Horry County Schools officials will consider spending $6.6 million for portable classrooms to address the district's growing student population.

“We never want to build an elementary school again [with a capacity] below 1,200," said HCS Chief of Support Services Daryl Brown. "We learned our lesson with River Oaks Elementary School [ROES]."

HCS Director of Planning Joe Burch said the district will need 36 modular classrooms and two restroom sections for the 2022-23 school year. Eight modulars would be placed at Myrtle Beach High School while another eight would go to Carolina Forest High School. Four would be set up at Carolina Forest Elementary School with eight at both River Oaks and Waccamaw elementary schools.

Burch hesitated before showing the facilities committee the price tag, saying it was due to the “sticker shock” of materials costs, which have risen significantly.

The $6.6 million figure includes the set-up and installation of the classrooms, site work, removal and contingencies. A lease option could be available that would include the same items but come in with a $4.5-5 million price tag.

Some money was already set aside for modulars but the district must discuss this new price increase before going further. 

The district owns 88 modular classrooms already, including 10 restroom sections, and all of them are in use.

More than 50 of the school-owned modulars are in use at three schools: Carolina Forest Elementary, Ocean Bay Elementary and River Oaks Elementary.

If new schools open in the Carolina Forest area as anticipated in the next five years, those modulars would then be available for relocation, district officials said.

District 10 board member and facilities committee chairman Neil James asked for an updated list of school capacities before their next meeting after Burch said that there are currently over 1,200 students at River Oaks Elementary.

The school is built to hold 850 students.

“I just see congestion,” James said regarding the number of modulars needed, asking how much the infrastructure of the schools, particularly ROES, would be affected by eight more classrooms.

“Yes. Cafeteria is impacted, parking is impacted, playground space is impacted,” Burch said.

Burch said they do their best to place the modular classrooms outside the traffic flow and student flow patterns, where there are no traffic impacts.

District 9 member Melanie Wellons expressed concern that a new, possibly 500-home development being built on the Conway side of S.C. 31 would impact the attendance at River Oaks even more.

Burch said he was fairly certain that area would put the students living in that development at Ocean Bay Elementary and not River Oaks.

For future school builds, Burch said there were options for multi-story schools.

The student transfer window opens April 4. Chief of Student Services Velna Allen said that no one will be able to transfer into a Category 1 or red zone school, which means a school that is over 95% capacity.

View a list of the current Category 1 schools here.

The issue will be discussed again at the school board's meeting later in March. 

• The installation of bi-polar ionization units in all schools and modular classrooms, to help further clean the air in the buildings, has been completed.

• The board voted to have H.G. Reynolds Company serve as the general contractor to work on an extensive $34 million upgrade project to the Conway High School HVAC systems and roofing.

• The board also unanimously voted to obtain extra outside legal counsel "due to a wide range of current and pending litigation," according to district attorney Kenny Generette. The attorney or attorneys would assist the district with specialized services and guidance. 

Horry County Schools' teachers could see a $4,000 salary increase this year, but that decision ultimately rests with state lawmakers.

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