Superintendent Gives Middle School Renovations Update

All Easley middle school students will attend middle school at the old Easley High School site while renovations are going on at Gettys Middle School.

Superintendent Dr. Kelly Pew gave Easley Chamber members an update on middle school renovations during a recent Chamber luncheon.

“We will move all of Gettys Middle into the old Easley High School next year while Gettys Middle School is being renovated,” Pew said. “Then half the kids will stay at the old Easley High School which will be the new Easley school, then half the kids will go back, based on attendance, to Gettys Middle School.”

The renovations that will make the old Pickens High School site into the new Pickens Middle School site are slated to be complete by December of this year, but moving in won't happen until next summer, Pew said.

“We've learned through experience that we will not move until school is out, so we will move this summer,” Pew said. “That gives teachers, principals and students a better opportunity to adjust.”

The school district is currently looking for suggestions for the name of the new Easley middle school, Pew said.

Renovations were undertaken at RC Edwards Middle School and Dacusville Middle, Pew said.

“We just finished converting the old Liberty High School to Liberty Middle,” she said. “They moved in this summer. The teachers from Liberty Middle School are absolutely thrilled.”

Pew recalled being invited to a poetry slam at Liberty Middle School last year. The class was held in a portable.

“I was sitting in her classroom, in the back, and the air conditioner comes on,” she said. “I couldn't hear what the kids were saying. I thought, 'If I'm a student, I can't hear what the teacher is saying.'”

Pew visited that same teacher in new classroom at Liberty Middle School's new home recently.

“I said, 'You know, it is great – no air conditioner noise.' She said, 'I'm thrilled!'”