MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The new Socastee Middle School finally opened its doors to Horry County students on Wednesday for the first day of class.
This school was built as one of five new schools in Horry County. It was originally supposed to be ready for classes at the beginning of the 2017 school year, but with some delays, that was not able to happen. Principal, Lisa Melchione, said they are excited to finally have students in the building for class.
“It was really exciting at the end of last year for the students to be able to come in and tour the facility beforehand, but they didn’t know where their classes were at that time,” said Melchione. “So we’re really excited about having them come into the school and make it their own.”
She also said the school has already seen an increase in participation for extracurricular activities like football, cheerleading, band, and orchestra, and being in a new, bigger building has a lot to do with that.
Melchione said they understand how difficult the transition from elementary to middle school can be for students and parents. Sixth-grade students will be assigned a Chromebook to use and will learn to do assignments through Google Classroom. Melchione said for first-time middle school parents, they want to help out as much as possible with the transition. “That is a learning curve, especially since you’re going from one to two classrooms at the fifth grade level to four academic teachers, and exploratory teachers at the middle school level,” said Melchione. “It’s a lot, and it’s very overwhelming, so we’re hoping to kind of ease that a little bit for them.”
In addition, the school will have a sixth grade orientation night to allow parents to walk the halls, meet teachers, and get more acquainted with the building after the students get settled in. The orientation will be on Aug. 29 at 5:30 p.m.