Florence, South Carolina – Florence’s classrooms are quiet now, but the district is not standing still.
While students are away for summer break, Florence 1 Schools has turned the pause between academic years into a construction window, launching a districtwide renovation push with more than 100 projects underway. The work is aimed at one clear deadline: having schools refreshed, repaired and ready when students and staff return for the 2026-2027 year.
The projects stretch across the district and cover both the visible and the practical. Crews are installing new exterior and interior signage, painting buildings, replacing flooring, upgrading classroom and office furniture, and working on air conditioning units and cooling systems.
The goal is not only to make campuses look newer, but to make them feel better day to day, cooler, cleaner, easier to navigate and more comfortable for learning.
Theodore Lester Elementary School is one of the most visible examples. At the school, crews are painting the exterior, adding a blue-and-black logo medallion to the front of the building, and replacing the cooling tower.
For a school in the hot, humid Pee Dee, that mechanical work matters as much as the fresh paint. A good-looking building helps school pride. A reliable cooling system helps everyone get through August.
The summer effort continues the district’s long-running #F1SBuilds campaign, which has focused on improving school facilities over time. Previous phases have included roof work, breezeway coverings, window replacements, bathroom renovations, athletic facility upgrades and updated classroom finishes. This year’s wave builds on that foundation with a heavy focus on paint, floors, furniture, HVAC systems and school branding.
The scale is important. Florence 1 Schools is the largest district in Florence County, serving 15,861 students during the 2024-2025 school year across 24 schools in a 284-square-mile area. Its footprint includes the City of Florence and surrounding communities such as Effingham, Quinby and Mars Bluff. The district employs about 1,185 full-time equivalent teachers and more than 1,425 total staff, with a student-teacher ratio of about 13.4 to 1.
That means a summer renovation plan is not just a maintenance checklist. It touches thousands of families, hundreds of classrooms and a wide range of campuses, from South Florence, West Florence and Wilson high schools to middle and intermediate schools such as Henry L. Sneed, John W. Moore, Southside and Williams, along with elementary schools including Lester, North Vista, Briggs, Carver, Delmae Heights, Dewey L. Carter, Greenwood, Timrod, Lucy T. Davis, McLaurin, Royall, Wallace Gregg and others.
The work also fits into a broader capital strategy.
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“This budget reflects the Board’s commitment to putting students first, funding all of our programs and initiatives like STEM and the Arts, while also putting a focus on investing in and improving our buildings,” Board Vice-Chair Trisha Caulder said in April as the Board of Trustees advanced the 2026-2027 budget.
That bigger picture includes several major projects already moving forward. A new 90,000-square-foot, two-story Savannah Grove Elementary School is under construction after a March 2026 groundbreaking, with completion targeted for the 2027-2028 school year. The district has also announced plans for an aquatic center through community partnerships, as well as Hope Village, a 10-home tiny home community on district property in partnership with House of Hope of the Pee Dee to support families experiencing homelessness.
For now, the summer work is more immediate: floors, signs, paint, furniture, cooling. The kind of work students may notice the moment they walk through the door.
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Families can follow updates through Florence 1 Schools’ website at https://www.f1s.org and the district’s social media channels, including Facebook and Instagram at @Flo1Schools, where hashtags such as #F1SBuilds, #Florence1SummerRenovations and #StudentsFirst are being used to track progress.
By the time hallways fill again, the hope is simple: the buildings should feel ready for the people who use them. More than 100 projects are now carrying that promise across Florence 1 Schools, one classroom, one campus and one summer workday at a time.
