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Board of Education approves architectural firm to design new Elementary School in Bluffton

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 18, 2023

BEAUFORT – The Beaufort County Board of Education authorized Superintendent Frank Rodriguez to negotiate a contract with Quackenbush Architects and Planners to design a new elementary school serving grades PreK-5 aimed at alleviating overcrowding in the fast-growing Bluffton community.

This new school will greatly help to alleviate our current capacity issues at Pritchardville Elementary.

BCSD Superintendent Frank Rodriguez

Quackenbush Architects and Planners, which emerged as the top choice at the end of a multilayered selection process, will be awarded a contract for the design portion only of the PreK-5 school and update the May River Campus masterplan.

The design work for the project will be funded by 8% capital bond funding. Construction funding is anticipated to come from a 2023 bond referendum.

“The intent of releasing the design prior to the approval of construction funding is to have a shovel ready project by March of 2024,” said Superintendent Frank Rodriguez. “This new school will greatly help to alleviate our current capacity issues at Pritchardville Elementary.”

Quackenbush Architects and Planners will hold public meetings to gather input on the design concept for the new PreK-5 elementary school that will have the capacity to house approximately 800 students.

The new PreK-5 elementary school, projected to be completed and occupied prior to the start of the 2025-26 school year, will be located on the May River High School property owned by the district at 601 New Riverside Drive. The high school currently occupies approximately 80 acres of the 225-acre campus.

Twelve (12) architectural firms submitted proposals for the district’s new PreK-5 school in the first stage of the process. All of the  proposals were independently evaluated and scored by a committee of Five (5) evaluators. Four (4) finalists were selected for interviews. Following interviews with the finalists, the district’s evaluators independently scored the firms and with unanimous concurrence, the firm selected for the project was Quackenbush Architects and Planners.