Sedgefield principal likes sound of 'zero'

GOOSE CREEK — The number zero brings a smile to the face of new Sedgefield Middle School Principal Mike Lucas.

There are zero portable classrooms in front of his school this year, compared with the 32 mobile units that housed all of the school's seventh- and eighth- graders last year.

Zero cold, bagged lunches will be brought in from the nearby Goose Creek High School cafeteria to feed students, as Sedgefield's food-court style cafeteria is ready to serve hot meals of its own.

And zero students will be able to transfer from Sedgefield under the No Child Left Behind law's choice transfer policy, as the Berkeley school district no longer classifies Sedgefield as a Title I school.

Last year, 150 students left Sedgefield for other middle schools, giving the school the dubious distinction of being home to the most choice transfers of any Lowcountry school. The exodus decimated enrollment, which plunged from 1,000 students several years ago to 750 students last year.

But Lucas, an optimistic new principal, said those concerns are in the past.

He's proud of the $13.3 million, two-year renovation finished this summer.

The school now features a brick entryway, columns and canopied walkways, an enlarged media center, a new administrative wing, a modernized cafeteria with four food-court stations, larger fine arts classes and other classroom alterations.

The ongoing construction hurt morale, Lucas said, and the dwindling enrollment didn't help.

"We no longer look like a construction site," he said. "This is an impressive, clean facility. We hope the perception spreads that we now have a real, up-to-date school."

Lucas said he expects enrollment to climb to 815 students this year, boosted by a large sixth-grade group of 300 students.

Sixth-graders no longer have the choice to transfer away from the school to nearby middle schools such as Westview. But instead of feeling forced to attend Sedgefield, Lucas wants the class to take pride in their neighborhood school.

Parent Shannon Lifsey said she wouldn't have considered sending her son Tyler to Sedgefield last year, when portable units were more common than traditional classrooms. Lifsey said she would have explored other schools but was told this spring that choice transfers to leave Sedgefield were no longer an option.

Now that construction is done, Lifsey said she's comfortable with Tyler attending Sedgefield for sixth grade.

"Our big concern was the construction, which is now finished," she said. "Sedgefield has a new principal, and we've met several of the teachers. From what I can tell, middle school should have more to do with the teachers and the principal than reputation."

Lucas said he hopes more parents and community members will embrace the school.

He's trying to make Sedgefield parent-friendly by allowing parents to drop off their children as early as 7:30 a.m. Students who come to school at that time can participate in early physical education class in the school's new gym, go to the media center to do research on computers or take part in a new homework cafe program, he said.

The school also wants to offer after-school library hours to Goose Creek residents. The media center will be open from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons for community members from the school's attendance zone to check out books and materials.

School and district officials realize none of these new programs — or even the renovated building — will make up for low test scores. Sedgefield has rated "below average" on the state report card for the past two years, but district officials expect improvement.

"A lot of people just judge a school by what it looks like from the outside, and that means that Sedgefield was caught between a rock and a hard place," said Sheldon Etheridge, Berkeley's director of federal programs. "I think everyone at that school will be pleased with their test scores from last year once they are released. And with the new building, I think everyone will be very happy."

Reach Mindy B. Hagen at 937-5433 or mhagen@postandcourier.com.