During the 2024-2025 school year, students, faculty, and parents of Sugar Creek Elementary focused on our school’s mission that all students will learn at high levels in a safe and supportive environment. This is directly connected to our district’s vision of Children First…. Every Day. Our goal is to focus on the whole child by instructing students at high levels in the areas of academic achievement, social emotional learning and behavioral support. Fort Mill School District worked diligently to develop a comprehensive systems-oriented approach to integrating academic, social and behavioral support for each student (Ci3T). Our school continued to implement school wide expectations for students, staff and parents. School wide expectations are directly related to the positive behavior plan that guides all students and staff.
Sugar Creek is recognized as a Professional Development Partnership School with Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. This partnership allowed our teachers to further develop their teaching instruction and leadership skills by attending multiple trainings offered by the university. Through this partnership, our teachers hosted pre-service teachers for internships and observation sessions in their classrooms.
Our classroom teachers participate twice a week in Professional Learning Teams (PLT) through our Professional Learning Community (PLC). Each week, our Reading Coach and Math Coach guided our teachers in identifying essential standards and aligning their teaching practices with the South Carolina State Standards. Through the PLC process, teachers set academic goals for themselves and their students, which align with our school improvement plan. Our reading and math coaches supported our teachers through modeling lessons and coaching cycles throughout the year. Through this type of reinforcement, teachers are able to analyze student work and data to drive their reading and math instruction and track the progress of their students with more confidence.
In order to continue meeting the rigorous standards and needs of our students, this year, our Math and Reading Specialists invested their instruction time working in small groups with our Tier 3 students. Within our specialist team, SCES has one Early Intervention teacher, who served our Tier 3 first grade At Risk Reading students throughout the year, and supported students in differentiated groups within kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms. Early Literacy Intervention is a vital component to our Multi-Tier Support System (MTSS).
The Multi-Tier Support System helps us identify students who are in need of more intense instructional support in addition to the instruction he/she is receiving in the classroom. Our MTSS team worked to examine data and provided small group or one-on-one instruction to students who needed it the most in an effort to close the achievement gap. Our monthly MTSS meetings and use of our data allowed teachers and the MTSS team to progress monitor and continue to meet students at their academic level. It also helps teachers identify essential grade level standards that students may need more time with and they can provide this reteaching or additional instructional time.
The STAR assessment was utilized this year as an additional progress monitoring tool for all students who were served through our MTSS model. These methods and practices allowed the opportunity to positively impact all students and maximize their potential growth no matter where they were in their learning continuum. It is our continued goal to meet the needs of all learners.
Students identified for Gifted and Talented (GT) services were served in a pullout math and language arts model that ensured a differentiated approach toward mastery of the standards. Our teachers and staff serve the needs of our students by providing rich lessons which incorporate reading and writing through the science of reading; math through small group guided math lessons; science through a hands-on approach; and social studies through the use of primary sources. Our students with IEPs received individualized instruction from our special education teachers based on their goals in addition to instruction on grade level standards through a co-teaching approach.
Sugar Creek has been recognized for the fourteenth year by the Anti-Defamation League as a No Place for Hate School. No Place for Hate is the vehicle which drives our character program and honors diversity amongst students, families, and faculty members. Our school-wide character program focuses on “Shark Strong” traits such as showing respect, having integrity, and being kind. These are the pillars of our character program that support our students, staff and families to be a No Place for Hate school.
As we close out the 2024-2025 school year, it is with great pride that we celebrate the successes of our students, staff and community. Some of these celebrations include the implementation of our Ci3T model, student achievement scores in reading and math, and continuing to close the achievement gap with our ESL students. We are proud of our school and proud to be part of a district that upholds the tradition of excellence that is the Fort Mill School District.
Jennifer Hendershot, Principal
