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Four area high schools made their case regarding South Carolina High School League reclassification decisions on Tuesday, appealing their classification assignments to the league’s Executive Committee. Two won their appeal.

Charleston Charter School for Math & Science and Palmetto Scholars Academy were successful in their attempt to remain in Class A rather than move up to Class AA as assigned by the league. James Island and Lucy Beckham were denied in their attempt to move from Class AAAAA to Class AAAA.

Classification assignments are based on 45-day enrollment figures for grades 9-11. Realignments take place every two years. For the second time, a multiplier of three was used in counting students from outside assigned attendance zones, meaning each student from outside the assigned zones were counted three times. Competitive advantage and geographical considerations also are factors.

Schools can appeal the decisions of the Executive Committee to an appellate panel on Jan. 15-16. James Island and Lucy Beckham are expected to make their case to the appellate panel.

In the current realignment, the SCHSL revamped the number of schools in each classification, making Class A the largest classification while trimming the number of schools in the other four classes. Class AAAAA was split into two divisions for the 2025-26 cycle but decreased in size by 10 schools from 54 to 44 and moved back to one division. Class A will likely move to two classifications and will include 66 schools.

Several AA schools were reassigned to Class A for the coming cycle, but Charleston Charter and Palmetto Scholars Academy were moved up from Class A to AA with Charleston Charter listed as the largest school in AA. Despite the attendance numbers, CMS argued that playing in AA would put their athletes at a competitive disadvantage. The school offers fewer athletic teams and has a significantly lower number of athletes. CMS did not field a football team this past season and also does not have varsity girls basketball.

“Remaining in Class A is vital to offering athletic opportunities,” CMS athletic director Lakyn Traquair said. “Students do not attend our school for athletics, and we don’t have the athletes or the facilities to compete in AA.”

Aside from a small gymnasium, CMS has to rent other athletic facilities. The Executive Committee voted 14-2 to allow the school to remain in Class A for the next two-year cycle.

Palmetto Scholars Academy used the same basic rationale in its appeal to remain in Class A. The school is listed, after the multiplier, as 38th in enrollment among 41 Class AA schools. Many of the students that attend the school do so for academic reasons, and athletic opportunities are minimal. The school offers only six sports, and the only athletic facility is a gymnasium. PSA was unable to field a baseball team last spring and has not had a varsity girls basketball team for the last two years. The committee voted 13-0 in favor of the request to remain in Class A.

James Island and Lucy Beckham, currently assigned to Class AAAAA, have petitioned to move to AAAA. With the multiplier, James Island ranks 13th in enrollment, while Lucy Beckham is the smallest school in AAAAA. Both athletic programs have competed fairly well in Class AAAAA over the last two years with each school contending for state championships in several sports.

According to athletic director Jeremy Holland, James Island faces a capped enrollment of 1,600. James Island is a public charter school with 369 out-of-zone students, of which 101 are participating in athletics. It was noted that James Island finished sixth in the AAAAA Carlisle Cup standings, which ranks all schools in each classification based on athletic performance. The committee voted 15-1 to deny James Island’s appeal.

Lucy Beckham is currently a Division II program, and their projected enrollment figures are actually lower than six schools that will be classified in AAAA next year. With no other Class AAAA schools in the Tri-County area, Lucy Beckham would likely be placed in a region that includes three Beaufort County schools and Colleton County, increasing the amount of travel significantly. Bishop England currently is the only area school in that AAAA region but will compete in Class AAA in the next cycle.

Athletic director Frank Torcasio says the school would accept the travel requirements rather than compete at a numbers disadvantage. He cited the lower than usual varsity football players last season. The football roster was fewer than 40 players and played at least one game with fewer than 30 due to injuries.

“We are more than willing to travel in order to play schools that are more in line with our numbers,” he said.

The committee voted 14-2 to deny the request.

A James Island restaurant closed Dec. 28 after just six months in operation, with a note on the door citing “obscene” liquor-liability insurance costs as part of the reason — a rising expense that lawmakers have been attempting to tackle.

Charlotte’s on Maybank opened in August in James Island Shopping Center as a new concept from the owners of My Father’s Mustache, transforming the space where the English-style pub had operated for two years. The owners still run their longstanding My Father’s Mustache in Mount Pleasant.

The notice cited additional rising costs of doing business as the reason for the closure, including food and labor costs. The owners further thanked the staff and customers for their support as they closed the chapter on their suburban Charleston Island expansion.

