Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2020

40 www.ReadMPM.com | www.BestOfMP.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com feature in McClellanville. The town of Mount Pleasant provided practice fields for Oceanside’s athletes, and now, according to Corley, “the town uses our gym more than we do.” Corley arrived in the Lowcountry in 2001, after earning her high school diploma in Dallas, attending Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and completing her degree at the University of Central Florida. She earned her master’s in school counseling at The Citadel and later returned there for her master’s in educational leadership. Along the way, she taught Spanish at Clark Academy in James Island and was a guidance counselor at Summerville High School and a guidance director at Cane Bay High School. Then she received what she considers to be the most important phone call of her life – from Lucy Beckham, who was at the time the principal at Wando High School in Mount Pleasant. Starting out at Wando as an assistant principal, Corley eventually became the dean of the Ninth Grade Academy and an associate principal. After five years at Wando, she moved on to the top job at Oceanside. One factor that encouraged Corley to enter politics for the first time in her life was the “craziness” at Council meetings. “I thought, ‘I’m a counselor. Maybe I can help,’” she said. “I think that craziness is gone. The Council members are all good people. We’re moving in the right direction.” Corley said the most important issues facing Mount Pleasant are infrastructure and managing growth. “People are going to keep coming. Towns that aren’t growing are dying,” she commented. “We’re all here looking for a safe, quaint, beautiful town. We’re a big town, but people still know each other here.” She pointed out that it’s critical for Mount Pleasant to transition from a construction-based economy and attract businesses that will grow along with the town. She added, however, that it really doesn’t matter what she thinks. “We are a voice for the people,” she said. “I have to get a good grasp on what the people who put me in office want. All politicians need to stay true to that.” Corley is optimistic that she’ll be able to handle her new “part-time” job. “After opening a high school, it doesn’t matter what comes next,” she remarked. “Nothing can be harder than that.” COUNCILWOMAN LAURA HYATT “Mount Pleasant must remain financially strong.” Mount Pleasant’s population has soared since Laura Hyatt, the youngest of five kids, was growing up in the Moss Park neighborhood. No longer a sleepy suburb of Charleston, her hometown is among the fastest-growing municipalities of its size in the entire nation. And though much has changed in the past half century or so, some things have remained constant for one of the newest members of the Town Council. For example, she still lives in her childhood home in Moss Park, and she still is so enamored with her hometown that she hopes her 12-year-old daughter, Ava, will follow in her footsteps and spend her life in Mount Pleasant as well. “The main reason I ran for the Council is my love for my hometown and passion for the direction the town will go in the future,” said Hyatt. “I have a school-age daughter, and I hope she’ll make Mount Pleasant her home.” Hyatt, who never sought political office before November 2019, graduated from Wando High School, the College of Charleston and the Medical University of South Carolina and has been a pharmacist for almost 30 years. Despite Mount Pleasant’s population explosion, she thinks the town is headed in the right direction. “We’re managing growth a lot better now,” she pointed out. She added, however, that it’s important for the town’s population growth to continue to slow down “so our Brenda Corley.