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closeCLOVER -- Attendance lines in Clover are shifting as the school district prepares to open a new elementary school and middle school next year.
The district will hold a series of community meetings on the new attendance lines this week, and they're expecting a crowd.
The purpose of these forums is to provide information on various possibilities for adjusting the attendance lines and on the long range building plans, Superintendent Marc Sosne said in a letter to The Enquirer-Herald.
"Several options have been developed for attendance lines and the district will outline two of these plans for the public during the community forums," Sosne wrote. "Parents will be allowed to provide input through a question-and-answer session. Each person in attendance will asked to write down his or her questions, concerns or suggestions for district administrators to study."
The meetings will be Thursday at Crowders Creek Middle School and Clover Middle School, as well as Sept. 30 at Crowders Creek and the Clover school district auditorium. All meetings begin at 7 p.m., with district administration and school board members available to answer questions.
A main topic will be new attendance lines drawn for the opening of the district's two newest schools -- a new elementary school on U.S. 321 South and a new middle school on S.C. 557 in Lake Wylie.
Specific attendance boundaries have not been set, said Ken Love, chief finance and facilities officer for the district. Input from parents will be considered, and the decision will be made in-house without using outside consultants.
"We're still playing with lines and numbers," Love said. "Fortunately, wherever a student may go to school, they're going to get a quality education. That's the case throughout the district."
Unlike districts elsewhere, Love said, Clover has the same amenities in its oldest schools that it will have in its newest schools. That claim comes partly from the most recent bond package, which granted $58.5 million for the construction of the two new schools and upgraded technology throughout the district.
"We have installed all the technology for all the classrooms where the technology was supposed to go," Love said. "Both buildings are well under construction and both are on schedule that they will be open on time next summer."
Now the district is considering a new bond package that could pave the way for a new high school in the Lake Wylie area.
"That's one option," Love said. "We have to find a place where we can get property and that makes sense in its proximity to the student body base."
Sosne spoke recently with members of the Clover Chamber of Commerce about long-range plans including a seventh elementary school, third middle school and property for a second high school.
Questions from the community on an upcoming bond will be taken during the community meetings, Reid said, though they will not be the main focus.
"We're not going to promise we're going to have answers to every question asked," he said. "But if we don't know, we'll certainly work to find an answer."
The district is still evaluating potential bond needs, Love said, and does not have a specific time, list of projects or amount needed.
"We are in the discussion and planning phase now," he said. "Within the next year we'll be going to the public. As far as what it will be, how much it will cost, we just don't know yet."
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