As Summit Charter School heads into its 27th year, it is in the process of adding a new 15,000 square foot facility for Summit High School.
The facility will include new classrooms, individual learning rooms, a science lab, learning kitchen, offices, an outdoor courtyard, and a large commons area. Summit needs to hire two new teachers in addition to their six current high school teachers.
Summit first accepted high school students in the 2018-2019 academic year, at the time housing them in a small room beside the library. In 2019, it opened the current high school wing, which will house middle schoolers after Summit High opens its new facility.
The new facility, which is being built by JDavis Construction out of South Carolina, will be located on Summit’s 33-acre campus but will be across the road from the upper campus, which will continue housing middle and elementary school students. This plan will allow Summit to utilize its existing land according to Kurt Pusch, head of the school.
“As we were assessing potential sites on our campus for the high school expansion, we identified a number of benefits to this location. It gives us a setting away from our K-8 campus offering a distinctive high school experience, while still maintaining a sense of connection as a larger K-12 campus,” Pusch said.
The school hopes to raise $6.5 million to finance the new high school.
Summit does not receive public funding for capital improvements and relies on private funding to fully fund school needs. Melissa Hudson, development director at Summit Charter School, said a lot of the expansion has been assisted with the help of in-kind donations, which is community members, individuals, or businesses donating their services.
Hudson said expansion plans have been discussed for about a year to ensure the design aligned with Summit’s goals. Summit’s goals include a holistic approach to education and equipping students with Summit’s seven virtues - honesty, responsibility, respect, compassion, self-discipline, perseverance, and giving.
“Character education is woven into everything we do here at Summit,” said Hudson.
Pusch said, “Much of our teaching and learning happens not only in the classroom but also outdoors and in our community. This school is very intentionally designed to reflect that. We try to leverage our outdoor spaces and the resources surrounding us as a context for student learning.”
Summit hopes to open the new high school wing in August 2024. Pusch said Summit is currently on pace to accomplish that opening. A formal groundbreaking ceremony will take place Aug. 25 at 9 a.m.
Summit’s new high school facility is the result of increasing growth and waitlists for the classes.
“We’ve been experiencing pretty significant growth across multiple grades,” said Hudson.
Pusch followed that, saying, “Over the last four years, we’ve seen over 30% growth in student enrollment, which is very exciting and certainly is a catalyst for this next phase of expansion.”
Pusch said the school is entering its fifth year of growth with projected total current enrollment for the upcoming year at 311 students, which Hudson said was the largest in school history. Hudson also said that eight of the 13 grades at Summit Charter are on a waitlist. Grades three through six and 11 do not currently have waitlists.
Pusch said current high school enrollment is around 70 students, but looking ahead, there are some very large middle school classes which may double current high school enrollment. The two described a boom in the middle school population and full waitlists for middle school classes , which means Summit must expand to accommodate these numbers. Pusch said the new high school facility will be able to accommodate over 140 students.
Hudson and Pusch also described increased growth in the Cashiers and Highlands area, with more people moving to the area, including families with school-aged children.
As part of its goal to provide a quality, holistic education, Summit engages children in not just core classes and character education, but also arts. Pusch said there is only one arts teacher which is beneficial as she can work hands-on with all students during their time at Summit.
“I think there’s a real power in that in that she can craft the continuum for art education across grades,” Pusch said.
Summit’s high school students have written, produced, and scored their own musicals the past two springs.
Additional expansion at Summit includes a new fitness center , which will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 18 at 9 a.m. The fitness center was designed by students. They researched, developed a donor presentation and helped raise funds. Summit is developing a plan of use for the fitness center which will allow all students to make use of it.
Summit is also in the process of expanding their soccer and lacrosse field.