James Island Charter High School is a self governing
community school. They not only have serious bragging rights when it
comes to academics, but sports as well.
Nearly 14-hundred students walk the halls at JICHS. James
Island is the first public high school in the state to convert to
charter status back in 2003, and is currently the largest charter school
in the southeast. The school has an excellent state report card for
several years, and an "A" for Adequate Yearly Progress.
The Palmetto Gold Award winning school offers interesting
programs, including the International Baccalaureate program, Industrial
Technology, and music, to name a few.
JICHS is 2012 girls cross country state champions. James
island is home for professional athletes Roddy White and Langston Moore.
Principal Robert Bohnstengel says faculty, students,
parents, and the surrounding community make them cool. Bohnstengel says,
"This is a historically community based school, and continues to be a
community based school, with intense participation from parents and
business community and from our graduates."
Junior Justin Shafer says, "We have a very large variety of
students. We have lots of art programs. We have everything from
photography class to band. We have lots of interesting classes such as
sociologly, but the students here is what I think makes James Island
Charter really cool, because we are all very dedicated and varied in our
interest, and that makes us a diverse and very cool school." Junior
Hannah Elgradawy says, "All of our students are very diverse, and we all
have our differences, but we come together and we're ok with that, and
we get along." Senior Wanya Reese says, "Everybody at this school is
very nice, and it has a family environment. What I would feel at home, I
feel at this school."
Two students, Nick Sisk and Adam Zerbst competed on the
national level in a business plan competition and placed in the top 12
nationally.
The school's academic quiz bowl has four national and three state championship titles. They were the county champs for 21 years.
Coming up Wednesday on News 2 Today, we'll tell you about
James Island Charter's outreach initiatives and unique international
connection.
We want to hear about the good things going on at your
school. Send an email to Octavia at omitchell@wcbd.com. Maybe your
school will be the next Cool School of the week.
Cool School: James Island Charter High School
