Parents in West Ashley are speaking out against a Charleston County School District proposal that could convert Stono Park Elementary into a universal pre-K hub, a move that would reassign current students to nearby schools. District leaders say the idea remains under consideration and that no final decision has been made, but families say they already feel left out of a process that could upend their children's school lives.
According to Live 5 News, the district is considering changes to its attendance lines that could possibly turn Stono Park Elementary into a West Ashley pre-K hub, with any changes taking effect beginning in the 2028-2029 school year. As first reported by WCIV, district leaders shared the Stono Park reconfiguration proposal with the community in September, and under the plan, current Stono Park students could be reassigned to schools including St. Andrew's School of Math & Science and Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary.
Gabrielle Bonaparte has two children enrolled at Stono Park, in kindergarten and third grade, and says a third child plans to attend the school in the coming years, per WCIV's reporting. Parents broadly say they feel excluded from the process, and Jillian Barton, who has a child in kindergarten at Stono Park, said the district responds to emails but families still have unanswered questions. Barton also raised concerns about increased car traffic if younger children end up being driven to a reassigned school.
Why the District Says Stono Park Is on the List
Jeff Borowy, CCSD's chief operating officer, said the proposal remains early and that no final decision has been made, per WCIV. The district says Stono Park has just over 200 students, and that repurposing the school could affect fewer students than the other options under consideration, according to Live 5 News. District data cited by WCIV shows Stono Park had about 218 children living in its zone and attending the school last year, inside a building with capacity for 570 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
That gap traces back to the school's history. Stono Park was built for a zone of more than 900 students but has never enrolled more than the mid-300s, per WCIV's report. Jeff Borowy, the district's chief operating officer, said universal pre-K was not part of the thinking when Stono Park was rezoned and rebuilt. The campus was rebuilt in a $27.3 million project completed in 2019, funded by voter-approved penny sales tax referendums from 2010 and 2014 that increased capacity to more than 500 students — a history also noted in the district's own dedication record, which describes the 75,000-square-foot, two-story building on five acres.
Borowy said families choosing charter schools, other zone schools or leaving the district could help explain Stono Park's historical under-enrollment. He acknowledged the proposal may cause some inconvenience. He said district leadership does not intend to leave students with fewer resources, but added that CCSD is limited by building space, real estate and finances. Studer said that reducing choice enrollment at Ashley River and St. Andrew's, which are choice schools with many students from outside their zones, could create space for reassigned Stono Park students without affecting class sizes — an option the district is weighing alongside the possibility of limiting choice seats at those schools.
Parents Push Back on Emotional and Academic Stakes
Mary Arthur, whose child is in second grade at Stono Park, said she fears reassignment could undermine students' stability and emotional safety. Ivan Bonaparte said Stono Park is a Title I school with a majority-Black student body and said he worries reassigned students could lose their supportive school environment. Joy Bolton, a volunteer reader at Stono Park, said individualized attention helps students who need extra support.
A petition opposing the proposal has received more than 1,000 signatures, according to WCIV's reporting. Parents have also noted that CCSD typically meets with families about a year before finalizing a decision, while this proposal is being discussed roughly two years ahead of any potential implementation. The district held a community meeting at Stono Park at the beginning of October, after inviting families, staff and community members to gather on Oct. 7 at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the proposal and gather feedback, per Live 5 News.
Alternatives on the Table, and a Vote Ahead
Other options identified by the district include building another school, which would cost taxpayers an estimated $30 million to $40 million and could take up to 10 years to complete, or rezoning existing attendance lines, Live 5 News reports. The district is also reviewing a primary-secondary model that would split grade levels across two schools — one serving pre-K through kindergarten, first or second grade, and another serving second through fifth grade — while aiming to keep students together as they move through the system.
Per ABC News 4, the North Charleston and Pepperhill expansion proposal was scheduled for an informational presentation to the CCSD Committee of the Whole, with a board vote expected at the end of October. The district has held community discussions as it weighs the Stono Park proposal. CCSD also has early learning center plans for Long Savannah, an addition at Drayton Hall, and reconfigurations at Oakland Elementary and Springfield, with the district noting that the east side of West Ashley has fewer early learning options because of limited land.
Part of a Countywide Pre-K Push
The Stono Park debate is unfolding against the backdrop of a much larger district goal: offering universal pre-K to three- and four-year-olds without a lottery by 2030, according to Live 5 News. The district plans to create more than 7,500 new pre-K seats over five years, per WCIV, and is also expanding universal pre-K to North Charleston Elementary and Pepperhill Elementary starting in the 2027-2028 school year, adding roughly 180 seats at North Charleston Elementary and 75 at Pepperhill, as reported by ABC News 4.
That expansion follows the district's first universal pre-K program, which launched at Charleston Progressive Academy on the Charleston peninsula, an effort the Post and Courier reports the district strategically launched downtown first because of increased need at schools serving mostly low-income families. The newspaper notes the district's long-term vision could eventually give every 3- and 4-year-old in the county a classroom seat, expanding to one additional geographic area each year. CCSD currently operates about 175 early childhood education classrooms across 37 sites countywide, though available capacity shifts with funding, demand and space.
