I want to welcome you back for the 2020-2021 school year in our Georgetown County School District. It is going to be a great year!

While the 2019-2020 school year presented unprecedented challenges, the Georgetown County School District continued to meet these obstacles and be successful.

For the fifth consecutive fall, our school year was interrupted by inclement weather just as we were getting started. Like the four previous fall weather events, we worked closely with our county and state agencies in dealing with Hurricane Dorian and the extensive preparation this required. We were very fortunate to escape extensive damage once again and with our state approved e-learning in place, we were able to make-up this instructional time lost during the first semester.

In the Spring, we faced a never before seen challenge of a national and global pandemic impacting schools across our country.  On a moments notice, our teachers stepped up and provided a complete transformation of instruction, moving instantly from full face-to-face teaching and learning into a completely virtual model.  Additionally, our educators began working tirelessly to reach out and make contact with each and every student to ensure their individual needs were being met.  Finally, our food service and facilities personnel also began providing daily meals to all of our students, serving thousands of meals to families throughout the Spring.  While we continue to wage battle with the COVID-19 virus in our state and county, we are committed to providing all of the much needed services to each and every child. 

Financially, we have maintained our strong bond rating of Aa3 which reflects our “well-managed financial position with satisfactory reserves, and low debt burden with manageable pension costs,” according to Moody’s Investors Service.  Out of 83 Districts in S.C., we rank near the bottom regarding millage rate for the District.  Fourteen of our eighteen schools serve universal breakfast and lunch free of charge to all children. 

As in previous years, we strive to make our facilities as safe as possible. We continue to utilize SROs/off-duty police officers at all school locations and many events. We have made renovations to secure entrances. The added cameras, check-in stations, visitor screenings, volunteer screening, metal detectors, drug dogs, etc. are part of our procedures to keep our campuses secure. We have also added cameras to each of our school buses.

Georgetown County offers all students opportunities to develop world-class skills and life and career characteristics described in the “Profile of the South Carolina Graduate” by preparing them to be leaders in their communities, successful college graduates, outstanding members of our workforce, and our military. During the 2019-2020 school year students participated in robotics, STEM Camps, career internships, academic competitions, and all state fine arts to name a few of the extra-curricular experiences. Project Lead the Way continued to expand in our elementary, middle, and high schools. Additional opportunities through virtual learning were experienced through more than 950 courses by our high school learners. These ranged from career classes, core honors classes, and advanced placement scenarios. These exciting, challenging, and rigorous courses added much depth to our program and allowed students to experience distance learning before attending college. Our 2020 graduating class earned an impressive $10,797,691 in scholarship money. 

Georgetown County School District could not continue to be successful without the many vital partnerships that help our GCSD population. Our community, businesses, civic organizations, foundations, and parents are extremely supportive and giving. This enables us to serve not only the students’ academic needs, but their physical, social, and emotional needs as well. 

Since the 2016 school bond referendum was overwhelmingly passed by voters, much research, planning and site work has taken place. The fruits of that labor are becoming evident throughout the district. Auxiliary gyms have now been completed and opened at each of our high schools and all renovations to these schools are now complete  Additionally, vital upgrades to heating and air conditioning units, roof repairs and technology are important improvements being made that might go unnoticed.  We are currently completing several enhancement projects at our elementary schools that will be ready when we open the 2020-2021 school year and we are looking forward to welcoming students back into these refreshed and renovated school environments.  This is most definitely an exciting time as facilities and equipment continue to be improved to help better educate our students. 

We appreciate the continued support of our community, administration, teachers, staff, students, and parents as we work together in order for each student to exemplify the “Profile of a South Carolina Graduate!” We look forward to working hard in 2020-2021 to achieve another year of great student accomplishments!