Lake Marion High School & Technology Center

Lake Marion High School & Technology Center (LMHS) is a four-year public high school in Santee, South Carolina. It is the only high school in Orangeburg Consolidated School District Number 3. It serves as the opening for two middle schools, Elloree Elementary-Middle and Holly Hill Roberts Middle School.

LMHS has many learning facilities as well as facilities for community usage. Lake Marion has two gymnasiums, a media center, technology center, two football fields, cafeteria, hallway designated for fine arts (such as band, drama, chorus, & art) two track fields, a baseball field and other amenities. It is the second largest high school in Orangeburg County, behind Orangeburg Wilkinson High. The mission of LMHS is to collaborate with parents and stakeholders to provide a safe learning environment that ensures all students become lifelong learners and productive citizens in their communities and in a global society.

History

On May 9, 2000, the Orangeburg County Consolidated School District Three Board of Trustees approved a referendum to build a new high school, and the district voters passed the referendum on September 9, 2000. After two years of preparation, the official groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 12, 2002, and actual construction began on November 21 and continued for the next two and a half years.

Lake Marion High School and Technology Center was created for the 2004-2005 school year by consolidating Elloree High School and Holly Hill-Roberts High School. Since the building was not completed until the summer of 2005, Lake Marion High School and Technology Center’s first year was actually split between two locations: a Holly Hill campus and an Elloree campus. However, the Class of 2005, the school’s first graduation class, held their commencement exercises at the football field on the new campus. The building was formally dedicated at a ribbon cutting ceremony held on July 31, 2005.

During the 2006-2007 school year, Lake Marion High School and Technology Center earned accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement. In 2008, LMHS met all objectives under Adequate Yearly Progress required under No Child Left Behind and received an excellent growth rating from the South Carolina Department of Education. During this same year, the school received the Palmetto Gold Award for General Performance and the Palmetto Silver Award for Closing the Achievement Gaps.

Lake Marion High School and Technology Center currently has an enrollment of 884 students and 141 faculty and staff.

Academics

Lake Marion High School has a variety of courses to offer to its students and is called "A haven of excellence & high expectations". In addition to typical academic course, it also offers Army Junior ROTC. Lake Marion High School also offers honors and advanced placement programs as well as college course taken through Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College at Lake Marion in which students can earn college as well as high school credit.

In the 2010-2011 school year Lake Marion High school was the only High School in the Orangeburg area to exceed the state average for scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Additionally, Lake Marion High School was one of only two schools in the area with students who were successful in obtaining credit through the AP program "Locally, Edisto High in Orangeburg Consolidated School District Four and Lake Marion High School & Technology Center in Orangeburg Consolidated School District Three were the only schools with students to qualify for AP credit. Twenty-six percent of Edisto's students and 36 percent of Lake Marion's students scored the 3-5 points considered passing on the AP exams."

In the fall of 2010 the Orangeburg Consolidated District 3 received "a $6 million Magnet School of America Grant through the U.S. Department of Education for the development of a magnet school." The district will use the funds to create an International Baccalaureate program as well as a STEMS academy. "As part of the grant application process to secure the federal funding for the magnet school, the OCSD Three Board of Trustees agreed to the terms of a voluntary desegregation plan." The district hopes that the implementation of these two academic programs will encourage students who have fled the district to return.

Athletics

The school's mascot is the "Mighty Gator". Varsity sports offered at LMHS are football, volleyball, competitive cheerleading, girls' basketball, boys' basketball, softball and baseball. Junior varsity sports are cheerleading (9th & 10th), volleyball, girls' basketball, boys' basketball, and girls' softball. Other sports include cross country, track & field, and golf. The boys' basketball team became 2AA SC state champions after their defeat to Newberry High School by the score of 91-82 on March 2, 2013. Prior to this, the Gators appeared in the 3AAA SC State Championship where they would lose to Greer High School by a score of 100-97, marking the State Championship's highest scoring loss and setting a SCHSL Championship record for scoring 39 points in one quarter.

External links

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