Okatie Elementary, Bluffton: zone, report card and calendar

Last checked Oct. 12, 2026. Sources: the school’s website; the Beaufort County School District’s attendance zone maps, 2026-27 academic calendar and school choice page; the S.C. Department of Education’s 2024-25 report card and report card data files; and the federal NCES school directory.

Okatie Elementary is a Beaufort County School District elementary school at 53 Cherry Point Road, in the Okatie area north of town. Its mailing address is Bluffton, 29909, but the campus sits outside the town limits on the Census Bureau’s boundary map, and the state report card lists its city as Okatie. It earned an Excellent overall rating on South Carolina’s 2024-25 report card.

Who to call

• Front office: 843-322-7700, 53 Cherry Point Road
• School website: oes.beaufortschools.net
• Enrolling a new student: register through the zoned school; the district’s registration page explains the steps. District office: 843-322-2300
• Which school is my address zoned for? the district’s attendance zone maps
• Buses: the district’s Bluffton area transportation supervisor, 843-706-8402, on the transportation page

Principal

Principal Tracy Lanese, according to the school’s administration page, which says she has worked in the district for more than two decades. The assistant principal is Alison Hall.

Enrollment and teachers

• State count: 648 students in the 2024-25 school year, according to the state’s report card.
• Federal count: 599 students in the 2023-24 school year, with 54 full-time-equivalent teachers, according to the NCES directory. That is about 11 students per teacher.

State report card

South Carolina rates every public school each year as Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average or Unsatisfactory. An Excellent rating means “school performance substantially exceeds the criteria to ensure all students meet the Profile of the SC Graduate,” according to the state’s report card site. The overall rating is built from indicators such as academic achievement, preparing for success, student progress, English learners’ progress and school climate, with graduation rate and college and career readiness added for high schools.

2024-25 rating: Excellent, 65 points. On the state’s elementary school scale, Excellent 61 to 100, Good 53 to 60, Average 42 to 52, Below Average 34 to 41 and Unsatisfactory 33 and below.

On the spring 2025 SC READY tests in grades 3 to 5, 75.7% of students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts and 70.1% in math; on the state science test, 63.6% did, according to the state’s report card data. Across the district, in grades 3 to 8, the figures were 60.5% in English, 46.4% in math and 49.7% in science.

The full report card, with test results by group, teacher data, school safety and spending, is on the state’s SC School Report Cards site. The state publishes new ratings each fall.

Attendance zone

Check an address on the district’s elementary zone map. Okatie’s zone covers the area north of the town limits, and only a small part of the town itself. On the district’s 2024-25 maps, nearly all of the Okatie zone lies in the Bluffton Middle and May River High zones; check the middle and high school maps for an address.

The district says its maps are for reference only: Bluffton is growing fast, newer streets may not yet appear, and families should always confirm with the school. We did not find a published feeder list on the district’s site, so the pairings above come from laying the district’s elementary, middle and high school zone maps over each other.

Calendar and school hours

Okatie Elementary follows the district’s 2026-27 calendar. Coming dates from the academic calendar (PDF):

• Tuesday, Oct. 13: end of the first quarter
• Tuesday, Nov. 3: Election Day, no school
• Wednesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day, no school
• Nov. 25-27: Thanksgiving break
• Dec. 23 to Jan. 5: winter break; students return Wednesday, Jan. 6

School hours: 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., according to the school’s website.

Programs

The district lists Learning Through Leadership at Okatie Elementary, open only to students zoned for the school. Pre-K is offered at every district elementary school for children who are 4 on or before Sept. 1, with places going first to the children with the greatest need after a screening, and kindergarten is full day for children who are 5 by Sept. 1, according to the district’s registration page. BCSD Choice programs let county families apply to a program at a school outside their zone; for 2026-27, applications were due Jan. 15, 2026, a lottery decides when a program has more applicants than seats, and the district does not provide buses to an out-of-zone choice school, according to the school choice page.

More

• The school’s own website and the district’s project page for the school’s buildings
• Every public school in Bluffton, with zones and report cards
• Our Bluffton schools guide for the district calendar, enrollment and the school board

Frequently asked questions

What grades does Okatie Elementary serve?

Okatie Elementary serves pre-K through fifth grade. Pre-K is for children who are 4 by Sept. 1; kindergarten is full day.

What is Okatie Elementary’s school rating?

Okatie Elementary was rated Excellent, with 65 points on South Carolina’s 2024-25 school report card, the latest the state has published.

Which middle and high school does Okatie Elementary feed into?

On the district’s 2024-25 zone maps, nearly all of the Okatie Elementary zone lies in the Bluffton Middle zone and the May River High zone.

What time does Okatie Elementary start?

The school day runs 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., according to the school’s website.

How do I know if my address is zoned for Okatie Elementary?

Check the Beaufort County School District’s attendance zone maps, then confirm with the school at 843-322-7700. The district says newer streets may not yet appear on the maps.