Families get ready for school year with Back to School events, upcoming tax-free weekend.
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
It’s that time of year again.
Students will be returning to Beaufort County School District (BCSD) public schools on August 21, for the 2023-2024 school year.
The back-to-school supply lists have been posted online, students are beginning to find out who their new teachers are going to be and families are preparing for the new school year.
BCSD held their annual Back to School Expo on Saturday, July 29, at Beaufort High School from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“This event is really designed as an opportunity for us to build connections with our students and our families and really help them to get ready and prepared for the start of the school year,” BCSD Student Services Officer Juliet White said.
The event was hosted by BCSD, but it partnered with local government agencies and private-sector business partners to provide attending families with valuable information about the upcoming school year.
White said that they had more than 60 community partners sharing their resources and educating the families on how they can help the students in school.
There were also booths representing each of the elementary, middle and high schools from the BCSD available to answer questions from students and their families.
In addition to providing information about the upcoming school year and available services, the district had bags of school supplies available to anyone who signed up to receive one.
The district prepared more than 1,000 bags of supplies to be handed out, but White said that a lot of the vendors brought supplies to hand out to students as well.
“The response had been great,” White said about the event. “The parents and students are very excited about the supplies, and you can really see the excitement for the start of the school year.”
She said that their hope is that for everyone to leave the expo with the supplies and information that they need to have an excellent school year.
To help streamline the process, the county did ask for families to pre-register online in advance of the event, but they did allow families to also register in person in order to receive the supplies.
“We want to keep track of the numbers and the communities that they are coming from so that we can continue to build and add to those supports,” White said.
According to the Student Services office, 811 students attended the event, and 964 parents from all over the district were at the expo.
This is the second Back to School Expo that Beaufort County has been able to hold since COVID-19 disrupted life in Beaufort.
There were door prizes from local restaurants and businesses and free dental and health services provided to the public by Beaufort-Jasper-Hampton Comprehensive Health Services and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
The district’s food vendor was present, as well as the District Food Services, to answer any questions regarding the free- and reduced-lunch application process.
Free transportation was provided to the expo from both north and south of the Broad River in hopes of giving everyone a chance to attend if they wanted to.
“The goal is to move (the event) to a new place throughout the county each year to give everyone the same access,” White said.
The Back to School Expo hosted by BCSD was not the only back to school event being hosted in Beaufort on Saturday.
The Parish Church of St. Helena also held their second annual Back to School Bash, which is held to help support families with foster and adopted children.
The event is part of a larger national event hosted by the Jockey Being Family nonprofit organization and The Parish Church of St. Helena hosted the event local to Beaufort.
“There are 46 Back to School Bashes going on around the country,” Jai Dowell, coordinator for the event and Director of Local Missions for The Parish Church of St. Helena said. “And the event is continuing to grow.”
The Back to School Bash at The Parish Church of St. Helena began at 10 a.m. and went until 2 p.m.
While this event was hosted by St. Helena Church, other local churches and organizations expressed interest to Dowell about wanting to partner with them to help host the event again next year.
The Parish Church of St. Helena had prepared 75 book bags with school supplies in them for the event, but those went so quickly that a volunteer was sent out to buy more.
Tax-Free Weekend
If you missed all the fun last weekend, don’t forget that this coming weekend, from August 4 though 6 here in South Carolina, is Tax-Free Weekend.
“For 72 hours, tax-free items include computers, printers, school supplies, clothing and accessories, shoes and certain bed and bath items,” according to the S.C. Department of Revenue’s website.
According to the site, last year, shoppers spent more than $26.2 million dollars on tax-free items during the Tax-Free Weekend.
During the weekend, eligible items can be purchased in store and online without having to pay the 6% sales tax and any applicable local taxes.
Items that are not exempt from sales tax include digital cameras, smartphones, jewelry, cosmetics, eyewear, wallets, watches and furniture.
For more information about the Tax-Free Weekend, visit the S.C. Department of Revenue’s website at www.dor.sc.gov.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She joined The Island News in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
