Our school is helping all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by continuing to work together to create a nurturing, calm, safe environment in order to move forward with learning and teaching after a very difficult year.
This year has presented our staff and leadership team with many challenges from working remotely, to having A/B groups of face-to-face students, to moving all students not selecting our virtual option back into our building. Change was a constant which built resilience with staff and students. Our staff was dedicated to meeting the needs of students no matter what the setting happened to be.
Our teachers demonstrated unwavering dedication to the success of their students in overcoming the gaps in instruction due to Covid-19. There was significant focus in strengthening math skills of our students. Evidence of this dedication can be found in our benchmark of Read to Succeed scores in which all YRES 3rd grade students successfully demonstrated learned skills by meeting the expected benchmarks.
As a Title I school, we worked hard to stay connected with our families through Zoom, providing live demonstrations in the classrooms which were followed by discussions with coaches and teachers. This afforded us the chance to share strategies and celebrations and to provide parent sessions as well.
Our PTA encouraged students and teachers with treats this year as well as meeting teacher sponsorship requests for teaching aids and materials to help facilitate learning. With limited access to the building, they became creative with celebrations and recognitions for our students and staff. Our SIC also held our hands through the pandemic and meet faithfully to discuss ways we could support existing students and staff, ways to welcome in our new students through rezoning, and ways to welcome and support our new teachers moving from decommissioned schools.
In August, we are excited to launch our first phase towards becoming a performing arts program by adding dance. Due to many factors beyond the district's control, we had to take a step back and begin our program slowly. We are committed to providing exploration of the arts in 2021-2022 with the resources we have been given.
Sarah Myers, SIC Chair
Crystal Guyton, Principal
