Doby’s Mill Elementary School spent the 2021-2022 school year working to create an academically driven and nurturing school environment. Our Title I school continued to be successful in meeting the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of our students through meaningful relationships between school, home and the community. This year, Doby’s Mill was able to continue the Be Great program in the afternoon, which extended the school day to over 150 students, offering students and academic and developmental support. Doby's Mill also provided after school tutoring to first through fifth grade students that were struggling to meet and maintain grade level standards.
Doby’s Mill is blessed with a faculty and staff who are highly qualified and dedicated to the field of education. Our staff made it their daily mission to provide students with a safe learning environment while meeting standards and instructional demands. We continued our venture as a 1-to-1 school, continuing to provide balanced literacy, project-based learning opportunities, and hands-on experiences. Students received a rigorous educational experience as well as a variety of enrichment opportunities, including STEAM lab, Art, and SEAGUL. We also were able to provide students with additional leadership opportunities to include Special Olympics, DME Ambassadors, Archery, Lunch Bunch, STARBASE and Beta Club. We continued in our mission to raise kind, empathetic students through our character education program.
Even though this was another challenging year, we did not forget our mission to incorporate a sense of service to our students. Our service learning program was in its third year, and even though we continued to deal with the pandemic, we were able to have a successful year. Our students had jobs throughout the school, raised money for the United Way, donated items to the VA, donated socks to the homeless, collected can goods for the local food shelter, and many others.
Teachers participated in yearlong professional development through professional learning committees as well as participated in the continuation of our school wide strategy – 12 Power Words. This year, we continued our focus with the implementation of a daily enrichment time and a full-time Reading Interventionist and two Intervention Assistants to better meet the needs of all students by providing appropriate intervention for students.
Our stakeholders continue to be a large support to our students. While we did have challenges this year, Doby’s Mill had a successful year developing our learners of Kershaw County with the involvement of our supportive School Improvement Council, strong PTA volunteers, and caring business partners. Through school and community relations, fervent teachers, and strong leadership, Doby’s Mill Elementary School strives to educate future leaders from the moment they step foot on Dolphin territory.
School-wide goals for the 2021-22 school year included:
1. Create an academic culture that promotes rigorous instruction for all students to prepare them to become College- and Career-Ready.
2. