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Our History

Mission and Beliefs

The mission of Lugoff-Elgin High School is to give every student the opportunity to succeed in an increasingly complex society.

The Beliefs of the staff and community that guide the development of educational practices in the school's program:

  • Learning is everyone's responsibility.

  • Everyone is entitled to a safe environment.

  • Learning is a lifelong process.

  • All individuals can learn.

  • Everyone is worthy of respect.

Henry Ford once said, “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Our faculty and staff have implemented this same teamwork mentality to move individual students forward to graduation and their futures, whether in the military, workforce, or college. In recent years, our graduation rate has soared because we have been working together as one team with one goal - to elevate our students to their greatest potential.

Our school opened its doors in 1971 to 589 students. The building that currently serves as our main campus opened in 1992 and was built to accommodate 1500 students. In the early 2000s, our town experienced rapid growth. To accommodate the influx of students, we added mobile classrooms. In 2004, we began our one-to-one laptop initiative with the other two high schools in our district, and our students have had personal learning devices in their hands every year since then. In 2011, we moved a few select classrooms to the Annex, the building that once served as our original campus. That move allowed us to eliminate the mobiles while providing additional space for programs, including our Hospitality and Management program, which now has an entire cafeteria as its lab, and our JROTC program, which has multiple classrooms near its outdoor training facilities. In the past two years, our school underwent an 11 million dollar renovation, which included the expansion of our cafeteria and remodeling of our classrooms along with several security upgrades.

We are home to a diverse group of students of various ethnicities and from all socio-economic levels. Although some of our students come from traditional families, many come from single-parent homes and non-traditional home environments. The parents of our students have diverse backgrounds. The majority of the local workforce is manufacturing and sales while others travel to nearby cities for a diverse array of employment, including military service. The citizens of our area desire an environment in which their students can remain safe while developing skills that will grow them into employable, productive adults who will be able to thrive in our community. The hope is for our graduates to build upon established familial roots while boldly blazing a trail of their own within our community. 

No matter their backgrounds or their home lives, once students step through our doors, they become a part of our family, a family in which over 60% of our teachers have a master or doctorate degree and in which almost 20% have achieved National Board Certification. We welcome each student to our determined, focused, and unified team and invite them into our vision by creating an atmosphere of achievement.