The closure marks the second in the Harris Teeter-anchored shopping center in recent months. Maple Street Biscuit Co., a Cracker Barrel-owned chain, closed in October after seven years.

“We’re in discussions with potential tenants for both spaces,” said Christi Copenhaver, an associate at NAI Charleston, which is property’s leasing agency.

Gassing up

Two large gas station and convenience store chains are eyeing new Lowcountry locations.

Spinx, a Greenville-based chain, has submitted plans for a location at 514 Boone Hill Rd. in Summerville that would include 16 fuel pumps and a 5,300-square-foot C-store, according to a permitting application filed with the S.C. Department of Environmental Services. The site currently houses an abandoned carwash.

Meanwhile. Parker’s Kitchen filed plans with same state agency for a store in the Cainhoy area at 510 Everly St. near the planned Towne at Cooper River mixed-use development. The project calls for a 5,204-square-foot convenience store to be built with eight fuel pumps on 1.35 acres of densely wooded, undeveloped land.

Savannah-based Parker’s Kitchen has been making additional moves in the Lowcountry. A company affiliated with the retailer paid $1.65 million in December for a four-acre site at Highway 176 and Black Tom Road near the Nexton development in Berkeley County, according to public land records.

Game over

A struggling national retailer closing multiple locations in the Lowcountry as part of a national wave of shutdowns rolled out less than a week into the new year.

Signs posted at GameStop stores at 4950 Centre Point Drive near Tanger Outlets and in Moncks Corner announced their closures.

The company’s corporate office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The GameStop store at Mount Pleasant Towne Centre closed Dec. 5, according to a spokesperson for the property. Locations still listed on the company’s website include stores in West Ashley, Summerville and North Charleston.

A sweet return

Ben & Jerry’s is returning to the Isle of Palms, with a new shop slated to open this spring at Ocean Park Plaza, 1400 Palm Blvd. The brand closed its Ocean Boulevard location in 2022 after a nine-year run and has operated on the island since 2000.

Local franchise owner Andrew Lee previously ran the Isle of Palms store and operates locations in Freshfields Village on Kiawah Island and in Oyster Park in Mount Pleasant, will own and operate the new shop.

The larger, redesigned store will offer an expanded menu, including cookies, brownies, milkshakes and sundaes, along with ice cream, sorbets and non-dairy options. Founded in 1979, Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s has eight locations in South Carolina.

Design arrival

A high-end furniture design store is coming to Upper King.

Design Within Reach, known as DWR, said it will open a showroom this spring at 423 King St., a low-slung brick building formerly used by Explore Charleston and known for its bright blue awnings between Vanderhorst and Warren streets.

The 13,174-square-foot space will feature original and exclusive mid-century and modern designs for residential, hospitality and trade clients. DWR is a Herman Miller retailer and is part of MillerKnoll.

The building was sold by St. Matthews Lutheran Church to Chicco Associates LLC in April for $5.2 million, according to county records. The reuse of the property has been cleared city’s design review process. Plans include the removal of the awnings.

Final cut

The New York Butcher Shoppe has cut back to focus on its more established Daniel Island location.

The company announced on social media on Jan. 3 that it was shuttering its West Ashley store, a 1,250-square-foot space at 1300 Savannah Highway that was opened in February 2024 by franchise co-owner Hunter Bishop.

The shop offered cuts of beef, chicken, pork, veal and lamb, along with prepared dishes, sides, wine, local beer, cheeses, exotic sausages and international groceries.

The Daniel Island location is at 864 Island Park Drive.

Now headquartered in Greenville, New York Butcher Shoppe was founded in 1999 in Mount Pleasant and expanded by selling franchises. It has opened locations in 10 states, including 16 in South Carolina.

At The Pass

The Pass Panino and Provisions has opened across the bridge in Mount Pleasant.

The Italian deli, which still operates its downtown Charleston shop on St. Philip St., is now serving from its second location in Northcutt Plaza at 976 Houston Northcutt Blvd.

The new East Cooper spot offers stacked sandwiches, antipasti platters and a small provisions market stocked with Italian specialty items. Owner Anthony Marini had initially expected the location to open by mid-November.

Gray Collegiate, Brookland-Cayce, Dreher, James Island, South Florence and Beaufort are among the schools appealing to the S.C. High School League for their 2026-28 classification placement.

More than a dozen high schools in total are all asking to drop one classification, The State has learned, from what the SCHSL assigned them during the latest round of realignment.

