School Dist. 3 Aims to Manage Growth While Maintaining Top-10 Ranking

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Anderson School District 3 is heading into the new academic year with a mix of construction dust, budget restraint, and a familiar message from Superintendent Kathy Hipp: the district is growing, but it is working to do so without losing its footing. The centerpiece of that effort is Crescent Middle School, where crews have been moving dirt since May and are expected to finish the permanent building pad by late July or early August.

Hipp said the project is on schedule and under budget, with an opening planned for August 2028. The new school is designed to house 850 students, with room to expand to 1,000, a capacity needed because its current middle school building, Star-Iva Middle, dates to the early 1950s and has outlived both its useful life and its size.

Anderson School District 3 operates five schools: three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. It also shares the Anderson Institute of Technology with Anderson districts 4 and 5, a facility Hipp described as a major benefit both for space at Crescent High School and for career and college readiness. AIT was built, Hipp said, through a deliberate planning process that matched programs to workforce needs in the region.

AIT is considering adding marine mechanics, a field she said makes sense in a county surrounded by lakes and water recreation. The goal, she said, is to balance the needs of students, local employers, and the broader South Carolina economy.

At the same time, the district has kept core agricultural programs in-house, including its large FFA operation. Hipp said that was intentional when AIT opened, noting that Anderson 3 built one of the state’s only ag arenas with penny sales tax money and wanted to preserve livestock and ag-mechanics programs as part of its own identity.

Hipp expects total enrollment to open this year at roughly 2,700=2,725 students, a slight increase from last year. Hipp said the biggest unknown is always how many elementary students will show up in the first week, but she expects continued pressure on classroom space if current trends hold. In a district which has made a point of keeping classroom sizes small, this is something they are watching closely.

The district closed out its budget year without a tax increase or a need to dip into fund balance, despite tighter state aid than usual. Certified staff will receive a $2,000 raise, classified employees will get a 3 percent increase, and step raises will lift most employees closer to 4 percent overall.

Hipp said the district’s financial approach remains focused on limiting the tax impact of the middle school project while searching for every available funding source. That caution, she suggested, becomes especially important when the district is managing a major building program at the same time it is trying to maintain competitive pay.

Academically, the district is working to improve math scores, which Hipp said remain behind where they were before the pandemic. After investing heavily in reading and English language arts, the district is now turning its attention to math while also trying to strengthen communication among schools, the board, and the community.

The district is also taking a more selective approach to classroom technology. Anderson 3 stopped sending Chromebooks home in grades K-8 last year and has moved some classrooms back toward paper, pencils, and manipulatives, especially in middle school. Hipp said the shift is not a rejection of technology, but a decision to use it only when it is the best instructional tool.

This summer, the district is installing ballistic film on exterior windows, office glass, and some classroom doors through state security grants. Crescent High School is also getting an outdoor classroom area, while Iva Elementary and Starr Elementary are seeing HVAC and chiller repairs after equipment problems surfaced before the end of the school year.

Hipp said school safety now carries a much larger price tag than it did when she began her career 39 years ago. The district has spent several million dollars on security over time, she said, aided by state grants and penny sales tax revenue that have helped pay for doors, secure entrances, and key-card systems.

On the academic front, Hipp said the district feels encouraged by early results from the embargoed state testing scores, including strong AP performance at Crescent High School and growth in U.S. history. She said the district is still waiting on state-released SC READY results, especially in math, where new standards and cutoff scores complicate comparisons.

Taken together, the interview paints a picture of a district in transition: building, adjusting, and preparing for more students while trying to keep costs down and classrooms steady. The challenge is not simply expansion, but managing growth without losing the practical habits that have helped Anderson 3 stay near the top of the state’s rankings.