After years of planning and construction, Pendleton’s new $95 million high school officially stepped into the spotlight Friday, as faculty gathered in the auditorium for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The 240,000-square-foot campus is built to accommodate 1,200 students, faculty and staff, with expanded total capacity reaching 1,500 people.
The ceremony marked the public debut of a school designed to serve Pendleton’s next chapter. According to WYFF 4, the building includes hallways named after Anderson-area neighborhoods, while district official Matthew Moore described the campus as a source of pride and a “jewel in the crown” of the community.
Students and families got an early chance to see the new campus during a community open house on Monday, July 27. The school’s official website says student orientation is scheduled for Wednesday, with students preparing to begin the new school year inside the long-awaited facility.
A New High School Also Means A New Middle School
The move is reshaping more than Pendleton High. The old Pendleton High School will become the new Riverside Middle School, a transition that the Anderson Observer reports is part of a broader districtwide facilities plan.
That plan was backed by a $115 million bond referendum approved in 2023 and includes improvements across Anderson School District 4. The district has said the project responds to aging buildings, continued development around Pendleton and the need to create room for future students without waiting for overcrowding to become an emergency.
With the ribbon officially cut, the project’s construction phase is giving way to the part families have been waiting for: seeing how the campus works once the halls fill with students. For Pendleton, the new school is not just a replacement building—it is the centerpiece of a larger reset for how the district uses its schools.
