Meetings set on schools' futures

Charleston County school officials released on Friday a schedule for five community meetings to gather feedback on plans to restructure and close schools.

Officials plan to present their restructuring proposal to the school board at its Dec. 8 meeting at 5:15 p.m. at 75 Calhoun St., and then they will seek the community's input.

The school board asked the superintendent earlier this year to come up with recommendations to save money through restructuring or closing schools. After receiving community feedback, the board approved 12 criteria covering areas such as educational quality, demographics and building conditions that will be used to rank schools for potential changes. District staff are creating that list of schools and the estimated cost savings.

The forums will begin at 6:30 p.m. and last until 8 p.m. The dates and sites of the meetings are: Dec. 10 in the Lincoln High School cafeteria; Dec. 11 in Burns Elementary School auditorium; Dec. 15 in the St. John's High School auditorium; Dec. 16 in the Burke High School auditorium; Dec. 17 in the Baptist Hill High School cafeteria.

Noticeably absent from the list of constituent districts to hold meetings were the Mount Pleasant, West Ashley and James Island communities. Elliot Smalley, the district's executive director of communications, said the district wasn't "anticipating making significant options proposals in these areas at this time. However, school redesign discussions have included possible interest in modifying attendance boundaries in these areas; if we propose these changes, we'll follow protocol and work through our constituent boards."

The meetings will be led by Sue Robertson, an education planner who led the meetings about future high school options for Mount Pleasant. All comments will be recorded, shared publicly and brought back to the board in January.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.