Jasper County’s second charter school will be built at this former hospital site
A Jasper County charter school slated to open for the 2018-19 school year will occupy the site of the former Ridgeland hospital, organizers announced Thursday.
Polaris Tech Charter School will welcome an estimated 210 middle and high school students in its first year, but could serve as many as 400 students, according to a news release.
The 35,000-square-foot facility will be located across from the county airport near the center of the county.
The committee spearheading the school’s progress has an option on the site, which allows the school to secure the property while seeking a developer to purchase it, Sandra Chavez wrote in an email Friday. Chavez is chairwoman of the school’s planning committee.
“We are thrilled at this news,” retired General Lloyd “Fig” Newton said in the release. Newton is a founding member of the school’s steering committee and a Jasper County native.
“We will be working feverishly to make the necessary renovations and improvements to convert it to a new school for a new approach to learning,” he said.
The school’s project-oriented curriculum will focus on six career pathways to train students in the area’s growing industries, such as aviation and the future Jasper Ocean Terminal. The port is still about 10 years away from completion but has the potential to create 1 million new jobs.
The South Carolina Public Charter School District approved Polaris Tech in May. It will be the second charter school in Jasper County, joining the five-year-old Royal Live Oaks Academy in Hardeeville.
The area has two other state charter schools, Bridges Preparatory School and Lowcountry Montessori in Beaufort, and another charter school, Riverview, that is sponsored by the Beaufort County School District.
For more information, visit www.polaristech.org or the school’s Facebook page.
Kelly Meyerhofer: 843-706-8136, @KellyMeyerhofer
This story was originally published July 28, 2017 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Jasper County’s second charter school will be built at this former hospital site."