Published: Tuesday, Jun. 02, 2009 / Updated: Thursday, Jun. 04, 2009 08:28 AM
940 is limit for Gold Hill Elementary
TEGA CAY -- Gold Hill Elementary won't be accepting new students for next school year, Fort Mill School District officials decided.
Families who move to Gold Hill's attendance area after June 6 will have to send children to nearby Springfield Elementary.
School board members, concerned about overcrowding, voted this month to "freeze enrollment," making Gold Hill the district's only school doing so.
The campus, built for 900 students, is expecting to open its doors in August with about 940 students.
There is some wiggle room, school board member Patrick White said. If enough
students leave Gold Hill over the summer, some new students may be added.
Fort Mill schools recently lifted an enrollment freeze on three elementary schools - Gold Hill, Springfield and Orchard Park - because two newly built elementary schools opening in August will relieve crammed classes at two of them.
Superintendent Keith Callicutt said he thought Gold Hill could make it a year without an attendance cap, but school board members White, Michael Johnson and Scott Patterson voted against his recommendation.
"People always move here and say I didn't know there was a freeze," White said. "We wanted to go ahead and at least get it in effect."
The move means students living in Gold Hill's attendance area before June 6 will attend there, even if they were sent to another school during this school year's enrollment freeze.
"We were going to have to freeze it anyway," Assistant Superintendent Chuck Epps said.
"We were just trying to buy another year."
The school district will provide transportation for students sent to Springfield. That school, also built for 900 students, expects to open in August with about 500.
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