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Both Battery Creek and Hilton Head Island high schools are under capacity, while Bluffton and Beaufort high schools are overcrowded and use mobile classrooms.
Bluffton High School has a capacity of 1,434 and serves 1,528 students.
Beaufort High School has a capacity of 1,595 and serves 1,730 students.
The board directed district staff in October to balance enrollment among the district's high schools and explore options that might change traditional barriers. Staff presented several options Tuesday, which include a combination of the following:
• Extending the Battery Creek attendance zone south of the Broad River to the intersection of S.C. 170 and S.C. 462 near the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence. Students living in the area who now attend Bluffton High would move to Battery Creek.
• Assigning students in some Bluffton neighborhoods to Hilton Head High from Bluffton High. Those neighborhoods include the Colleton River Plantation, Sawmill Creek Road and Malphrus Road areas.
• Assigning students living on the Laurel Bay military base and surrounding neighborhoods who now attend Battery Creek to the new Whale Branch Early College High School. Neighborhoods would include Irongate, Pinewood, Capehart and Ramblin Acres.
• Assigning the entire Beaufort Elementary attendance area to Battery Creek. Some of the Beaufort Elementary attendance area now is zoned for Beaufort High. The rest of the students already attend Battery Creek.
• Assigning students in the Port Royal Elementary attendance area from Beaufort High to Battery Creek.
Superintendent Valerie Truesdale said public information sessions would be held on the proposals early next year before the board votes to adopt any of the changes.
Board member George Wilson said although he realizes changing attendance boundaries is an emotional issue, the board has no choice but to rezone some students.
"We can't leave the situation the way it is because Bluffton High School and Beaufort High School are bursting at the seams," Wilson said.
