WINNSBORO – The Midlands S.T.E.M. Institute (MSI) board of trustees announced Wednesday that the school will begin its 2018-19 academic year in a new location.
The Winnsboro-based public charter school’s board voted to purchase the White Oak Conference Center in Fairfield County and will move its entire operation from Rockton Baptist Church to the new facility next summer.
Now in its fourth year of operation, MSI will expand to grade nine for 2018-19, a move made possible by the board’s decision to relocate, board chair Kevin Thomas said.
“We are enormously grateful for the congregation of Rockton Baptist Church and all of its support during our first few years of operation,” Thomas said. “We would not be in the position we are in without them. But we also have grown to the point where moving is necessary. This will be an exciting new chapter for MSI as we continue to fulfill our mission to provide a quality educational choice for students and parents.”
The 200-acre site will give MSI 23 classrooms, a 400-seat dining hall, an 850-seat auditorium, and a 230-seat lecture hall. The facility also has an outdoor pool and a gymnasium. MSI plans to offer busing services from multiple Fairfield County pickup locations as well as sports for their students.
In addition to giving MSI more room for enrollment growth, the new facility’s amenities will give the school greater capacity for extracurricular offerings and scientific discovery, executive director Marie Milam said.
“The new school facility offers a great deal of potential for growth not only in our student body, but also what courses of study we might offer in the life and earth sciences just by having more outdoor space,” she said. “The large auditorium also gives our students more room to explore their creative, performance potential and a larger campus with a gymnasium will also give our students opportunities to compete in sports.”
MSI is currently accepting students in grades K5- 8th grade and ninth grade students for the 2018-2019 school year. MSI anticipates maxing out enrollment when the facility opens next fall.
MSI will add a grade each year until they offer grades K5-12 in the fall of 2021.
I’m glad you all decided to offer bus services. I take my granddaughter from Ridgeway to school and I work at the VA. White Oak would have made that almost too difficult. She is doing so well at MSI.