Beaufort Academy plans to borrow $40 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture under a program to develop “essential community facilities in rural areas.”
Beaufort Academy is a college preparatory school for pre-K through 12th-grade students located on Lady’s Island. Students must apply to attend the school, which costs between $9,875 for pre-K to $12,975 for grades nine through 12 per year. Around 43% of the school’s students receive financial aid.
Approved in January, the The USDA Rural Guarantee Community Facilities Direct Loan will be used to build classrooms, a student center, a new cafeteria and a 100-room dormitory. The school also plans to upgrade athletic facilities, technology and security.
The school estimates construction will take two years, and new facilities will open in the fall of 2025. The loan will only fund a portion of the project, according to the terms, meaning total improvements will be over $40 million.
“The new BA will look and feel like a college campus and will have all the inherent community attractions which come with that, such as the arts, meeting and event areas,” Beaufort Academy board president Katie Huebel said in a statement to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Huebel is one of 12 Board of Trustees members who oversee the school’s headmaster and make financial and strategic decisions.
Currently, 340 students are enrolled, but the additional facilities will allow the school to add 200 students over time, according to the school. Beaufort Academy didn’t say when it projected the enrollment increase.
However, by 2027, it expects to have 25 new campus jobs.
“On BA’s transformed campus, the need for additional educators, information technology and security professionals, kitchen, student center, activities and extracurricular positions, and other new jobs, will fold in over a course of years,” Huebel said.
Building renderings show Beaufort Academy’s new student dining and porch facilities. Beaufort Academy
An ‘arduous’ process
The loan application process began in 2019 and took three years, according to Beaufort Academy.
“The best adjective is arduous,” Huebel said, describing the process in the statement.
Rural areas with no more than 20,000 residents according to U.S. Census Data are eligible for the loan. The City of Beaufort has 12,960, according to the 2021 census. About 14,000 residents live in the three census tracts that make up the most of Lady’s Island, where the school is, according to the 2020 census.
Beaufort Academy didn’t say which population its grant was based on, but both populations qualify. The loan program has multiple funding options depending on population and poverty level.
During the estimated two-year construction period, the school will make payments on interest only. Once construction is completed, the school will make annual payments over a maximum of 40 years.
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 10:48 AM.
Mary Dimitrov is the Hilton Head Island and real estate reporter for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. A Maryland native, she has spent time reporting in Maryland and the U.S. Senate for McClatchy’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She won numerous South Carolina Press Association awards, including honors in education beat reporting, growth and development beat reporting, investigative reporting and more.
