Fort Mill district unveils attendance boundary plan for new Flint Hill schools; construction on track

Matthew Cropper, a consultant with Cropper GIS, presented recommended attendance boundary maps meant to populate the new Flint Hill Elementary and Flint Hill Middle schools and to rebalance enrollment across Fort Mill schools. Cropper said the new elementary is estimated to open in the 2025–26 school year with about 921 students and the middle school to open the following year with about 618 students. "We are building a zone for Flint Hill in the north," Cropper said, explaining the work required a series of subsequent boundary shifts, a "domino effect" that will move students between nearby schools to achieve balanced utilization.

The recommendation includes feeder-pattern adjustments designed to minimize splits: Cropper said the plan avoids three-way splits and tries to keep neighborhood continuity while accounting for projected growth. The consultant estimated about 1,466 elementary students and 1,272 middle school students would be reassigned under the proposal. Cropper noted the district has published an interactive map (croppermap.com/fortmill) and provided property-level detail for residents to check whether an address is affected.

District construction and communications staff described progress at the Flint Hill sites and next steps. Construction manager Mr. Britton said exterior and interior masonry are complete, structural steel and decking are done, roofing is about 75% complete, and the project was on a schedule that targets substantial completion of the elementary development by June 25. "If you do the back math, it takes us to around June," Britton said, describing a timeline that puts finishing work through the spring. Britton added the middle school is roughly 190,000 square feet and that foundation and site work packages are being fast-tracked so building work can proceed while design and approvals continue.

Design and branding work was also shown: district designer Mr. Burke unveiled mascot art and style guides for the new schools and said these trademarked marks will be provided to schools and vendors once principals are named. Burke also gave a regulatory update about a site referred to in the presentation as the CELFAB site: he said the district was aware of legal proceedings that "could impact the outcome of what happens at this future site" and that state and federal agencies require approved emergency-response plans before any chemical operations would be allowed there. "The CELFAB site will have to meet all health and safety standards before they're able to conduct business there," Burke said.

Officials asked the board for public input time and outlined the process: the interactive map and PDF materials will be posted on the district website by the end of the next day, and the district will accept open-ended feedback via a published communications email address. Administration will bring a recommendation to the board on Oct. 15 for information only; the earliest vote on attendance lines would be the following scheduled meeting in November after further review and public comment.

Why it matters: the proposed boundaries affect thousands of students, realign feeder patterns and will trigger off-site transportation and road improvements. The district is soliciting community feedback before finalizing a recommendation for the board to consider in the coming months.