By Betsy Finklea
Construction on the new Dillon Elementary School is well underway.
The 117,000 sq. ft. facility on 39.3 acres of property will serve students in PreK-3rd grade, according to Thurmond Porter, project manager, of the Brownstone Group. FWA Architects is handling the design.
Porter said they are in great shape schedule-wise and expect to be open to students in the next year.
The hope is to be able to eventually bring the fourth and fifth grades to this facility. The building is being designed to accommodate the fourth and fifth grades should funds become available for this down the road. The building pad and infrastructure will already be in place if this occurs.
The school will accommodate 1,700 students.
Porter has been working in the Dillon District for years on various projects. He also was the project manager for all three schools in Darlington County, where he worked with the same general contractor, Edcon Inc., who is also currently working on the new elementary school.
The school is being designed with safety in mind.
The cafetorium will hold the kitchen, lunchroom, and has a stage so events can be held in the same space. It will have three serving lanes and will be able to accommodate a large number of students at one time.
There will be doors that will be able to close off the cafetorium from the rest of the school so that if night time events are held the rest of the school can’t be accessed.
The main entrance will have two pairs of doors similar to a trap so that no one can get into the school without going through reception. This is just another one of the safety features of the new school.
There will be an administrative and guidance area..
The media center will be near the entrance and will be state-of-the-art.
The kindergarten classrooms are 1,000 sq. ft. and have their own door to the outside and their own bathroom.
The first and second grade classrooms will be 800 sq. ft. All of the classrooms are identical. There are 10 classrooms per grade level.
The fourth and fifth grade wings should they come about will make the total area of the school 145,000 sq.ft., which would also make it the largest elementary school in South Carolina.
Three huge retention ponds will also be located on the grounds, but will be fenced in.
While it may seem that the school, which is located on Bunker Hill Road, is a far distance out in the country, Porter said it is only two miles from Stewart Heights Elementary School and only three and half miles from the Dillon District Four Office. He said extensive work will be done to Bunker Hill Road to accommodate the additional traffic in the area.
As East Elementary turns 100 years old soon, it is important to note that this new elementary school should be an adequate space for education for at least 40 years.

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Photos by Johnnie Daniels/The Dillon Herald
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