Schools had until 1 p.m. Wednesday to inform the SCHSL if they wanted to appeal the classification they were put in for the next two school years.

Appeals will be heard by the SCHSL’s executive committee on Jan. 13-14. A second appeal, if necessary, would go before the league’s appellate panel on Jan. 15-16.

Gray Collegiate was in Class 4A in the most recent realignment, and in Class 2A before that. The War Eagles opened up a second campus in Irmo earlier this school year. They’re appealing their new placement in 5A.

James Island was in Class 5A Division II this year, but the classification isn’t splitting its top class this year. James Island was placed in 5A again and will make its case to drop to 4A.

Realignment happens in the state every two years and attempts to level the competitive playing field among schools. This year’s realignment formula is based on 45-day enrollment numbers from grades 9-11 and featured an out-of-zone multiplier for the second time. That multiplier took each student who lives outside the school’s assigned attendance zone and counted them as three for total enrollment purposes.

South Florence and West Florence high schools will make appeals, according to state athletics sources, that contend reporting errors were made in counting their out-of-zone students and in how new students were counted from a merger with Florence School District 4 (Timmonsville).

Lowcountry schools Beaufort and Hilton Head Island are appealing their placement in 4A and want to be in 3A. Factoring in enrollment and the multiplier, the two schools are the 40th and 41st schools among the 42 assigned to 4A.

Brookland-Cayce, the 39th-largest school in 4A, is expected to appeal to move to the 3A. Dreher (25th in 4A) also is appealing to move to Class 3A.

During this year’s realignment, it also was decided that Class A (league’s smallest classification) would have the most teams in it, between 62 and 74 schools, with the chance of being split for sports that have more than 45 participating schools. Other classifications would be between 36 and 44 schools.

SC high schools appealing placement

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) — Roper St. Francis Healthcare applied for a variance request to remove two grand oak trees to make space for an 11,000 square foot James Island emergency department, but some residents are pushing against the variance request ahead of the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing.

Located at 832 Folly Road, the applicant says a free-standing emergency department with both a patient entrance and a separate ambulance entrance isn’t feasible without removing the trees. The new facility would provide emergency and imaging services to the barrier island. The residents, however, still believe the trees should be protected, and the location isn’t ideal.

Pamela Dennis Paxton has lived on James Island for 40 years and says while she welcomes a new healthcare facility, she wishes the trees could stay.

“I realize that development is a good thing and progress is a good thing, but I also feel like we have a unique place where we live,” Paxton says. “And the trees and the water and the marsh are all part of that ambiance. And without them, we wouldn’t be Charleston. I really feel like that all of the environment should be taken into account when any developer is considering developing something.”

In the letter of intent, Roper St. Francis Healthcare says that while they do preserve as many grand trees as possible and remove only those that make the project feasible, the variance approval is essential to ensure they can continue providing care.

Charles Fletcher is the vice president of real estate, construction and support services with Roper St. Francis Healthcare and says they looked at various locations, but the 832 Folly Road site is the best for their future plans of expanding further throughout the Lowcountry and eventually moving Roper Hospital in 2029.

“We think this is a good spot as we look at our long-term strategic plan of optimizing our footprint,” Fletcher says. “We know we get a lot of residents from James Island who get a lot of their emergency services and imaging services and things like that at Downtown Roper and we really want to make sure that we provide a more convenient access point for them.”

The tree care organization Natural Directions assessed the trees and rated them both a ‘B,’ meaning they only have minor defects and may be a species that is somewhat prone to health or structural problems.

The entire site is the former location of Wild Blue Ropes Adventure Park and is 1.84 acres in size and contains 21 grand trees in total. Roper St. Francis Healthcare says 17 existing grand trees would remain on-site to still match the existing character of James Island.

“We’ve gone through a lot of different iterations of the campus of the property to make sure that we preserve as many trees as we can,” Fletcher says. “We did put the building slightly in so we could reserve some of the larger trees.”

Roper St. Francis Healthcare also says they met with local property owners and received several letters of support ahead of the hearing.

The Board of Zoning Appeals must approve the variance request for the trees to be removed and also have the option to give specific conditions.

“On James Island, we are a wonderful group of people who are very serious about our trees,” Paxton says. “If they keep on doing this without our permission and we don’t like it, we won’t forget it.”

The Town of James Island Board of Zoning Appeals hearing is on Dec. 16 at 5 p.m.