Charleston County School Board slated to discuss Lowcountry Tech today during workshop

The Charleston County School Board will discuss the proposed Lowcountry Tech program at the former Rivers Middle School campus today at a workshop.

The board is not slated to take any action on the issue, but School Superintendent Nancy McGinley will present background information on the program. Other top district leaders will talk about the efforts to get the downtown campus ready for the program as well as what it will involve.

The location of Lowcountry Tech has become a hot topic in recent weeks. The board agreed in 2007 to put the program at the former Rivers Middle School campus with the Charleston Charter School for Math and Science. That's slated to happen in January.

But charter school advocates have started pushing in recent weeks for the charter school to have the entire campus and for Lowcountry Tech to be moved to the Burke High campus. Lowcountry Tech supporters, including the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the Charleston NAACP, are fiercely opposed to moving the program.

At least a couple dozen supporters of putting Lowcounty Tech at the former Rivers Middle campus attended Monday's school board meeting, and a handful spoke in support of the board keeping its promise to the community on the program's location.

Four new school board members were elected earlier this month, and they had asked for officials to give them more information on Lowcountry Tech and its location. That issue is among four others on today's workshop agenda.