Our District continued to use a modified year-round calendar for the 2024-25 school year. This calendar provided opportunities for additional breaks that have proven to be beneficial for both students and teachers. Latta High School continued to support a one-to-one initiative with all students being issued Chromebooks, which allowed instruction to continue to take place when student absences or eLearning days were necessary.
Latta High School is accredited through Cognia and during our Cognia evaluation in 2022-2023, we were able to determine the need to focus on differentiated instruction for our staff development. During the 2024-25 school year, our departments created data teams to target students needing additional support in order to achieve success. We have utilized Monday teacher meetings and in-service days to provide opportunities for teachers to meet with their teams. Teachers also continued to have opportunities to develop their technology skills through staff development conducted by our Teacher Leaders. This enabled our faculty to continue to improve their technology skills to be better prepared to serve our students.
During the 2024-25 school year, Latta High School promoted World Class Knowledge by offering rigorous courses in the International Baccalaureate Programme. We have forty juniors and seniors taking courses in this program and five are working for the International Baccalaureate Diploma. Our goal is to increase the number participating in this program in the next few years. Our Project Lead the Way Engineering program has continued to grow, and we have fifteen students completing all four courses in the pathway this year. Our agriculture program is also gaining numbers, and we will have five agriculture completers this year. We certainly want to continue to grow both of these programs.
Our extracurricular activities have been well-supported during the 2024-25 school year. Our agriculture team once again hosted a regional competition for high schools from across our area. The Farm Business Management Team won the state competition, and this group traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana to compete in the national competition. Our agriculture students continue to work diligently to make our greenhouse a huge success. People throughout the community purchase various types of plants from our greenhouse, and the proceeds help fund our agriculture program. Our Academic Challenge Team placed first in the Region and competed at the state competition where they placed second in the state. Our Varsity Football Team, Varsity Volleyball Team, and both varsity basketball teams were in the playoffs this year. Our Cross Country Team and members of our Track Team also qualified to participate in the state competition. In addition, our Golf Team qualified to participate in the state competition. During the 2024 season, the Varsity Baseball Team won the Lower State Championship Title, and they made it to the lower state finals again during the 2025 season. The Varsity Softball Team earned the title of Lower State Champions during the 2025 season. This group of young ladies went on to earn the title of A State Champions! We are certainly proud of this accomplishment.
Our continued implementation of Inquiry-Based instruction also led to the development of World Class Skills, to include critical thinking, problem solving, and innovation. Students were once again able to work in groups to collaborate on activities and projects in the classroom. Teachers continued to utilize Google Classroom for assignments, which supports our technology initiative.
We continued to stress the development of Life and Career Characteristics through students participating in Individual Graduation Plan Conferences in order to plan for their chosen careers. All seniors were able to participate in our College Application Day, which provided assistance with the college application process. All participating seniors completed at least one college application and many completed several applications during the event. We anticipate a large percentage of the senior class will enroll in postsecondary education in order to achieve their goals.
We continue to focus on our Arts programs. We once again had two Drama performances this year and two Dance performances. Band participated in several marching contests this fall and qualified to participate in the State Marching Competition. We also had a winter band concert and a spring concert. Students continued to participate in Region Band and Solo and Ensemble competitions. Our Art students continued to display art work at various functions at school and in the community.
We are proud of our students’ achievements and the efforts of our staff to exceed the challenges of a rigorous and relevant education to meet the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate. We believe with students, teachers, staff, School Improvement Council members, community members, and parents working collaboratively, we will continue to strive for excellence.
Nanette W. Carmichael, Principal
