Students can take classes at nearby schools

Charleston County high school students who want to take a class offered at a nearby school but not at their own soon will be able to do so.

Plans are in the works for high school students to be allowed to take courses at neighboring schools during the day, beginning this fall. Students would remain enrolled in their home schools, so it does not change attendance zones or require the approval of constituent school boards.

The plan is part of Superintendent Nancy McGinley’s broader initiative to give students more choices and to ensure equity across the district. She’s divided the county into four geographic zones, and she wants each area to offer similar options, from high school courses to different types of schools such as a Montessori or arts-infused.

In a perfect world, every high school would offer every major and class, but that’s not financially feasible or practical in terms of finding the needed instructors, said Associate Superintendent Lou Martin, who oversees high schools. “It’s an access and equity strategy coupled with financial common sense,” he said.

Martin has been meeting with the district’s high school principals and guidance directors, and they are identifying courses that could be eligible for the exchange. The next step will be for schools to find students interested in those classes and begin addressing the challenging logistics of coordinating schools’ schedules and arranging transportation.

Transportation will be the major cost, and he didn’t know how much that would be. Some state money is available to help cover that expense, he said.

“We’re going to start small and expand,” he said. “It opens up avenues that didn’t exist before.”

The zones have no effect on county-wide magnet schools, although Martin hopes those schools would be a part of the exchange program in the future. The North Zone encompasses North Charleston; the East Zone includes schools from Mount Pleasant to McClellanville; the Southwest Zone consists of Hollywood, Johns Island and James Island; and the Central Zone is made up of downtown and West Ashley.

Although this is the first time this kind of exchange program will happen at every neighborhood high school, some high schools already have made arrangements for students to take courses elsewhere. West Ashley High is among the schools embracing the concept. Its students take classes at Garrett Academy, and a School of the Arts student participates in the West Ashley High JROTC program.

This fall, West Ashley High will exchange students with Burke High because both are in the Central Zone. West Ashley High Guidance Director Peter Bruce said his hope is that exchange students will be able to enroll in a range of courses, from Advanced Placement to career electives. Both schools are mapping out the classes they have that the other doesn’t, and officials plan to let students know about those opportunities, see whether they are interested, and work out their schedules and transportation, he said.

“I think it’ll be embraced by kids,” he said.