Greenville Technical Charter High plans next phase of expansion project

A larger cafeteria and additional science labs are planned for the second phase of Greenville Technical Charter High School’s facilities renovation.

For the past 25 years, the charter school has allowed high school students to gain a college education on the Greenville Technical College’s campus. Mary Nell Anthony, GTCHS’s outgoing principal, said the school’s student population growth has led to facility space issues that need to be addressed.

“Because of our extensive waitlist, our goal was to be able to house more students,” Anthony said. “Since I’ve been here, we have grown from 440 to 540 students. We want to have the capacity to now give those students the facilities they deserve.”

The charter school currently operates out of three buildings on the college campus: Building 119, the bottom floor of Building 120 and the school’s Student Learning Center, which opened in 2021. Greenville Tech plans to provide additional space to the charter school on the third floor of Building 120 to help with its facility needs.

Phase two

With the additional square footage, the school plans to complete renovations to create a dedicated cafeteria space that will hold 50% of the school’s student body. Anthony explained around 250 students eat during each of the school’s two lunch periods.

Students can either sit outside or in the school’s 60-person cafeteria to eat their lunch. When the outside dining area isn’t an option due to weather, students will sit in the hallways or teacher’s classrooms. Anthony said it will be beneficial for the students to all site together in one cafeteria and help create a sense of community.

The facility expansion will also allow the school to add three science labs in Building 120. The school’s four science teachers currently share and coordinate the use of one science lab.

“As a result of that, instead of planning the labs based on student learning needs, they’re having to plan the labs when they can get into the lab,” Anthony said. “It will be much better when they can plan it based on when the student needs to see the lab in order for the progression to be the best”

The charter school is working to raise $2 million for phase two renovations. Approximately $1.1 million has been raised so far from grants, donations and annual campaigns.

Anthony said the school is currently working with the college to finalize the plans for Building 120 and how much space the school will receive. Renovations are hoped to begin the day after Memorial Day in 2025 and take 12 weeks to complete.

“We are grateful to the college for their continued partnership and making this possible for us,” Anthony said.

Additional facility improvements

Greenville Technical Charter High School’s first expansion consisted of building a $7 million student learning center that opened in 2021. The learning center includes:

A gym and weight room
Fine arts program classrooms and Black Box Theatre
Computer labs
The Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association STEM program

Other long-term goals for improving the school’s facilities include:

Increasing the school’s classroom size to meet minimum size requirements
Creating a counselor suite with office space for school counselors, the mental health worker, career development facility and the school’s therapy dog program.

Fun fact

Greenville Technical Charter High School was established in 1998 as the first public charter school in South Carolina.

GTCHS class of 2024 by the numbers