The staff at Thomas E. Kerns Elementary School is committed to the Greenville County Schools Graduation Plus initiative: Building a Better Graduate: Creating Career and College Ready Students. We are extremely proud of the hard work our staff, students, and parents put forth this year to rise up to the challenges during the pandemic. Our goal is to develop in all students the world class knowledge, skills, life and career characteristics necessary for success by providing learning opportunities tailored to meet each student’s individual needs. In addition to our emphasis on academics, we foster and teach the value of education, healthy lifestyles, physical, social and emotional learning, and the character traits of integrity, self-direction, perseverance, work ethic, and interpersonal skills.
The mission of Thomas E. Kerns Elementary School is to develop successful, responsible, and respectful life-long learners. We accomplish our mission by ensuring that we have competent and capable staff members in our school. We believe our commitment to quality professional learning communities, instructional coaching, and professional development strengthens our Tier 1 instruction and provides our learners with a quality education. Teachers meet to collaborate and analyze data weekly to improve results for all students and to reflect on their classroom practices. In addition, the administration, behavior coach, and guidance counselor assist in the development of responsible and respectful learners by providing ways for students to demonstrate these character traits. Our learners receive classroom guidance, social and emotional daily activities, student of the month celebrations, attendance incentives, behavior and academic incentives, tutoring, clubs (Good News Club, Girls on the Run, Chess Club, etc.), STEAM Lab, Read Across America activities, WTEK morning news show, and other opportunities during the year.
The vision of Thomas E. Kerns Elementary School is to encourage a culture of excellence for students, staff, parents, and the community. Our social worker connects us with various churches and community organizations that provide us with school supplies, clothes, food, and other resources for some of our families. The social worker secures community partners who are dedicated to mentoring our learners. Our students also give back to the community by sponsoring a canned food drive during Super Bowl week. The parent involvement coordinator and Title I facilitator host parenting workshops to support the parents’ growth in the following areas: social emotional learning, academics, and behavior. The School Improvement Council initiative inspires learners to pay it forward through the love of reading and our annual Spring Fling.
At Thomas E. Kerns, we are a community dedicated to building better graduates. Our teachers, staff members and community partners work together to help every student achieve success. We are dream chasers, daring to dream and working to make dreams reality. Catch the Wildcat Spirit!
Elaine Naradowski, SIC Chairperson
