During the 2020-2021 school year, students, faculty, and parents of Sugar Creek Elementary focused on our school’s vision of putting children first, striving for excellence, and building positive relationships. This is directly connected to our district’s vision of Children First….Every Day. This year, due to the pandemic, our teachers and staff focused on keeping our students safe while staying committed to the engagement of academic, emotional and social aspects of our school programs. Our biggest concern for our students was the amount of time they had missed from school due to COVID during spring of 2020. Fort Mill School District worked diligently to ensure that students had the option to return safely to face-to-face learning, or education through a virtual model. Both of these models provided our students the opportunity to learn and continue to make gains in their education and progress in school. As a school, there were challenges that we faced which included teaching and learning through masks and plexi-glass. These preventative measures were important to have in place to keep our students and staff safe, but they were in some ways a hindrance to our students and staff. Contrastingly, many positive changes derived due to the pandemic. We were able to adopt new dismissal procedures and arrival procedures. These new procedures proved to be more efficient and effective. The family model kept our students and staff safe and classroom communities thrived due to the amount of time students and staff spent together throughout the day. This year was challenging and difficult, but our school community thrived and our students learned.
Sugar Creek is recognized as a Professional Development Partnership School with Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. This partnership allows our teachers to further develop their teaching instruction and leadership skills by attending multiple trainings offered by the university. Through this partnership, our teachers host pre-service teachers for internships and observation sessions in their classrooms.
In order to continue meeting the rigorous standards and needs of our students, this year, our Math and Reading Specialists invested their instruction time working in small groups with our Tier 3 students. The Multi-Tier Support System helps us identify students who are in need of more intense instructional support in addition to the instruction he/she is receiving in the classroom. Furthermore, our Reading Coach supported our teachers through modeling lessons and coaching cycles throughout the year. Through this type of reinforcement, teachers were able to analyze student work and data to drive their reading instruction and track the progress of their students with more confidence. On a weekly basis, our Reading Coach guided our teachers in building Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Through the PLC process, teachers are setting academic goals for themselves and their students, which align with our school improvement plan. Students identified for Gifted and Talented (GT) services were served in a pullout math and language arts model that ensured a differentiated approach toward mastery of the standards. Our teachers and staff served the needs of our students by providing rich lessons which incorporated reading through a balanced literacy approach; writing based on the Lucy Calkins Units of Study; math through small group guided math lessons; science through a hands-on approach using Foss and DSC science kits as well as the Discovery Education Tech-Book; and social studies through the use of primary sources. Sugar Creek has two Reading Recovery/Early Intervention teachers, who served our Tier 3 first grade Reading Recovery students throughout the year, and supported students in differentiated groups within kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms. Reading Recovery is a vital component to our Multi-Tier Support System (MTSS). This MTSS system supports students who are not performing on grade level and need interventions in a particular subject area. Our MTSS team works to examine data and provide small group or one-on-one instruction to students who need it the most in an effort to close the achievement gap. Our monthly MTSS meetings and use of our data wall allows teachers and the MTSS team to progress monitor and continue to meet students at their academic level. The STAR program was utilized this year as an additional progress monitoring tool for all students who were served through our MTSS model. These methods and practices allows the opportunity to positively impact all students and maximize their potential growth no matter where they are in their learning continuum. It is our continued goal to meet the needs of all learners.
Sugar Creek has been recognized for the tenth year by the Anti-Defamation League as a No Place for Hate School. No Place for Hate is the vehicle which drives our character program and honors diversity amongst students, families, and faculty members. Our school-wide character program focuses on “Shark Strong” traits such as showing respect, having integrity, and being kind. These are the pillars of our character program that support our students, staff and families to being a No Place for Hate school.
This year began with a lot of uncertainty and trepidation from our students, staff and families. Our district leaders, principals and staff worked together as a unified team to make this year a positive one for our students. Despite the challenges, changes and inability to do many things our schools were accustomed to doing, our school district went above and beyond to develop a plan that would keep all students safe and provide instruction that upholds the tradition of excellence that is the Fort Mill School District.
Michelle Gritz, Principal
