Aiming High

William Roach took the helm last year as principal at Greer Middle College Charter High School in only its third year of existence. This year GMC, the third charter school experiment in Greenville County, will have its first graduating class. 

Established four years ago, Greer Middle College works in conjunction with Greenville Technical College in offering college course opportunities for its students. GMC's current facility consists of 29 portables, which stand adjacent to Greenville Tech's Greer campus in northern Taylors. 

"We're a public school just like every other public school, so we offer a lot of the same things the other public schools offer," Roach said. "The thing that makes us different is the fact that we allow kids many opportunities to take college classes."

GMC boasts smaller student-to-teacher ratios than most public schools, and requires 80-percent mastery of each and every subject.

Each year, a lottery system is used to select future charter school students from a pool of applicants. 

While students and teachers alike rave about the school's community feel, it's the opportunity to get ahead in the academic game that still proves to be one of the biggest lures. 

Melanie Bargar, director of development for GMC, said that of the 380 students currently enrolled, 142 of them are taking classes at Greenville Tech this semester, accounting for 913 credit hours of college work. 

"We basically offer the plethora of classes kids want," Roach said. "That is probably the number one thing people really like about our program. They have unlimited opportunity to get the college classes, for free."

But opportunity isn't cheap. The school runs on roughly a budget of $1 million a year and only receives about 70 percent of the funding public schools in Greenville County School District receive. Fundraising remains crucial, especially given the staggering costs the school must meet on its own. 

"The facility you see right now, over the last four years we've had to pay for everything we've added," Roach said. "You're looking at least probably $750,000 worth of portables, decking, other things we've had to do to just get ourselves to the point we have a full school."

The next step is to build a permanent school, which school officials hope to have in the next four years. Roach is optimistic about the school's chances for financing the plan, given the school's track record with deftly handling its money — it projects to be debt-free by the end of this year. 

Each grade in the school generally has slightly more than 100 students, except the senior class, whose numbers dwindled over four years due to attrition typically seen in new school ventures. 

Sixty-eight seniors aim to graduate next May, and when they do, they will have completed the first chapter in Greer Middle College's story.  

"When we leave, other people are going to know where we came from, what we did," said Ryan Abdelnabi, who will graduate with dozens of college credits. "Really, it's like leaving your legacy. Leaving your mark. And I mean, we helped start out this school. It's a great thing to be a part of."