Fort Mill Schools Say Some Are At Capacity, Need More Schools

FORT MILL, SC — “It’s just a hot spot and I can understand why people love it here it’s a beautiful place to live,” said Jackie Kilpatrick, Gold Hill Middle School parent.

And that hot spot known as Fort Mill is growing so much, one thousand students more than last year, that two elementary schools are at capacity. They are Gold Hill and Doby’s Bridge.

“We’re going to run out of capacity at the elementary level in the next two to there year period so we’ll have to figure out a solution by then,” said Fort Mill School Superintendent, Chuck Epps

Epps says in the past 22 years they’ve gone from 4 schools to 16 and now they need more. He also says the school board is talking about a bond referendum to build schools.

Otherwise they’d have to “either freezing enrollment, or if we do not freeze enrollment we would have to redraw attendance lines or we could buy trailers to house our students,” said Epps.

Under a 2006 state law schools don’t get money from homeowner property taxes, so districts rely on sales tax dollars or bond referendums.

“The rate of growth is outpacing the rate of our revenues from the state,” said Epps

Parents waiting for their kids at Gold Hill Middle School say they are a concerned about the rapid growth but would support a bond to help with schools.

“My kids have benefited from the school system here so why can’t others, and I’m ok with that,” said Kilpatrick.

Especially compared to redrawing neighborhood schools or mobile classrooms.

Another parent, Elizabeth Bradley says, “Oh yeah definitely I can see probably them building some new schools around here for all the families the are moving here.”