Board hears Coastal Shores Academy pitch; trustees later vote to deny application

Coastal Shores Academy, a proposed charter school designed to serve students with neurodevelopmental disorders and multilingual learners, presented its application to the Charleston County School District Board of Trustees on March 24 and answered trustees’ questions about staffing, facilities and funding. After public discussion and an executive-session review, trustees voted to deny the charter application.

Coastal Shores’ presenters said the school would open K–8 in year one with 196 students and expand to K–12 by year four with a projected 492 students. The founders said the program would use state-adopted curriculum supplements (Beacon, RethinkEd), PowerSchool Naviance for career readiness and Rosetta Stone for foreign-language support. The delivery model emphasizes small class sizes — presenters described…