Classroom Crunch: Students pack Horry County schools

Third grade teacher Emily Timchula has her hands full with a packed class of students. Like many teachers in Horry County, her classroom is in a portable building, because the school is overcrowding. "I love it. I love teaching in a portable. I love it cause it's our own little world. The environment is all there. Their work is on the wall,” said Timchula.

With a class filled to capacity, Timchula and other teachers in her position have to teach creatively with teaching. "It can get a little difficult. But we try, like you can see now, they're doing a lot of pair work. Even if there are a lot of students, it's easier to get to groups of smaller students cause there's less to get to and you can still give each child individual work,” said Timchula.

Overcrowded schools is an issue for just about every school in Horry County. Right now Horry County schools have 37,000 students. Eddie Rodelsperger, Chief construction management officer for Horry County schools says he anticipates another thousand students next year. "We don't see any slow up in it. We see some fluctuations. Probably an average around 1,000 students a year over the next 10 years,” says Rodelsperger.

Rodelsperger says as soon as his crew finishes building a school or a new addition, it's quickly over filled with students. "I don't know if it's always, ‘let's continue to keep building.’ We've always had a goal that one day we'll get out of the portable business. I think we'll always be in the portable business,” said Rodelsperger.

The areas of Horry County where officials are the most concerned with growth are Saint James, Socastee and the Carolina Forest regions. "As you look into the future, we anticipate a lot of that growth growing westward. Simply because of the price of property, the price points on homes and now the roads that are available for people to use to get to the beach and other place of employment,” said Rodelsperger.

Looking in the classrooms of Carolina Forest Elementary school, you probably wouldn't notice, but the school is built to hold 557 students, right now it has more than 900 children. Melissa Spearman is the principal. She says as a team, the school has worked hard to accommodate the growing number of students. "Teachers are really well versed in how to meet the needs of all kids and differentiate instruction. We spend a lot of time talking with our curriculum specialist, giving them ideas on how to make sure they're differentiating,” said Spearman.

Right now Carolina Forest Elementary school has 17 portables. With the way the school is growing, school officials say they’ll probably have to add more next year. "There's nothing that's in our inside classroom that's not in the portable. The numbers of computers in the classrooms are the same. We have 29 *smart Boards* in our schools. Some are inside. Some are outside,” said Spearman.

There are 220 portables being used by Horry County schools this year. Eddie Rodelsperger, Chief Construction management officer for Horry County schools is sitting down with the school board this month to talk about the district's needs for the next five to ten years. "We will look in the next five years in particularly at doing some things differently to help accommodate growth. Maybe building some elementary schools adding on to some elementary schools like Carolina Forest and make them bigger then we had before. Possibly up to 1,000 students. Loot at middle schools and high schools to see how the space that we already have built, how we can better utilize that space,” said Rodelsperger.

Another problem they'll address is how school choice will affect enrollment numbers. "Some of the major issues that we're gonna have to deal with is how we will deal with the advent of choice and how we'll handel it in the school district with choice and no child left behind,” said Rodelsperger.
Student's parents and teachers have mixed feelings about the way the school district is handling the growth.

Melanie Wellons has a second grader and kindergartner at Carolina Forest Elementary school. Even though her children are in an overcrowded school, she feels they're still getting a good education. "My children, they seem to be getting the education and the attention from the teachers that they do need,” said Wellons.

But Wellons says the school district needs to take action, before the growth gets out of control. "I don't think they're predicting like they should. Maybe they need to invest in some more studies of the growth of Horry County,” said Wellons.

Rebecca Flaten is also the mother of a second grader and she’s okay with the districts progress. "It seems to me with two new schools that have just open with in the last year or two, that they're doing the best they can. I think it's hard to predict the increase of students,” said Flaten.

The idea of her student attending class in a portable classroom doesn't faze her. "I think because they're outside the hallways and sort of isolated, they seem to be a little more quiet and a little more on their own and there can be advantages to that,” said Flaten.

Which Eddie Rodelsperger, Chief Construction management officer for Horry County schools says that’s good, because it will be a long time before the district gets away from portables. "If you go into the Saint James attendance area, this attendance area, Socastee, you'll see numerous portables on every campus. We'll continue to add them every year,” said Rodelsperger.

As the principal of the elementary school, Melissa Spearman has had first had experience seeing what the growth has done to the school. "The school district has done an excellent job. At least in our school with projecting growth and allowing us to heir teachers in early May ahead of time to plan for the growth. In the last three years, they've projected so well that we haven't had to add or loose any new teachers after school started,” said Spearman.

Parents and teachers say, the bottom line is, even with extra students, the most important thing is the student’s education.