Two firms will decide look for Fort Mill School District’s new elementary, middle schools
Still in need of an opening date, three new Fort Mill schools moved one step closer to construction on Tuesday.
The Fort Mill School District board voted Tuesday night to enter into contract negotiations with two firms for early site design work on elementary schools No. 12 and No. 13 and the seventh district middle school. The district received 14 submissions for architectural engineering services for the planned schools.
Full details on the schools aren’t yet available, including where in the district they could be.
“We don’t have a finalized timeline or location, as construction of these schools still requires the district to go out for a bond approval before they can be built,” said Joe Burke, a district spokesperson. “All of this work is pre-construction work that needs to be done prior to breaking ground and can be used at any point in the future.”
A $4 million capital needs list was presented to and approved by the board last month that included an estimated $1.75 million for future school land acquisition and $300,000 for early design work for the three new schools. Information from the district ahead of that decision showed a need for the three schools by fall 2025.
The firms picked Tuesday night, pending successful contract negotiations, would likely be the same ones who would put together final design plans for the new schools.
“Once you contract with them for the early site design, we’re obviously invested in them so we’re going to go ahead and use them,” said Joe Romenick, assistant superintendent of facilities and operations. ”And we’ll negotiate down the road with them for the overall bond when that comes out.”
The district chose McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture for the middle school work. The company has six offices in the Carolinas, including Charlotte and Columbia, as well as another in Georgia. The district used the firm with the construction of Nation Ford High School’s stadium, but not any district schools. One designer with the firm did work in a former role on River Trail, Doby’s Bridge and Tega Cay elementary schools, Romenick said.
“Folks love the building, love living in them, functional,” Romenick said of that model.
There will be differences in the new schools from the most recent district middle schools, Forrest Creek and Pleasant Knoll.
“We had conversations months ago about our current middle schools,” Romenick said. “Did people like them? What were the problems? And there were two issues that kept on coming up.”
One is connectivity between three mostly separate buildings. The other, Romenick said, is an issue with sight lines. Romenick informed architects the district wanted to hear plans for a two-level school model.
The pick for elementary school design is Jumper Carter Sease Architects. That firm came up with the most recent elementary school prototypes used in the district.
“They have been well-received,” Romenick said. “After conversations with principals in those (schools) and various other people, we were looking to probably keep Jumper Carter Sease but we went through the process to make sure there was nothing else out there that we were missing.”
The South Carolina firm also lists Catawba Ridge High School among its education designs.
Three more schools would bring the total in the rapidly growing Fort Mill district to 23 schools. The district had just four schools when a 1992 bond passed to build two elementary schools. The district has grown in the 30 years since to include three high schools, six middle schools and 11 elementary schools.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 1:57 PM.
