Dorchester District 2 faces delays in future school in Summerville neighborhood

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester School District Two has updates on the new school coming to a Summerville neighborhood.

The Ponds neighborhood is where that future school is going and has been the plan for quite some time.

At this point, the school has all the funding needed, but there have been some delays along the way.

“The district has all the necessary pieces in place to move forward quickly with construction, but for reasons unknown to them, there’s a delay in getting that deed from the developer,” DD2 Board Member Justin Farnsworth said.

Farnsworth explained that one concern is a continued delay in construction, and then the cost of construction continues to rise exponentially.

As this has been in the works for years, there is a readiness from some parents and teachers to get the ball rolling.

One DD2 parent, Melissa Nulty, who also lives in the neighborhood, said she’s seen the kind of growth the community has had county-wide and said developments like this need to keep up with that growth.

“I think we’ve been asking for this elementary school for a long time. My own child is a rising fifth grader, so he’s not going to get to enjoy the school in the neighborhood like the younger kids will. And we all really want it because we know there’s a lot of overcrowding. I think Sand Hill had to ask to add some portables and redraw some lines,” Nulty said.

She said this school would not only be convenient for those who live in The Ponds, but it would help all neighboring schools.

“So it’s very needed, not just for The Ponds, but for Dorchester District Two as a whole,” Nulty said.

Meredith Noah teaches at East Edisto Middle School and said these growing classrooms are almost at max capacity, which impacts more than you know.

“At that point, it becomes individuals jeopardizing students’ education for personal desires, and to me, that’s a problem,” Noah said.

Being able to build solid individual student-teacher relationships as well as parent-teacher relationships, Noah said it directly correlates to everyone’s well-being and quality of work.

“I’m witnessing firsthand a lot of teachers being persuaded to leave our district and go to neighboring counties. And then we’re going to lose having one of the best things about being DD2 is we’ve always found a way to do better with less,” Noah said.

However, if the teachers and students aren’t being taken care of because of the crowded classrooms, Noah said that could lead to losing quality educators.

As Nulty has lived in the community over the last five years, she said she’s experienced a delay in many other projects and developments in The Ponds neighborhood.

“It’s not that the infrastructure is not here for the growth that’s happening. It’s that [a new school] would very much help. And extra schools all throughout because we do need more middle, more elementary and more high schools as well,” Nulty said.

Live 5 did reach out to the developers, Kolter Homes, on Wednesday afternoon for a statement, and has not heard back yet.