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if you are thinking of moving to the pee dee area (sumter, darlington, florence, marion areas), be prepared to pay for private school if you want your kids in a decent enviornment. if i had thought about this fact before having children, we would have moved prior to having them.
i know this is a broad, generalized statement, but i have lived here for 30 years and can tell you (with a pretty fair amount of firsthand experience) that the schools are deplorable.
along the I-20 corridor, staring in camden, they gradually improve as you head northwest into the greenville/spartanburg areas. but if you are coming to live in the pee dee, be prepared to shell out at least 5-6k per child per year just for your child to have an acceptable education. but even at that price, it will not be extraordinary, by any means.
but if you are coming to live in the pee dee, be prepared to shell out at least 5-6k per child per year just for your child to have an acceptable education. but even at that price, it will not be extraordinary, by any means.
I don't disagree with your analysis of the public schools in that area - although, they aren't all that bad. Florence and Sumter have a few schools that are OK. But generally, you're correct that the state of public education in the Pee Dee is pretty embarassing.
However, I disagree with what you say about private schools. I've had quite a bit of experience with private schools in that area, and I'd say they match up well with any schools in the country, public or private.
At least at the school I attended, you pay less than $5,000 per year. Considering how cheap the cost-of-living is there, that's a bargain. If a student didn't get accepted to a 4-year college, they do not graduate. Friends of mine within a year or two of my age attended UNC, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Boston U, Northwestern, Tufts, etc. The average SAT was about 1200, which is pretty solid. If you add up the money earned annually by scholarships, and divide it by the amount of people in the class, each student averaged about $47,000 worth of scholarships. I'd say roughly half of my graduating class is in grad school, with about 1/3 in either law or medical school.
Since you have such a low opinion of local private schools, tell me, what private school in that price range ($5,000/year) are you aware of - in any state - that produces such good results?
Within the Pee Dee, I would have to say the West Florence schools of Carver Elementary, Sneed Middle, and West Florence High provide a good public education.
I believe all of the private schools in the Pee Dee provide a good education.
sc - you are correct, in a way. west florence used to be pretty darn good, but with more and more subsidized housing available on the west side, the quality has taken a dive int eh last 10 years or so.
anon - i attended private school in sumter when we lived in lee county and when we moved to camden, i was almost a full year behind in math. now, maybe they have gotten their act together in the last 20 years, but that is how it was then, which is the only firsthand experience i can speak of.
my kids have gone to byrnes and another private school, and i have not been impressed at the student/teacher ratios or the quality of education they have received.
jmo.
If you're in the Dillon/Latta area, check out Dillon Christian School - it is THE up and coming school in the area. Good school, great atmosphere, excellent education, super people!
I do not believe the West Florence teachers and faculty reside in the subsidized housing. I agree that each year, more and more smart students are attending the private schools. Examples of this can be provided by the expansion of The King's Academy and the opening of Trinity Collegiate School.
Therefore, the students who currently attend the West Florence public schools are, on average, not as smart as those who attended in the past. However, I believe the teachers and faculty of today are as good as those of 10 years ago.
the teachers are ok, but with the quality of the kids they are getting, they are gradually being reduced to a role of babysitter, trying to maintain order rather than educate.
I find this interesting...I myself am very low income, my son has always had problems in school....so they did all sorts of testing last year. Turns out he's rather smart (IQ of 142). It isnt always poor families or their children messing up. I dont claim to know anything of the schools there as I still live in WA at the moment but....I live in a middle class neighborhood and my child goes to a school with good test scores among other things-yet my son hates school and is having trouble learning. Something is wrong with that picture. Just my 2 cents.
Does anyone have an opinion or know anything about the schools in Johnsonville?
Thank you.
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Johnsonville schools
