Construction of a new Lugoff-Elgin High School is set to begin next month, following approval of final plans by a school building committee.

The school is expected to open in the fall of 1992.

“They’re hoping to have it ready in plenty of time and not to have it rushed,” said Coke Goodwin, assistant superintendent for Kershaw County Schools.

The school will open with an immediate capacity of 1,600, and with future additions it will have a potential capacity of 2,000, Goodwin said.

GMK Architects of Columbia has designed the building, and Southern Management Group of Columbia will oversee construction.

The new school will feature more classroom space, a larger library, a larger science area and an ROTC complex. It also will have a 1000-seat auditorium.

The building is to be constructed near the current school on the opposite side of the football stadium.

The current stadium will be kept, but there will be a new athletic center with updated weight facilities and locker rooms.

Once the new high school opens, Lugoff-Elgin Middle school will move into the current high school building. The middle school will be converted to an elementary school, and elementary students in the area will be divided between that school and Blaney Elementary School.

Lugoff-Elgin High has under 1,000 students, but Goodwin said the district expects that number to increase anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 in the next five years.

“That area, with the way it’s growing, we figured we had better allow for expansion,” Goodwin said.

He said the new facility should be able to handle expected growth for up to 10 years.

The capacity of the existing building is about 750. The school uses portable classrooms to accommodate the additional 200 students.

Lugoff-Elgin will be one of two new high schools to open in Kershaw County in 1992. Construction of a new high school in Camden will begin in April.

Voters in the district last month approved a $19.6 million bond referendum to build the two new schools. Included in the referendum are funds to convert the two high school sites to middle schools.

“It’s something that’s needed, and I’m glad we’ve got it. Everybody I know is pleased with it,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin said grading at the Lugoff-Elgin site is nearly completed.

“The weather has been a problem with them, but they are nearing a completion date,” he said.

School officials received the final blueprint of the new building in recent weeks. Input into those plans had come from a school building committee made up of teachers, headed by Marsha Cashion.

Cashion and others on the committee visited several schools throughout the state to determine what features they wanted the new school to include.

“We started looking at schools right after the referendum passed,” Cashion said. “We went to as many new schools as we could in the period from March until May.”

She said among the schools visited were Myrtle Beach, Sumter, Green Sea Floyds, Stratford in Charleston, Fairfield Central and Loris.