August 29, 2017 – MOUNT PLEASANT, SC – Carolina Park, already home to award-winning Wando High School, The Center for Advanced Studies at Wando, and the highly-regarded Children’s Center pre-school, has welcomed two more schools to its expanding “knowledge hub.” Oceanside Collegiate Academy and Carolina Park Elementary School have welcomed their first students to brand new facilities within the Carolina Park community.
“This is really the realization of a vision we’ve held since the very beginning,” says Brian Keels, Director of Development at Carolina Park. “Providing our residents with access to the very best educational resources is a key component of our identity as a community. With the opening of these two new facilities, we’re keeping that promise and continuing to become an even more desirable place to live.”
Carolina Park Elementary, Mt. Pleasant’s newest K-5 school, will serve as many as 900 students in its current configuration. The school is capable of expanding to accommodate up to 1,200 students should demand require it. According to the school’s new principal, Mr. Michael Antonelli, the school expects to have an enrollment of around 675 students this fall. And being located inside Carolina Park comes with some distinct advantages.
“We’re creating an entirely new school here – a new faculty working in a state-of-the-art facility. And because it’s set in Carolina Park, and so many of our students will be able to walk or ride bikes each day, it’ll feel like more of a community school,” says Antonelli. “On top of that, we’re surrounded by four other terrific schools, which lends itself to great partnership opportunities. That’s exciting to think about.”
Just across the community, Oceanside Collegiate Academy is also welcoming the first class of students to call the new facility home. Last year, classes for the unique charter high school – which provides students with the opportunity to earn significant college credits before graduating - were held in McClellanville while construction on the new facility took place.
"We're so excited to be here," said OCA Principal Brenda Corley. "We are able to offer the Mt. Pleasant community a smnaller high school learning environment, elite academics, elite athletics and up to 60 hours of college credits while in high school at no additional cost to our families. Carolina Park has gone out of its way to welcome us and to help us succeed."
Along with the five schools that call Carolina Park home, a new Mount Pleasant Public Library is slated to be completed in late 2018. That addition will provide residents of Carolina Park and the surrounding area with access to an unparalleled collection of educations resources. The 40,000-square foot facility will be located just steps from the new elementary school, and within easy biking and walking distance for Carolina Park homeowners.
“Homebuyers get very excited when they hear and see everything that’s happening here,” said Haley Cuzzell, Carolina Park’s Community Sales Manager. “With Carolina Park Elementary School and Oceanside Collegiate Academy opening, the progress on 20-acre Bolden Lake in our Riverside custom homes neighborhood, the new library getting under way and everything else that’s happening, they feel the energy, see the sense of community being created, and they want to be part of it.”
Set on more than 1,700 acres in north Mount Pleasant - with nearly 400 of those acres permanently preserved - Carolina Park offers a diverse range of home designs to suit a variety of lifestyle and generational needs, as well as unparalleled community amenities. The combination of thoughtful design, quality construction and beautiful natural surroundings in Mount Pleasant’s prime location has generated tremendous growth in both The Village and Riverside.
“We set out to create a community that’s special today, and that will be just as special 50 years from now,” said Keels. “From the region’s best schools to a full-service hospital and an unparalleled collection of amenities, our objective is to provide our residents with something that’s truly unique – something they won’t find anywhere else in Mount Pleasant.”