St. John’s High School's mission is to provide a high-quality learning experience that prioritizes positive relationships and maintains high expectations to ensure all students graduate college and career-ready. As we celebrated our Centennial school year, we worked towards achieving our vision of becoming an excellent-rated high school that produces world-class citizens and lifelong learners. The faculty, staff, and school leadership consider St. John’s a “small school that provides big opportunities.” This school year, we focused on teacher development, academic opportunities for students to gain the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate, and parent and community engagement.
The St. John’s teaching staff participated in countless hours of professional development designed specifically to provide them with instructional strategies needed for improved academic outcomes. All of our teachers participated in multiple half-day training sessions with our instructional coach and district instructional specialists that focused on the PLC process. In these training sessions, the teachers looked at essential standards in their courses and learned to be very intentional about what and how they taught those standards. The teachers put some of what they learned into practice in the classroom and also learned how to analyze what was taught and how to reteach what the students didn’t know. We also had all our core content teachers not already Gifted and Talented certified (except for a retiring teacher) undergo Gifted and Talented certification training this school year. The teachers worked through the training as a cohort in both the fall and spring semesters and will all be certified Gifted and Talented teachers by the end of this school year.
We continue to add more academic opportunities for students to become college and career-ready by the time they graduate. This year, we partnered with Trident Technical College to provide a 4-course series of Dual Enrollment classes taught by TTC professors here at St. John’s. These courses, two other Dual Enrollment courses taught by one of our teachers, and our Advanced Placement course offerings give students multiple options to earn college credit and become college-ready. We continue to provide numerous opportunities for students to take college entrance exams (SAT/ACT) and the military entrance ASVAB exam. This year, we also partnered with local businesses and entrepreneurs to provide 40 hours of career-based training and education to a cohort of senior students who still needed to be college/career-ready as a way to ensure that these students graduated meeting those expectations.
We continue laying the groundwork for an active Parent-Teacher-Student Association. We hope this group will be officially functioning by the start of the 2024 school year. This year, we have reinvigorated our School Improvement Council (SIC) and held several meetings to engage the community and alumni. Our SIC has worked with other SICs in Constituent District 9 to collaborate on improving all D9 schools, focusing on keeping all students in D9 for high school and attending St. John’s.
Athletically, we continue to grow as a school. We provide various competitive sports, including Football, Volleyball, Cross Country, Wrestling, Girls and Boys Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Girls and Boys Soccer, and Girls and Boys Track. We have expanded our student participation in sports by adding JV Volleyball and JV Boys Soccer this school year. We continue to be competitive in sports, having won several regional championships. This year, we have also begun addressing our athletic facilities with current construction projects, including upgrades to our Football stadium and our Baseball and Softball fields at Johns Island Park.
As we move into the 24-25 school year, we will continue to work towards our vision of becoming an excellent-rated school that produces world-class citizens and lifelong learners. We will expand our dual enrollment opportunities by adding another 4-course series taught by Trident Technical College professors, bringing our total number of college credit courses offered to 12. We have seven teachers approved to attend Advanced Placement training this summer, bringing our total of teachers certified to teach Advanced Placement courses to 8. We will continue to improve our school culture by working with our Student Government Association (which was re-established this school year) to give students a voice in decision-making. We are headed in the right direction. We are Mighty Islanders!
Jermaine Joyner, Principal
Millicent Middleton, SIC Chair
