HCS Announces Prom Dates for High Schools and Academies

Horry County Schools’ high schools and academies have announced the dates and locations for upcoming proms and dances. Details are as follows: Aynor High School, April 16, at Club Boca, from 7 - 10 p.m.; Carolina Forest High School, March 24, at the Marina Inn at Grand Dunes, from 8 p.m. until midnight; Conway High School, March 24, at the Myrtle Beach Hilton, from 8 p.m. until midnight; Green Sea Floyds High School, March 24, at the Spanish Galleon, from 7 p.m. until midnight; HCS Early College High School, March 11, at North Beach Plantation, from 7 - 10 p.m.; Loris High School, March 24, at Ocean Drive Resort, from 8 - 11 p.m.; Myrtle Beach High School, March 24, at the House of Blues, from 7 -11 p.m.; North Myrtle Beach High School, March 24, at Barefoot Conference Center, from 7 -11 p.m.; Socastee High School, March 24, at the Hilton Hotel Conference Center, from 8 a.m. until midnight; *St. James High School, April 8, at the Marina Inn at the Grande Dunes, from 7 – 11 p.m.; The Scholars Academy, Winter Dance, February 26, at The Dunes Club, from 7-11 p.m.; The Academy for the Arts, Science and Technology, Spring Gala, April 22, at the House of Blues, from 7 – 11 p.m.; and The Academy for Technology and Academics, April 22, at the school, from 7 – 11 p.m.            *Updated Tues. Feb 9, 2016

ACT offered to 11th grade students at no cost

All 11^th grade students (third year of high school) are being offered the opportunity to take the ACT at their high school during the regular school week at no cost, based on action by the S.C. General Assembly. However, students must sign up in advance in order to take the ACT. Horry County high school students will take the ACT at their school on Tuesday, April 19.  

In order to participate in ACT testing, your child must be signed up at the school by March 1, 2016.  To sign up for the test, you may contact your child’s guidance counselor, your child may sign up in the guidance department, or your child may complete a form that will be sent to him/her through his/her school email address. 

The ACT will provide the scores to colleges as their college entrance exam. If your child has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) requiring accommodations for testing, the high school will assist him/her in applying for accommodations.  Only those accommodations approved by ACT will result in college reportable scores. Accommodations that can be approved for this administration are the same as the accommodations for ACT national administrations.  If your child is under age 18, you, as parent or guardian, must authorize the school to release that information to ACT for the purpose of applying for accommodations.

If you have any questions regarding the ACT and your student, please call the guidance office at your high school. 

Read more about the ACT at ACTstudent.org

Update on technology and online services interruption

What happened?

Monday morning our computer systems were found to be infected with a virus. While there are many types of malware and viruses, this particular version infects a computer system and uses a high-level encryption to lock up your data then requires a key to unlock the data. We shut down our servers and systems to stop the virus from spreading further which meant interrupting our online services such as PowerSchool.

How this happens:

Computer viruses, malware, adware, etc... are unfortunately, extremely prevalent and constantly changing. Once on a computer a virus tends to replicate and spread to other connected computers. In a system with many servers and computers, this can happen very quickly. HCS was not targeted by any person or organization trying to gain access to our data. While we maintain and monitor our systems routinely and diligently, it is difficult to remain completely unsusceptible to new viruses.

What this means for our data and computer systems:

Nothing has been stolen or taken off of our servers. Student and staff information is safe and remains on our servers. Our data is backed up and the HCS technology department is currently restoring servers to eliminate the locked data. Due to the size of our infrastructure, this will take time though are hoping to have our system fully functional by the end of the week.

What this means for our classrooms:

While we pride ourselves on the use of technology in our classrooms, our educators are resilient, creative, and will continue to adapt to teaching with the best tools they have on hand. There are many technology tools teachers are able to use that were not impacted by the virus.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

News reports:

WPDE News: Tuesday, February 9, 2016.

MyHorryNews.com: Wednesday, February 10, 2016

MyrtleBeachOnline.com: Wednesday, February 10, 2016

WMBF News: Wednesday, February 10, 2016

2016 Graduation Ceremonies and Senior Celebrations

 Graduation Ceremonies 2016

School	Date	Time	Place
Aynor High	Thursday, June 2	7:00 PM	AHS Auditorium
Carolina Forest High	Thursday, June 2	7:00 PM	CFHS Auditorium
Conway High	Wednesday, June 1	7:00 PM	TBD
Green Sea Floyds High	Thursday, June 2	6:00 PM	GSFHS Auditorium
Loris High	Wednesday, June 1	6:00 PM	LHS Auditorium
Myrtle Beach High	Wednesday, June 1	6:00 PM	MBHS Auditorium
North Myrtle Beach High	Thursday, June 2	3:00 PM	Alabama Theatre
Socastee High	Wednesday, June 1	3:00 PM	MB Convention Center
St. James High	Friday, June 3	1:30 PM	Palace Theatre
Early College High	Tuesday, May 31	6:00 PM	TBD
Adult Education	Thursday, May 26	7:00 PM	AAST

 Senior Celebrations 2016

AAST	Tetatively Saturday, May 21	11:00 AM	Alabama Theatre
ATA	Wednesday, May 18	6:00 PM	ATA
Scholars Academy	Tuesday, May 24	6:00 PM	Wheelwright Auditorium

2016-2017 Student Calendar now available online

Click the calendar below to download a PDF file of the 2016-2017 calendar

HCS will operate on a normal schedule for Friday, January 22

Based on the current forecasts for our county, Horry County Schools will operate on a normal schedule for Friday, January 22. As always, we coordinate, plan, and confer with county officials and watch the weather conditions closely. Should conditions arise that change this decision, we will notify the public no later than 6 am through via our website, Facebook, HCS TV, Twitter, our automated telephone notification system and local media outlets.

Click here for more information on how HCS makes weather-related decisions.

FIRST Robotics competition scheduled for Feb 25, 26, & 27

The 13th annual Palmetto Regional FIRST Robotics Competition will be held at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in beautiful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Thursday through Saturday, February 25th-27th, 2016 (Doors open at 8:00 AM). The competition is an intense three-day competitive event showcasing robots developed and operated by dozens of high school teams from all over the world. More details at MyrtleBeachFIRSTRobotics.com Check out the video for this year's FIRST games!