Moultrie Middle to open in 2009

JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier

Moultrie Middle School chorus students turn shovels of dirt to celebrate the building of their new school.

GLICK/BOEHM & ASSOCIATES

An architect's rendering shows what Moultrie Middle School will look like when it opens in the fall of 2009.

Eighth-graders like Christian Brummé spent just a year at Moultrie Middle School on Coleman Boulevard before it closed in 2006 for demolition. It will be yet another year before the new Moultrie Middle School opens in fall 2009.

Moultrie Middle School, the Charleston County School Board and Mount Pleasant town officials celebrated the new middle school's groundbreaking Friday, an event that's been a long time coming.

Hillery Douglas, Charleston County School District board chairman, said replacing the former Moultrie High School with a new middle school building had been planned for more than 10 years.

Douglas reminded the 44 people in the audience about the March 1998, $350 million bond issue that failed and the $175 million bond issue that was approved in the following general election, part of which made building a new school possible.

"This started years and years ago because of the push from parents countywide," Douglas said.

Area residents soon will see the bricks of a new middle school go up across from the Moultrie Plaza shopping area. The $34 million school will be complemented by a new farmers market.

Jean Siewicki, Moultrie Middle School principal, said the school with a capacity of 1,200 would be the crown jewel of Coleman Boulevard.

"This is a day of new beginnings," she said.

Christian's mother, Amy Beauston, was happy the school could be built on the same site where her husband attended high school.

"It's neat that (the school) continues to be on the same ground. All these changes have taken place in Mount Pleasant, but the school still remains," Beauston said. Christian won't be able to take advantage of the new school, but his younger sister, Maggie Beauston, 8, will.

Mount Pleasant Academy celebrated its own groundbreaking down the road from the Moultrie Middle School site on Monday. The first- through third-grade school has been sharing space with Moultrie Middle School at the former Wando High School on Whipple and Mathis Ferry roads since fall 2006. That new school also will be ready to open in fall 2009.