COASTAL OBSERVER

Vannah Scarborough has walked the halls of Lowcountry Preparatory School for a decade. This year, she’s the one in charge as the new headmaster.

Teaching is a love of labor, and it’s also a servant’s job, she said. People don’t realize that leadership is the same way.

“You really are a servant to others. You’re not in your ivory tower,” she said. “They take care. They’re not in charge. They take care of people in their charge.”

Scarborough, originally from Walhalla, landed her first job at Lowcountry Prep after graduating with her master’s from Coastal Carolina University. She taught upper school English until she was promoted to be the dean of teaching and learning two years ago. As the dean she oversaw school curriculum and teachers.

This year, she completed her doctorate at Coastal Carolina.

Scarborough wanted to bring the Marlins into a new age for the school year that began for Lowcountry Prep students Aug. 6, she said.

“I feel like there are several hills to climb when you’re a new leader, and especially when you’re a young woman,” Scarborough said. “I have felt really supported by the community when it comes to that.”

One of those hills to climb was enrollment – up 20 percent this school year, Scarborough said. There are 156 students enrolled this year across grades K-3 through 12.

“It’s a big year for us,” Scarborough said.

There was a lot of interest for upper school students she said, which was “organic growth.” There was also an influx of interest that came in following the closure of the Pawleys Island Christian Academy located just across Highway 17, she said.

Leadership at Pawleys Island Community Church, which operated the academy, announced earlier this month that it would “formally end” the ministry. A statement from the church cited the ongoing investigation into a registered sex offender who had been allowed to work at the school and the church.

Lowcountry Prep is one of the few faith-based schools in the area.

“We were happy to be able to be here and home some of those families and do what we could with the spots that we had open for our pre-K and kindergarten,” Scarborough said.

There was so much interest from parents, she said, that the school opened a second section of kindergarten. That’s unusual for the school because every grade, from pre-K to high school seniors, has one classroom each.

This is the first year the school is serving 3-year-olds. Lowcountry Prep introduced programs for 4-year-olds last year.

The school has maintained an 80 percent retention rate, she added.

“That was a blessing to be able to do that,” she said. “We were full.”

After spending a decade at the school, Scarborough said she has never experienced the amount of passion she has seen at the beginning of this school year.

“I’ve never seen parents as passionate as they are now about our school and committees,” she said. “That drive, I think, is what’s really pushing our enrollment and our success so well.”

Scarborough said she had been pleasantly surprised by the support shown to her new initiatives, such as adding jeans to the teacher dress code.

The school has made some structural changes this year.

“We’ve gone back to the way things were a few years ago,” Scarborough said.

Two teachers at the school now work alongside her. Lindsey Blomdahl is the upper school director and Emily Livingston serves as the lower school director.

“What’s special is that we’re an all-woman team,” Scarborough said, adding that they call themselves “the trifecta.”

Between the three women, they have a collective 35 years of experience at Lowcountry Prep.

“That’s what the school was really missing, that heart,” she said. “It’s kind of come back into the leadership here which is really special.”

Building relationships with teachers, students and their families is something that is important to her as a leader, Scarborough said. It’s also unique to the school, she added.

“It’s intangible in so many ways but that’s what you’re getting that a public school isn’t giving you,” Scarborough said.

Scarborough succeeds Wes Wehunt, who had been the headmaster since July of 2023. Wehunt, a North Carolina native, returned to Charlotte to be near his family, she said.

Wehunt was the one who brought her into the administration, Scarborough said.

“We’re here for the long haul,” she said.

She also comes to the position a year after the school celebrated its 30th anniversary last fall. What was known as the Lowcountry Day School opened in August 1995, at the Pawleys Island Presbyterian Church’s educational building for 29 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Scarborough often envisions what the next 30 years will look like. She sees more science labs, clubs and a waiting list full of eager students.

“I feel like we’re a little jewel that a lot of people don’t know about,” Scarborough said.