More than half of the 224 students left without a school when Cruger-Tchula Academy closed its doors in May will enroll in either Carroll Academy or Pillow Academy this fall, according to school officials.
That influx of new students has administrators at those schools planning how they will adjust to new student needs and a larger enrollment.
"We are going to pick up about 90 kids from Cruger-Tchula," Carroll Academy Headmaster William Cotton said.
Cotton said Carroll Academy's enrollment was 275 students last year, and he expects the school to enroll between 345 and 350 students by the beginning of classes this fall.
The biggest portion of Carroll's jump in enrollment will be ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders transferring from Cruger-Tchula, Cotton said.
"We are more than adequate with space," Cotton said. "As far as adding new faculty, we are going to be able to service the new students without adding any new teachers."
He said the biggest adjustment will be the shift in curriculum for new students. Extra effort will be given to offer transferring ninth- and 10th-graders classes required at Carroll that were not taught at Cruger-Tchula. However, transferring juniors and seniors will not be required to makeup all of the differing requirements, Cotton said.
"It's not their fault that the school closed," he said. "We are not going to penalize them for not having our curriculum. There are some things in our curriculum that Cruger didn't have, but we are working to accommodate that."
Russell Robertson, headmaster at Pillow Academy, said the Greenwood school will likely add between 50 and 60 students transferring from Cruger-Tchula. Last year Pillow's enrollment was a little more than 800.
He said Pillow's facilities are adequate to handle the new enrollment, but the school is in the process of adding new teachers.
"The numbers have increased sections in some grades," Robertson said. "It doesn't change every class, but overall the independent class sizes should actually go down because of this increase."
Because Pillow offers three academic tracts, transferring high school students should be able to complete requirements for graduation at the same pace as current Pillow students, Robertson said.
"There will be some challenging areas," he said. "If we have some children that want to take part in our honors track, they will probably have to take a heavier load of Advanced Placement courses. We do have some students that are doubling up on math to pick up some Advanced Placement classes."
Robertson said many transferring students have already inquired about participating in athletics and other extracurricular activities at Pillow.
