Charleston County School District - Building Success for Children

Heery’s long relationship with the Charleston County School District (CCSD) began in 1997 with an award-winning, extensive facilities assessment for the district. In joint venture with E.R. Mitchell & Company, Heery assessed 78 elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as facilities for exceptional children and miscellaneous components. The assessment team identified more than $600 million in projects that needed to be developed to bring CCSD’s school facilities up to the standards that the community wanted. This assessment included a far-reaching public awareness campaign to engage the entire Charleston community and resulted in a successful bond referendum for $175 million used to fund the school improvement program. Simultaneously with the facilities assessment, Heery assumed project management responsibility for several projects already underway—including a new elementary school, new middle school and a new high school.

Immediately following the original assignment, CCSD selected Heery to provide construction program management on more than $100 million in construction projects, including the construction of three new schools and a number of smaller capital projects. Among these schools was the design and construction of North Charleston Elementary School, the first LEED certified school in the state of South Carolina. Today, Heery remains with CCSD, managing an additional 12 capital improvement projects, which include one new K-8 school, one new middle school, one new middle/high school, two new high schools, one new special education school, one middle school addition, one high school addition and renovation, one middle school renovation, one administration building renovation, one elementary school demolition and one elementary school advanced design.