School district to purchase land for new high school

Board approves $2.1 million to buy 61 acres in Fountain Inn

By Nathaniel Cary • Staff Writer • Published: June 29. 2011 5:07PM

The board voted to buy 61 acres on Quillen Avenue as the future site of the district’s first newly created high school since Riverside High School opened in 1973.

Fountain Inn came into focus for the new school as residents and businesses continued to locate in the Golden Strip and threatened to overcrowd Hillcrest, Mauldin and Woodmont high schools that share a slice of the student population in the southern half of Greenville County.

The school is scheduled to open by 2017 and tentatively has been named New South County High School. The district included plans for a new school in its 2010 long range plan.

City and community leaders from both Fountain Inn and Simpsonville threw support behind the effort to bring a high school to Fountain Inn.

John Hastings, president and CEO of the Fountain Inn Chamber of Commerce, told the school board there is great potential for manufacturing jobs to bring thousands of new workers to Fountain Inn soon. He pointed to ZF Group already hiring workers to start at its new transmissions plant near Fountain Inn and said suppliers and other industries would likely locate nearby in existing buildings and available property.

“With each one of those jobs comes families, schoolchildren, going into our school system,” Hastings said. “So the growth ... would no doubt have a huge impact on our existing schools.”

Recent population studies show a likely shift in population growth toward southern Greenville County.

The Fountain Inn area’s population may more than double by 2030, from 9,100 to 20,700, according to a 2008 Greenville Pickens Area Transportation Study, which also pegged Simpsonville to have the second-highest overall population increase from 26,200 to 49,600 over the same time period.

Hastings said The road system is established and gives way to several different directions by which traffic could be maintained and nearby land could be developed into new homes.

Van Broad, Fountain Inn’s economic development director, said a high school would become the heart of the town and would “give back to our community the pride and spirit that a high school would achieve.”

Fountain Inn is the only Greenville County municipality without a high school now, and hasn’t had one since the former Fountain Inn High School close in 1957.

Simpsonville Mayor Dennis Waldrop said the new school would alleviate overcrowded conditions at Hillcrest High “and everybody will benefit.”

He supported the school and said that although Simpsonville has always considered Hillcrest as its hometown school, separating Fountain Inn and Simpsonville students would “heighten the pride that we have in Hillcrest to know that we have our own school.”

Jack West said he has two daughters who would one day go to the new school. A new school is needed as “Fountain Inn begins to blossom,” he said.

“If we add a new high school in Fountain Inn, it would add a great sense of pride and belonging to the residents there,” West said.

The school board didn’t discuss the proposal before it voted, but several in the audience broke into applause after the vote.