Charleston Public Schools

The Charleston County School District (CCSD), rated as one of the top 200 school districts in the country, currently serves 42,725 students with 41 elementary schools, 13 middle schools, eight high schools, 12 magnet schools, seven charter schools, and seven additional programs. Heery’s long relationship with CCSD began in 1997 with an award-winning, extensive facilities assessment for the district. In joint venture, Heery assessed 78 elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as facilities for exceptional children and miscellaneous components. The assessment team identified more than $600 million in projects that needed to be developed to bring CCSD’s school facilities up to the standards that the community needed. This assessment included a far-reaching public awareness campaign to engage the entire Charleston community and resulted in a successful bond referendum for $175 million used to fund the school improvement program. Simultaneously with the facilities assessment, Heery assumed project management responsibility for several projects already underway including a new elementary school, new middle school, new high school and for an internationally and nationally recognized school of the arts.

Immediately following the original assignment, CCSD selected Heery to provide construction program management for Capital Program 1 ($100 million in construction projects) followed by the Capital Program 2 ($256 million in construction projects).  From 2006 through 2014 Heery managed Capital Program 3 ($310 million in construction projects) which included new elementary, middle and high schools, major renovations and building systems replacement projects. 

Following the completion of CCSD’s capital building programs, Heery was selected to provide a comprehensive facility assessment for CCSD and evaluate the district’s buildings to provide a tool for proactive asset management. Specifically, Heery assessed maintenance requirements and the logistics necessary to implement an annual major systems replacement program, and validation of the order of magnitude costs for the work over a ten-year period. This was accomplished through collaboration with several facilities organizations within CCSD and using a methodology built on Heery’s Facility Condition Assessment experience.