North Charleston to get arts elementary

Charleston County's flagship arts high school, School of the Arts, might be in North Charleston, but only 11 percent of its students live in that community.

Some say that's because many of the area's children live in poverty and either aren't exposed to the arts in school or can't access private lessons. That puts them at a disadvantage for gaining acceptance to School of the Arts.

The district plans to open a new arts-infused, partial magnet elementary school, North Charleston Creative Arts Elementary, on the former School of the Arts campus this fall with the goal of giving students that option.

"We have an opportunity to build this school from the ground up, and that's what our intention is," said School Superintendent Nancy McGinley.

The school will open with less than 150 students in three kindergarten and four first-grade classes, and it will grow by one grade each year until its new school building opens. The 1 percent sales tax increase approved by voters in November will cover the new building's $27.1 million cost, and a completion date has not yet been set.

Officials have proposed that half of the school's students come from a new attendance zone that would be carved out of the existing Dunston, Hursey and

North Charleston Elementary schools. The District 4 (North Charleston) constituent school board will decide which neighborhoods belong to the new school.

The other half of the school's students would be drawn from across North Charleston.

The school fits in with McGinley's broader plan to offer more choices in four areas of the district, and each geographic zone will have a variety of school types students could elect to attend. The district's arts programs are in high demand with solid success rates, and no arts school serves North Charleston exclusively, McGinley said.

The new North Charleston Creative Arts Elementary will be modeled after Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary, which applies the philosophy that children learn best when taught through collaboration with the arts. All of its students participate in visual arts, music, drama and Spanish classes, and students also can take ballet and violin.

Officials don't know yet which classes the new North Charleston arts school will offer, but they will when the school begins accepting applications later this spring.

Because Charleston Progressive Academy, a downtown magnet school, already is occupying the former School of the Arts building, the new arts elementary would be housed in mobile units elsewhere on the site. Once Charleston Progressive Academy leaves in 2013, the arts school would move into the main building.

"It's pretty exciting," said Bill Lewis, the district's chief operating officer. "Over the next couple of years, we're going to be incubating the school."

One of the reasons the school will start with just kindergarten and first-grades is that it prevents millions of dollars from being spent on a huge campus of mobile units that would be torn down in a few years, Lewis said.

There's also a need to start the school now because of overcrowding problems in North Charleston, McGinley said. North Charleston Elementary already is over capacity, and the new arts school will help alleviate that, she said.

McGinley wasn't sure of the operational costs for the new school, but she said most of the expense would be linked to administrative and arts instructor positions. Officials also are trying to find other ways to connect the school with the arts that wouldn't cost the district any money.

The mayor's office has been involved in planning efforts, and Kyle Lahm in the Office on Education, Youth and Family said they look forward to having an arts school dedicated to the community's children.

"This is a school that would serve the youth of North Charleston and ultimately prepare them for an extended fine-arts education," she said.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546.