NORTH AUGUSTA - It was moving day at Fox Creek High School Saturday as students, teachers and parents gathered the last pieces of equipment and other items to take to the new school on Shortcut Road.

Crews worked for the third day to ready the new building for the first day of school, Aug. 19. They will spend at least another day at the new school arranging furniture.

“It will be up and running and everything in place by Aug. 13, the first day for teachers,” said Dr. Tim Murph, principal. “These students here today accompanied their parents to help with the move. Our students are the best of any school I have ever worked at. They always pitch in to help improve our community and school any way they can.”

Murph said there is a bit of nostalgia involved with leaving the building that has served as the school’s home for five years, a converted video poker place on Martintown Road.

“There are a lot of good memories here,” he said. “A lot of kids have graduated here.”

But at the same time, he is excited about the positive changes the move to the new building will bring.

“The square footage is considerably larger,” he said of the $5.9 complex built on a 64-acre tract of land purchased two years ago from the Medical College of Georgia. The school made history in that it became the first start-up charter high school to build a traditional school building in the state of South Carolina. Funding was provided by USDA Rural Development through the Communities Facilities Program.

“Each classroom has student computers and each teacher has their own phone to make communication between parents and teachers better,” said Murph. “The new building is much more energy efficient and the automatic lights go on and off. There is a modern central hear and air system. It is a much ‘greener’ center.”

The new school will provide educational services to students, grades 9-12, and is expected to eventually include full sports facilities.

Murph said around 350 students are expected for this school year but the building is able to accommodate many more.

“We will continue to service our community’s needs for many years to come,” he said.

Senior Angel Williams said she is happy about the move.

“The new school is closer to my home and there will be a lot more space,” she said.

Her friend, eleventh-grader Amanda Langford, agreed. Although it is her first year at Fox Creek, she is glad to be starting in the new school.

“The classrooms will be bigger and more modern,” she said. “I’m looking forward to meeting new people.”

Angel’s mother, Lisa Williams, said she thinks the move is wonderful.

“The kids can stay inside and go to class and not have to go outside to portable classrooms,” she said. “Everything is more convenient.”

When asked if she thought this day would ever come for students on her end of the county, she thought a moment before she replied, “Not in my lifetime.”