By Thomas Grant Jr.
The town of Irmo will have a new “nest” available this fall for Gray Collegiate Academy students.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon in the school gymnasium, school principal Brian Newsome announced the West Columbia school’s plans to open a satellite campus in the Lake Murray area.
Located at 617 Koon Road in Irmo, the campus will house 28 fulltime staff members and 600 new students in grades six through 10 and go up to grade 12 at full matriculation. It will serve as an extension of the 3833 Leaphart Road campus in offering high school and college accredited courses.
The doors will open in August and will include permanent modulars and a state-of-the-art “Airnasium” and weight room in the trailers. A shuttle bus will transport student-athletes daily between both campuses and the Northwest Family YMCA at 1501 Kennerly Road will provide after school activities.
“We are thrilled to have you coming to the town,” Irmo Mayor Bill Danielson said. “We will give you all the support you need. It’s all about competition. It’s all about competition. It’s all about educating the kids. It’s all about the kids.”
Irmo Mayor Bill Danielson
Newsome said this project was made possible this past summer by Performance Charter School Development. With land and structures already in place, the company approached Gray Collegiate with the opportunity to have a satellite campus in Irmo.
Gray Collegiate currently has 635 of its 938 high school students and was moved up last year from Class 2A to 4A by the S.C. High School League. Even if the multiplier is used again for the school’s enrollment number for athletics, Newsome expects to remain at Class 4A.
“We’re happy to go to (Class) 5A),” Newsome said. “The multiplier’s still out there. We don’t know what the multiplier is going to do. But based on our calculations, we’re probably still be 4A. But if we move to 5A, we’ll be comfortable.”
Gray Collegiate has had a contentious relationship with Lexington School District Two. Most recently, both Airport and Brookland-Cayce were each fined $2 to forfeiting junior varsity football games as they protested what they believe is the school’s efforts to recruit their student-athletes.
Newsome said he’s received “nothing but positive feedback” from Lexington/Richland School District Five officials regarding the satellite campus.
“I’ve talked to some personnel over there at District Five,” he said. “They’re very welcoming of us. They’ve got huge schools over there. They’ve got Dutch Fork, Irmo, Chapin, Spring Hill. They’re big 4A, 5A schools. They’ve got 1,500 to 2,500-3,000 kids. We’re only going to have a capacity of 600 right now, so we’re not going to even take a blip off the radar.
“The way they are transitioning some of their schools over there with their sixth grade academy not being a sixth grade academy anyone. That’s something that’ll be new for them. Transition those kids, so we should be part of the transition.”
Prospective parents will have an opportunity to attend informational sessions on Feb. 6, Feb. 20, March 13, March 27, and April 10 at 12:30 p.m. An email can be sent to [email protected] to sign up for a session.
