Jasper Co. charter school plans to add elementary program, building, nearly doubling size
Ridgeland’s Polaris Tech is aiming to double in size by 2023-24 — both in enrollment and in campus space.
The public charter school wants to add kindergarten through fourth-grade classes by that school year, making it a kindergarten through 12th-grade school. The move would add about 250 students to the school, nearly doubling its current enrollment.
The charter school is tuition-free and takes applications for students to attend, rather than having a set attendance zone. It’s run independently from Jasper County School District and is instead governed by its board of directors and the S.C. Public Charter School District.
Students focus on six career pathways, including aerospace, information technology, business management, health sciences, mechatronics and logistics. Applications for rising fifth- through 12-graders to join the school next fall are open until the end of March; until this point, enrollment has hovered around 300 students since the school opened in the fall of 2018.
“As a board, we have believed it is important for Polaris Tech to expand into the kindergarten through fourth grade levels as soon as possible, because families have told us since we opened in 2018 that they wanted a full-family, full education option with the Polaris Tech approach,” said retired Air Force Gen. Lloyd “Fig” Newton, chair of the Polaris Tech board, in a press release.
To house the new students, the board is also planning a two-story addition with 25,700 square feet, 12 classrooms and a competition gym.
Both of these moves need to be approved by the S.C. Public Charter School District as amendments to the school’s original charter. Polaris Tech applied for that approval on Wednesday.
Fred Hunter, who started as the school’s executive director in July, said in a press release that the expansion was in the works when he took the job. His predecessor, Melissa Crosby, was the founding director of the school; she stepped down in November of 2020 due to family medical issues.
“It’s an exciting time and we have a great team working to make this happen,” Hunter said.