By Caleb Bozard cbozard@postandcourier.com
COLUMBIA — A new charter school is being planned for one of Columbia’s busiest thoroughfares.
Plans for a K-8 charter school by the name of Ethos Academy are on the agenda for the Columbia Planning Commission’s Jul 9 meeting.
The school would be built on 12 acres of land at 609 Clif Kinder Rd., just off Garners Ferry Road, in Columbia. The campus would include a two-story main building and a detached gym capable of accommodating up to 1,000 students, according to the meeting agenda.
The property is currently vacant and sits inside the boundaries of the Richland One school district.
The school will need to be approved by the Planning Commission because it would be built inside the Burnside Farms housing development, which was approved by the commission as a planned development, according to the meeting agenda.
The plans have been reviewed and approved by the Burnside Farms Property Owners Association, according to the agenda. City staff recommended that the Planning Commission approve the plans, with some adjustments to landscaping and interior road layout.
Ethos Academy is listed as an upcoming school under the Tutelage School Solutions flag. Tutelage, a North Carolina-based company, currently operates six charter schools in South Carolina — all in the Upstate, aside from one in Colleton County.
The land that would house the school is currently listed on county records as being owned by Hilton Head-based Burnside Farms Development LLC. The school will eventually own the land, Tutelage spokesperson Hallie Howe told The Post and Courier.
The Ethos Academy website advertises the school as opening in the 2027-2028 school year.
“Opening for the 2027-2028 school year, we are proud to offer families in Richland County a tuition-free public charter school serving students in grades 4K-6,” the website reads. “We are committed to your child's success. Go Patriots!”
The stretch of Garners Ferry Road where the school would be built saw an average of between 35,000 and 40,000 vehicles per day pass by in 2025, according to data from the South Carolina Department of Transportation. Garners Ferry was one of the busiest roads in the Midlands in the newest annual data from the agency.
Columbia’s Planning Commission will also review plans for a development of 118 attached single-family homes on a seven-acre lot on Drake Street, sandwiched between Garners Ferry Road and Interstate 77.
Those homes would be a 10-minute drive from the planned charter school.
Previous plans
Ethos is listed as in progress on the website of charter school accreditor Charter Institute at Erskine.
The institute’s website indicates Ethos will initially open as a K-6 school in its first year, adding seventh and eighth grades in subsequent school years.
Ethos submitted an application to the Erskine institute in February 2023 for five charter schools in Kershaw County, Florence, Orangeburg, Laurens and Newberry, intended to open in the 2024-2025 school year.
An application was approved by the institute in April 2023, according to the Ethos Academy Facebook page. That application was for a school in Richland County, expected to open in fall 2024. Posts on the page throughout early 2023 reference the school opening in Kershaw County.
The next post to the school’s Facebook page, shared on July 1, 2026, indicated the school would open in August 2027.
“Rooted in a classical education, Ethos Academy is committed to developing the whole child through high academic expectations, strong character development, daily P.E., daily art or music, and a no-homework policy that gives families more time together,” the post read.
Tutelage’s initial plans to build in Kershaw County changed after another charter school opened in the county, Howe said. The charter school operator determined the county’s population could not sustain two charter schools, she said.
“From there, the committee reassessed the needs of the Midlands and determined that the Lower Richland area of Columbia was the best place to make a positive impact,” she said in a statement. “Lower Richland has never had a public charter school, and we believe Ethos Academy will help expand access to a high-quality public education option for families in that community.”
A representative for Charter Institute at Erskine did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Seeking bond funding
Ethos Academy is also on the agenda for a July 9 meeting of the South Carolina Department of Commerce’s Coordinating Council for Economic Development.
Ethos Academy in Richland County is listed as part of a review of “JEDA projects,” referring to the S.C. Jobs-Economic Development Authority.
The school is seeking up to $35 million in bond funding from the authority, according to documents.
Howe said in a statement the school would be funded through private investment.
“For schools like Ethos Academy, Tutelage School Solutions works to identify and secure private investors who provide the funding needed to develop the campus,” Howe said. “JEDA’s role is limited to facilitating the financing process through the issuance of bonds when appropriate.”
JEDA is a quasi-public state agency that has historically helped nonprofit retirement homes, affordable housing builders and hospitals secure tax-exempt bonds in the private market, according to previous reporting from The Post and Courier.
A newspaper analysis found five schools borrowed $60 million in JEDA bonds from 2011-15. In the next five years, that jumped to 10 schools borrowing $150 million.
From 2021 to 2025, borrowing more than tripled, with 17 schools securing $480 million.
The bonds offer a path for charter schools to own new buildings but are more expensive than traditional public school debt, which charter schools can’t access because they don’t have the power to collect property taxes. Traditional districts use those taxes to pay back bonds they issue to build new schools.
Ian Grenier and Anna Mitchell contributed to this report.
Article Credit: Post and Courier https://www.postandcourier.com/columbia/education/charter-school-ethos-erskine-columbia-sc/article_ad9ad590-4e84-490c-886e-fcbe7293dc29.html