Charleston leaders and school officials cut the ribbon on a new downtown home for Simmons Pinckney Middle School, moving the school into the former Julian Mitchell School building off Sheppard and Perry streets as part of the district’s Peninsula Promise initiative. The initiative is designed to keep more peninsula students enrolled in neighborhood schools rather than seeing them opt into private education or schools outside their immediate community.
Simmons Pinckney is structured as an extension of Burke High School, a campus officials described as a pillar for African American students on the peninsula for decades, and the new middle school is expected to serve roughly 200 students with registration open year-round. Interim and Founding Principal Nathan Nelson said the peninsula has changed substantially in recent years and that many local families now send their children to private schools, adding that the new campus is meant to become a middle school that reflects its surrounding community and draws some of those students back.
Charleston County School District Superintendent Anita Huggins called the opening another step in the Peninsula Promise effort, noting that the district’s Charleston Progressive campus alone welcomed 285 new students this year. When asked whether the district had seen a decline in African American enrollment amid downtown Charleston’s rising costs and shifting demographics, Huggins said the change had not been substantial but that the district continues monitoring enrollment trends closely across its peninsula schools.
City Council District 4 member Aaron Polkey, who represents much of the peninsula, said the city and school district need to keep working together to support families whose children attend Simmons Pinckney, both inside the classroom and through outside resources. Polkey’s comments reflect a broader city-district partnership that officials say will be tested as the new middle school works to build enrollment and establish itself as a neighborhood anchor in its first year at the Sheppard and Perry streets site.
