During the 2020-2021 school year, the Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies School Improvement Council discussed ways to improve home-school relationships, school beautification, partnering with our community, and increasing student academic achievement. Identifying these areas of focus during the school year, gave our team and staff direction and meaning when making decisions about what to implement for this year.
Each teacher sent weekly newsletters to parents to provide open communication and transparency about events, assessments, assignments, etc. that would be taking place during the week. I also gathered information from non-homeroom teachers to include in our school-wide newsletter that was sent to families monthly. As a continued effort, home-school communication folders were sent home each Thursday with all students, only highly important or time sensitive information went out via our automatic phone system, and all staff was encouraged to continue contacts through conferences, phone calls, notes home, and email.
School Beatification was also an immediate concern of our SIC team this year. In response, we have newly painted hallways in our building. This made an incredible impact on the look and feel of our school, especially when outside visitors arrive for the first time.
Sunset Park staff, students and families take pride in our Rock Hill community. Our SIC team had a vision to embrace that pride and increase community involvement this year. As a result, many organizations have partnered to help with various events and initiatives this year. Among them are New Mount Olivet AME Zion Church, Clinton Junior College, and West End Baptist Church. The outcome and overwhelming response to be involved has been amazing. We are also in partnership with the College of Education at Winthrop University. Thanks to this partnership, Winthrop provides our school with human and financial resources to assist us in meeting the needs of our students. We are very pleased to be able to continue this close and collaborative connection with Winthrop for the coming school year! Our PTO continues to offer extracurricular events for our students. Events in the past have included BINGO Nights, Movie Nights, Spirit Nights, and a Boosterthon. All of these events include support from various community organizations in Rock Hill.
Increasing student academic achievement was also a lofty goal set forth by our SIC team. However, the teachers, staff, administration, students, and parents never disappoint and have exceeded goals this year despite the circumstances with COVID-19 during the end of the year. Sunset Park continues to offer our Accelerated Studies choice program for all students in our district. This program includes a clustered classroom option for students identified as Gifted and Talented (G/T) in 3rd through 5th grade. We offer enrichment cluster opportunities to every child, and every classroom teacher is G/T endorsed. As a result of offering this choice option for Rock Hill students, Sunset Park has continued to experience consistent growth. Our enrollment numbers this year have been steady, and we anticipate an increase in student enrollment in the 2020-2021 school year. Sunset Park has earned six South Carolina Palmetto Gold and Silver Awards for the academic performance of its students! We had five students earn perfect scores on the SCPASS and SCREADY test this past year. Additionally, we had forty-seven students who qualified as Duke TIP scholars this year. Our students continue to make us so proud! We were recently named a National Beta School of Merit. Within our own program, we identified 13 students who qualified for Gifted and Talented Services for the upcoming school year.
Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies continues to review all student data in order to make decisions that will positively impact student achievement and development. We are all excited about the possibilities that lie ahead for our students and our school!
Mr. Eric Johnson, SIC Chairman
Dr. Nakia H. Barnes, Principal