The school was established in 1970. The school had an unusual design. The main building was divided into octagonal 'pods', each containing eight
chevron-shaped classrooms. This design was borne out of the
open classroom concept that was popular during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the school's early days, classrooms within each pod had no walls, allowing students to participate in any one of several classes occurring at one time. This did not prove successful, and walls were later added to separate the classroom pods by the early 1980s. In 2008, a new three story building replaced the pods as the new school building, integrating the original gymnasium and fine arts buildings as the only remaining pieces of the original campus. In the 2023 to 2024 school year, the school had an enrollment of 2,314. Later that month, the officer was fired after an internal review found that his actions ran counter to sheriff's department policy. The
FBI and the
US Department of Justice in 2015 were investigating to determine if the deputy violated the student's civil rights. In response to the incident, South Carolina lawmakers, led by
Rep. Mia McLeod, in 2016 proposed limitations to the state statute that defines when students can be arrested for disrupting schools. School district administrators also promised to conduct additional staff training about when to involve school resource officers in future incidents. However, the school resource officer garnered massive amounts of support from coworkers and students of Spring Valley. There was enormous outrage by the student body over the issue being turned into a racial issue, and the students actually organized a peaceful walkout in support of the resource officer. ==Magnet programs==