OC Superintendent welcomes New Charter School

A new charter school opens this fall in Oconee County. The NEXT High School will educate students in the former Tamassee-Salem Middle and High School building after the School District of Oconee County (SDOC) announced it would be closing at the end of the 2015-16 academic year. Oconee County School Superintendent Dr. Michael Thorsland recently met with the principal of the new school to welcome him to the area. “I met with Mr. Greenburg last week and had a very productive meeting because any time there is going to be a new school in the area there will be different areas in which we need to collaborate and work together. That meeting last week just introduced those discussions between NEXT and the SDOC and it was a very positive meeting. I think a lot of times people automatically think as a public school district that there is going to be animosity between us and any competition; private schools, home schools or in this case a charter school, but that is not really the case. As public school educators, we want to see students be educated to the highest ability that that student able to achieve and no matter how that is achieved, if it is achieved through home school, private school or charter school that is fine. We just want to see our young people in the community be educated to the highest ability that they are able to reach.” Part of the mission of the SDOC is for students to be life-long learners who are technologically literate and who are able to succeed in a diverse global society.