Latta school leaders hope to add an additional school

Over the past ten years Dr. John Kirby said the town of Latta has seen a whole lot of growth, but it's particularly in its population of students.

"Parents are looking for options now, so we've had parents physically move into our school district because of the school system," said Dr. John Kirby, Superintendent Dillon School District Three.

Population 2,000, there are almost as many students in the Latta as people.
Close to 1,700 students attend Latta District Schools, and they're growing at an average of one classroom per year.

"It's time for us to take a look at a new facility not only for programming purposes, because we've out grown that facility because of numbers," said Superintendent Kirby.

Superintendent Kirby said right now the Latta Early Childhood Center is operating above maximum capacity.

"The dressing room and the toilets for the boys in our gym have been turned into a classroom. What was once used as storage for the P.E. Classes is now a classroom," said Dr. Kirby.

It's to the point, the Latta Early Childhood Center has no room left to spare, but if a Dillon County one cent sales tax passes Superintendent Kirby said the Latta District will have the funding it needs to build a new Early Education Center.

The center will be designed to not only satisfy the growing needs now, but for the next several years to come.

"We're gonna design that building so we'll have four or five additional classrooms for that continued growth so we can allow parents to bring their children in the school system," said Dr. Kirby.

The school system currently has to turn down children because it's so full, but they hope to have a new facility built with in the next two years.

On December 4th Dillon County residents will vote to pass or fail a countywide bond referendum that could raise up to 60 million dollars through a one cent sales tax.

This money will be equally divided between the three Dillon County school districts.

If referendum passes, the Latta School District plans on using the money toward a new early childhood center.

If this were to fail school leaders said they have two options---they can wait another year and try to pass the one cent sales tax again, or they can create a bond referendum that would generate funding by increasing property taxes within Dillon County.