New Facility Boosts Military Teaching Model

CHARLESTON, SC — Typical high schools and middle schools don’t have Huey helicopters landing in the schoolyard to celebrate Veterans Day. But, North Charleston’s Military Magnet Academy is no typical campus.

It’s the first campus in the United States to incorporate military-style training methods into a public school academic program as a means of fostering discipline, leadership, loyalty, respect and teamwork.
 

The program began as a retired three-star general’s experiment — an effort to determine the impact of military training methods on low-income, low-performing students at Norman C. Toole Middle School. 
 
Lieutenant General Henry Doctor’s efforts were so successful that Charleston County School officials decided to create a military magnet program in 1997.
Retired military officials were brought in to serve as cadet advisors and mentors while teachers from the military’s Troop to Teacher Program were heavily recruited. Parents were so encouraged by their children’s progress they petitioned the board to create a military magnet high school in addition to the middle school. 
 
Before they ever set foot in the classroom, MMA students are required to attend a weeklong indoctrination camp at nearby Fort Jackson.
 
“We create a totally controlled environment where students spend the week learning to understand military customs, fall into formation, say sir and ma’am and make their beds according to military standards,” says Principal Anderson Townsend, a retired officer and graduate of the Troops to Teachers program. “Among other things, students are required to participate in strenuous physical training. There’s no television allowed. We can see behaviors begin to change in that first week.”
 
While the academic and military training was successful, the facilities in use left much to be desired. The middle school was located in an old high school that was built in the late 1930s.
 
“The floors, walls, ceiling, exterior and heating system were deplorable,” says Kevin Kelly, a senior project manager at Heery, the architectural firm hired to plan improvements. “A tourniquet had been put on the building for too long, and the tourniquet had become frayed.”
While initial plans called for a middle school renovation, Heery offered a second option upon hearing a high school program was being created. 
 
“Although South Carolina makes it very clear that high school and middle schools need to be housed separately, we wondered if we could build a high school that could, at the same time, temporarily house middle school students,” says Kelly. “Then we’d push for a new middle school facility in the next round of facility programming. In order for this to work, we had to be very creative with facility design to stay within budget.”
 
Several components of the new campus for North Charleston’s Military Magnet Academy were designed to mirror the Citadel.
Once approved, the design and construction team embarked on a plan to erect 52,500-square-foot high school facility to temporarily, but adequately, house both sets of students.
 
The exterior consists of a similar finish to that of the Citadel and incorporates the use of two-inch thick hurricane rated, high-impact board. Instead of conventional dry wall, the team used high-impact resistant gypsum board with Tuff Hyde sealant for a smoother durable finish.
 
“Charleston has a long and distinguished military history and is proud to be the home of the Citadel, South Carolina’s military college,” says Retired Navy Captain William H. Lewis, now the chief operating officer for Charleston County School District’s Capital Programs. “The Military Magnet Academy was intentionally designed to pay homage to the Citadel.”
 
In an effort to maximize funds, the team decided to renovate the existing kitchen and cafeteria building. This became the new home for the art, band and chorus programs. 
 
“We had planned to erect an 8,100-square-foot facility at a cost of $1.5 million,” Kelly says. “We realized we could retrofit the existing 5,200-square-foot building for $500,000. Since the facility already had water and drains, it seemed an ideal place to house the art program. There’s a big live oak just outside the door that creates an effective outdoor studio space for students.”
 
Phasing on the new high school posed its some challenges.
 
“We had to start construction of the middle school while school was going on in the adjacent high school facility,” Kelly says. “Then, of course, we had to determine how to apportion space in the newly constructed high school to accommodate the needs of both schools.”
 
To create additional classrooms, the team installed sound-attenuated folding petitions in some of the larger rooms. 
 
“We used part of the culinary arts area to create a temporary administration office,” Kelly says. “Once the middle school was complete, we tore down the temporary space and cleaned it up to create the four fully functional cooking stations initially planned.” 
 
The administration office was then moved into its permanent space.
 
While Townsend places average graduation rates in the inner city at approximately 50 percent, last year 89 percent of MMA students graduated. 
 
“School systems from across the country have come to look at the model we’ve created here,” Townsend says. “It’s a solid learning environment, one that has become even better with the addition of the new middle school.”
A proud bronze eagle — a symbol of school pride — is located at the main entrance for both facilities. Kelly salvaged the bird from the old high school, and the graduating class of 1952 that donated it, restored it to its original splendor.
 
Sue Wasserman is the public relations manager at Heery.