DI News History - October 4, 2018
TEN YEARS AGO - Berkeley County comprehensive plan demands attention
Ten years ago in the October 2, 2008 issue of The Daniel Island News, an article highlighted a meeting held within the community to discuss Berkeley County’s future and the ever-growing traffic congestion on local roadways, such as Clements Ferry Road.
The meeting was convened by planning officials from Berkeley County and the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments. They were soliciting citizen input at a series of 10 meetings that were held throughout the county. One of the main topics discussed was the plan for turning Clements Ferry Road into a four-lane highway.
In sports news, the youth cross country team, Daniel Island Swamp Foxes, kicked off the fall season that September with 24 participants. Runners ranged in age from 7-14. The team was part of the City of Charleston Recreation Department.
FIVE YEARS AGO - BCSD launches process to explore school site options for DI/Cainhoy students
A meeting at the Daniel Island School made the news in the October 3, 2013 issue of The Daniel Island News. At the meeting, several options were presented about sites the Berkeley County School District was considering for a new school to serve the Daniel Island and Cainhoy areas.
“I don’t have the answers tonight,” explained former Berkeley County School Superintendent Rodney Thompson, who led the gathering. “Tonight I am here to talk about starting the process…Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
Thompson told the DIS crowd that the district had been listening to their feedback on ways to alleviate overcrowding at the Daniel Island School. He acknowledged that there had been discussions about creating a K-2 facility on Daniel Island (and converting the existing Daniel Island School to grades 3-8) or building a K-8 facility on Clements Ferry Road, postponing plans for new construction for one to two years, and rolling grades 7-8 into a wing of a planned new high school to serve Daniel Island and Cainhoy students. But none of those options were likely to work, he said, because the district was constrained by the wording of the ballot in last year’s $198 million school improvement referendum. A “yes” vote on the ballot was for a “Daniel Island/Cainhoy area middle school,” he said. That school facility, known now as Philip Simmons Elementary and Philip Simmons Middle School, opened in August of 2016 off Clements Ferry Road.