It’s Your Money: Horry County school district plans new use for vacant school

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - The Horry County school district is moving forward with plans to renovate the former Myrtle Beach Intermediate School.

The school board approved an architect to lead the work on the estimated $950,000 project during its meeting last week.

When complete, the former school will house the district’s science kits, adult education program and paper records.

“It kind of consolidates services into more of a one-stop-shop building for that so instead of having these services spread throughout the county, we’re able to consolidate them and of course that will save on having three different spaces, three different utility bills and being able to do some cost savings along the way,” said school district spokesperson, Lisa Bourcier.

The district’s adult education program offers digital literacy, GED and business courses to help residents further their career readiness.

Currently, the district leases space from Horry-Georgetown Technical College for its adult education program and science materials.

The district spent around $60,000 a year for the space and around $320,000 since 2016.

Bourcier said monthly rent recently increased by $9,000 so the district has an added incentive to find a permanent location for the services.

“It would definitely make more sense and be more cost saving for us to repurpose that building that we have for a permanent location,” she said.

The district plans to fund the project with money it saved from past building projects and with insurance claims from property damaged by Hurricane Matthew, according to Bourcier.

The district’s paper records have a building in Conway but the district wants to transform that site into transportation offices and a bus fueling station. Repurposing the records retention building is expected to cost another $725,000.

The former Socastee Elementary School is still vacant. Bourcier said board members are still discussing the next step for that property.

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