Charleston in the News - December 2019
Academic Magnet Recognized as a Top STEM School
Academic Magnet High School is no stranger to receiving national awards for the amazing work their staff and students do. Recently, Newsweek recognized Academic Magnet as being one of the top 5,000 STEM high schools from around the country, ranking it at number 29 overall.
It is no surprise that Academic Magnet has being recognized with an award like this due to that fact that their school offers rigorous courses in math, engineering, and computer programming.
The list of all 5,000 schools was created by Newsweek collaborating with STEM.org to rank America's best STEM high schools by looking back at qualitative as well as quantitative data that was collected from quarter 2 in 2015 through quarter 3 in 2019 and took that information into consideration when awarding these schools.
US DOT Recently Approved the Lowcountry Rapid Transit Project
The US Department of Transportation has recently approved plans that would be a major milestone for the public transportation project, called the Lowcountry Rapid Transit. The idea for this project was developed in 2014 by the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (COG), and in 2016 they decided the best plan of action for the rapid transit system was a bus rapid transit.
Bus rapid transit is where there are designated lanes and technology that allows buses to bypass vehicles that are stuck in traffic in the "normal" lanes. The Lowcountry Rapid Transit is a 26-mile system that would connect along the Rivers Avenue corridor the cities of Summerville, North Charleston and Charleston.
This $360 million project would include upgrades to already existing infrastructures, the installation of rapid bus transit stations as well as new electric vehicles. They needed the US DOT's approval since the COGs are pursuing federal funding to advance this project.
The next step for the COGs is to select routes, station locations and designs with the hope to adopte these plans into the long-range transportation plan by January 2021 and to begin service in late 2025.
Charleston Battery to Play at CofC Complex Next Season
In late October it was announced that Charleston Battery, our hometown professional soccer team, will begin to play its games in 2020 at College of Charleston's complex, also known as the Ralph Lundy Field, on Patriots Point.
The club's owner, Eric Bowman, as well as B Sports Entertainment have recently sold the MUSC Health Stadium on Daniel Island (where the team has been playing), and the stadium is set to be demolished in the next few months with plans for the site to undergo commercial or residential development.
By signing an an agreement with the college until 2023, Charleston Battery will provide families in the Mount Pleasant area a better opportunity to see and cheer-on our hometown professional soccer team.
This partnership will also bring benefits to the college's soccer team and coaches experiences by exposing them to a professional environment.
The College of Charleston's president, Andrew T. Hsu, mentioned in the school's newspaper that he is excited that the college gets to play a role in the next chapter for the Battery.
Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.