Anderson Mill Elementary is located on 92 acres just above the North Tyger River in Moore, South Carolina. The school's unique architecture and stone foundation were created to emulate the design of the historical Anderson family grist mill that still remains today. The old mill dates back to the late 1700's and served as a center of commerce and the location for Spartanburg County's first session of circuit court in 1785. The history of the Mill is significant to the area and contributes to the pride that our students take in our school and the surrounding community.
As Anderson Mill celebrates its 27th year, the school population and geographical area has changed significantly. When the school opened, there were less than 400 students on campus and only one residential neighborhood within walking distance. Today, we have approximately four housing developments within 100 yards of our campus and seven new housing developments within our school zone. We currently have 695 students with five teachers in kindergarten, second, third, and fifth grade. We have six teachers in first and fourth grade.. Additionally, we house one 4K class at Anderson Mill that serves 20 students in a full-day program and four self-contained special education classes. To meet the wide range of physical, social, emotional, and academic needs of our diverse student population, we have 103 employees including: certified teachers, three assistant principals, clinical counselor, behavior coach, teaching assistants, literacy coach, math coach, ML teacher, occupational therapists, gifted and talented teachers, special education teachers, physical therapists, school psychologist, two school counselors, registered nurse, two speech therapists, security guard and a resource officer on staff.
At Anderson Mill Elementary, our staff prepares students to develop characteristics and skills aligned with the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. Our school's mission is to develop competent and confident lifelong learners by creating a safe, positive, and innovative environment where the staff, parents, and community work together to provide a curriculum that recognizes individual differences and allows for students to reach their maximum potential. It is the intent of the faculty and staff to lead students toward being disciplined, productive, informed, and fulfilled individuals. To achieve these ideals, mutual respect and understanding must be present in the learning process on the part of all participants: faculty and staff, students, families, and the community.
Our teachers continuously participate in yearlong professional development sessions to increase their knowledge of literacy, phonics, math and technology. Our teachers continue to implement project-based learning into their practices for increasing student engagement, fostering critical thinking, and providing inquiry based experiences. Our school continues to offer a variety of individualized learning pathways in ELA and math. Our students and teachers focus on differentiated support in reading and math through our Multi Tiered System of Supports.
In addition to academics, our students are exposed to the fine arts from kindergarten to fifth grade. Our fifth graders participated in band or strings twice a week through their related arts block. Each grade level showcased a musical program that integrated the arts and instructional standards for parents and students to enjoy. The implementation of these programs, in conjunction with a rigorous curriculum and an individualized approach to instruction, have increased student achievement. By creating a more individualized approach to teaching and learning, we are working to meet the needs of learners from every subgroup in our diverse student population.
At Anderson Mill Elementary, we are “On the PROWL towards Excellence," continuously embracing our challenges and celebrating our successes. Our dedicated teaching staff embodies an attitude that focuses on continuous improvement and keeping students at the center of all instructional and policy decisions. Because of this attitude and our dedication to our mission and vision, we have seen high levels of student achievement. Our school earned a rating of ‘Good’ and a standard score of 60 on our 2024 school report card. Although this score is a two point decrease from the 2023 school report card of ‘Excellent’ and standard score of 62, we continue to meet high achievement and high growth in our subdomain categories. In 2024, 57.9% of our students scored ‘meets or exceeds’ in ELA and 59.4% scored ‘meets or exceeds’ in math. The results of these assessments are being used to help drive our instructional practices toward a more rigorous approach to curriculum and assessments. The incorporation of assessment items, that require a greater depth of knowledge, have been added to our formative and summative assessment tools. Our students are leading their own academic conferences with parents to share their growth towards their own individual academic goals. Teachers are tailoring their tier one instruction to more critical thinking and problem solving strategies. Our professional development has been centered on taking a closer look at the science of reading and phonics, tiered support for the whole child, increasing rigor in tier one instruction, and initiating engaging, hands-on learning experiences.
In addition to academics, our school continues to focus on service learning projects to instill a sense of purpose and civic responsibility. Our children have the opportunity to "give back" as we embrace several community outreach projects. Our school continues to prioritize our students’ social and emotional health. Two of our dedicated community members volunteer their time to serve as mentors to a few of our fifth grade boys and girls weekly. Our counselors continue to provide classroom social-emotional (SEL) lessons and small group lessons for students who need additional support.
At Anderson Mill Elementary, we have tremendous support from our parents and the community. Our Anderson Mill PTO meets monthly to organize and plan events for our students and staff. Through their hard work and fundraising efforts, the school has benefited with student resoureces.
We have a wonderful group of parents and community members who serve on our School Improvement Council (SIC). Through parent surveys and teacher forums, the SIC works to determine the needs of our stakeholders and implement strategies and action steps to meet those needs. This year, our SIC collaborated with our stakeholders and our faculty as we evaluated our protocols and instructional needs. Through this process, we were able to evaluate our school’s beliefs and best practices as we strive to continuously improve.
Our school Safety Committee meets biweekly to assess our safety efforts and supervision. This year we began a student safety team. In addition to our armed security guard, we added an Evolv weapons detector for each entrance to our building. For these and many others, we are extremely grateful they invest their time in our school and with our children!
