Where Is New Fountain Inn High School Location
While the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted schools and is likely to impact district budgets, the new Fountain Inn High School is still on schedule to be completed this summer.
Eighth-grader Elena Mertel's excitement grows by the day.
"I think it's going to be a really cool experience, and I'm kind of ready to go to high school," Elena said.
Elena attends Ralph Chandler Middle School and will be in the first class of students to attend Fountain Inn High.
"I like the idea that my class, the class of 2025, is going to be able to start things and organize things for the grades that come after us," Elena said. "So maybe we can have some sort of tradition that isn't typical or that you haven't seen before, and the other classes can participate."
The massive high school's outer walls are already up, but there's still a lot of work to be done on the skeletal interior.
In 2019, the district added $17 million to the project's budget, making the total cost of the high school about $84 million. Since then, the district is still on track to open the school on time and within the budget, according to Principal Maureen Tiller.
Even though the high school won't officially open until fall of 2021, Tiller was hired in July of 2019 to help shape early decisions at the school.
Tiller said she's already hired the school's athletic director, a football coach, an instructional coach, a secretary and bookkeeper. Ninth-graders should be able to start playing football that first year.
She'll start hiring the majority of the ninth-grade teachers by early spring.
Only ninth-graders will attend Fountain Inn High for the first year of the school. Each year, the school plans to add a grade until 2024, when all ninth through 12th grades will attend.
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Besides being the first new high school in the district in nearly 50 years, the school is also unique in that it will be the district's first high school with a focus on science and engineering.
Elena is ready to join the school's Youth in Government club and run for student council, but she's also thrilled because the school's focus aligns with her desire to pursue a career in the medical field.
Fountain Inn High's Institute of Automation and Engineering will be on full display for anyone who walks into the lobby, where visitors can look through large windows into an expansive manufacturing classroom.
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"The goal is that they graduate high school with industry recognized certification, in addition to a high school diploma, and that they have a direct connection before they leave high school of where they're gonna go the day after high school," Tiller said.
The engineering program does not mean students who attend can focus only on science; the school will have the same courses and electives as other high schools in the district, including theater, arts and teacher cadets.
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"Just because we're going to have a real focus in those pathways of engineering, automation, mechatronics, computer science, biomedical engineering — those pathways are part of lots of other pathways," Tiller said.
Last year, Elena and other middle school students who will attend the high school came up with its mascot and logo — a phoenix called the Fountain Inn Fury. The school's colors are maroon, navy and gray, which is a combination of the colors of both the former all-white and all-black high schools in Fountain Inn before they closed in the 1950s.
Some facts about the new school:
- It's the first new high school in Greenville County Schools in nearly 50 years
- Its focus is science, technology, engineering and math with a program called the Institute of Automation and Engineering
- It has a capacity of 2,000 students and will relieve some overcrowding at Mauldin and Hillcrest high schools
- The building covers 229,000 square feet
Ariel Gilreath is a watchdog reporter focusing on education and family issues with The Greenville News and Independent Mail. Contact her at agilreath@gannett.com and on Twitter @ArielGilreath.
Where Is New Fountain Inn High School Location
Source: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/education/2020/12/28/fountain-inn-high-school-open-2021/6440805002/