Fort Mill schools freeze new student enrollment at Doby’s Bridge Elementary | The Herald

Another new student enrollment freeze will soon go into effect in the Fort Mill school district.

Effective at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 15, students who have not enrolled or registered for Doby’s Bridge Elementary School, which opened four years ago, will be assigned to another elementary school. The freeze is applicable to newly enrolled students in all grades.

The district will determine the assigned school based on enrollment and capacity, according to a statement released today.

“The district is closely monitoring enrollment at all elementary schools to determine the best school option for students affected by the freeze,” the statement reads. “Once a school has been selected the district will announce the decision.”

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This is the second enrollment freeze in Fort Mill for the 2017-18 school year. Earlier this month, the district approved an enrollment freeze for new first-grade students at Gold Hill Elementary School. Those students instead are attending Tega Cay Elementary School.

The school board also approved a new enrollment freeze on all grades at Gold Hill Elementary, effective at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 1. Students who have not registered by then will attend Tega Cay Elementary beginning Sept. 5.

The Fort Mill school board approved the Doby’s Bridge freeze during Tuesday’s board meeting.

“The freeze was enacted due to the growing student population numbers as a result of new growth and development in the area,” a statement says. “This action was taken to allow class sizes to remain at acceptable levels and not overload the building capacity.”

The district does not, at this time, anticipate any more enrollment freezes, said Joe Burke, chief communications officer for the district.

As in the Gold Hill Elementary freeze, students who would normally attend Doby’s Bridge Elementary will take their assigned bus to the school. A district shuttle bus will take them to the elementary school they are assigned to and return them to Doby’s bridge in the afternoon to ride their assigned bus home.

Burke said the shuttle bus at Gold Hill Elementary has been running smoothly.

With more than 14,700 students, Fort Mill is one of the fastest-growing school districts in South Carolina.

“Fort Mill has experienced a high growth rate in the community for several years and we currently have one of the highest growth rates per capita in the state,” Burke said. “Our growth projections for student population this year have been overall accurate with the exception of a few pockets of larger than expected growth.”

Questions should be directed to Antwon Sutton, coordinator of student services, who can be reached at 803-548-2527.