simply not true. In the post I mentioned therewill be 2 new elementray schools. Well the Fort Mill School District Board has approved names for the district’s newest elementary schools. The elementary located adjacent to Nation Ford High will be known as Sugar Creek Elementary.

Sugar Creek Elementary
Capacity – 900
Location – off Farm House Rd.
Adjacent to Nation Ford High

A second elementary now under
construction on Pleasant Road will be known as Pleasant Knoll
Elementary.

Pleasant Knoll Elementary
Capacity – 900
Location – Pleasant Road

Both schools will open in August of 2009.

Are you surprised voters said yes to the school bonds Tuesday? I am not.

The Fort Mill Times reported:

Schools bonds approved in landslide… Slightly more than one-fifth (22 percent) of the 24,290 registered voters in the school district took part, casting a total of 5,150 ballots, according to election officials.

Last Tuesday phone calls and emails hit our house. The calls were from volunteers frantically calling registered voters and urging us to vote because of the low voter turnout. The second concern I heard was about voter age. Are the voters mainly senior citizens? Would this age group primarily vote no for the bonds since they are empty nesters?

To refresh your memory there were two bond referendums or questions on the ballot. One bond is for building a middle school, 2 elementary schools, and acquiring land for future school sites. The cost of bond 1 is $87 million. The second bond will build additional gyms at both high schools, and the completion of the stadium at Nation Ford High School. The first question passed with 4,155 yes votes. The second question passed with 3,880 yes votes.

This is good news in regards to supporting the healthy growth in our area. This is bad news for your pocket book. Oh, the price of progress.

On January 16th I posted the information about the Fort Mill school bond election coming up on March 4th 2008. The keepourschoolsstrong.com organization has hit the streets hard with signs, flyers, internet presence, a kick off pep rally, and more. You see the vote yes March 4th signs everywhere. So will the 2 bond questions pass March 4th? Are there any organized anti-bond organizations? I did a quick internet search. I did not find an organization claiming to be against the bonds. I did find a few negative comments. Here is a comment from the Herald’s blog called the Buzz. A blog post commenter claims we need to better control growth. The only way the commenter can protest to the way the county is poorly handling the growth is to vote no to the two bond questions.

I found a few negative comments in http://www.city-data.com/forum/york-lancaster-counties/(an interesting forum if you have not looked at it yet). One forum participant wanted to know why the property taxes were lowered when the government turned right around and asked for more money. Another asked why two gyms need to be built. Why can’t the two high schools share one new complex like Rock Hill?

I say in all, the pro vote yes movement is strong. Another pro vote yes movement example is from the Gold Hill Elementary PTA newsletter called the Beeline. In the newsletter the editor used the old scare technique campaign. Below is the picture from the newsletter of a portable classroom trailer versus a bricks and mortar school building. Which building do you want your child going to school?

GHES PTA Co-President Lori Hillman had an article in the same newsletter urging us to vote yes. Lori states if the bond passes it will only add $55 per year in taxes per $100,000 assessed home value. Lori is hard at work for the bond. I have seen Lori out personally posting support our schools real estate signs.

I hate taxes. I personally think it won’t be too long before we will have to dig deep into our pockets again for another bond vote. But being a father of 3, I do want the best for our kids and neighbor kids. That’s one reason why we moved to the Fort Mill School District because of the strong school program. It’s the price we pay for progress and growth.

In case you haven’t figured out what side of the bond vote we are on, we have one of the support our schools signs in our front yard. My hope is the money is wisely invested. I wonder how folks without kids think about the bond?

What are your opinions? Your comments are always welcomed in our blog.

Tuesday night the Tega Cay City Council said ok to annexing the land around Gold Hill Middle School and Elementary. The school operations should not change but as stated by Mayor Bob Runde, both the City and the Fort Mill School system will benefit by increased safety officer staffing. See my post last week for more info or the Fort Mill Times news stories It’s official: Tega Cay has schools or Gold Hill schools annexation in sight by John Marks

The Fort Mill school district wants you to approve a bond referendum on March 4th 2008. The school district is experiencing growing pains with the areas increased development and population growth. The district estimated its school population increased 11% in 2007 from the previous year.
There are two bonds referendums or questions on the ballot. One bond is for building a middle school, 2 elementary schools, and acquiring land for future school sites. The cost of bond 1 is $87 million. The second bond will enable the addition of classroom gyms at both high schools, and the completion of a stadium at Nation Ford High School. The cost of bond 2 is $8 million.

A “Keep our Schools Strong” committee has been formed. A “KOSS” website has been set up with more pro-bond information at http://www.keepourschoolsstrong.com/

Mayor Bob Runde’s Decemeber update email states the city expects to receive an annexation request in time for the December Council Meeting. If approved, both schools will be in the City limits of Tega Cay and our police department will be providing the resource officer for both schools.

Congratulations to Gold Hill Elementary School. GHES has been selected as a National Blue Ribbon School by the US Department of Education. Gold Hill is one of four schools in South Carolina to receive this prestigious award. Click to see more.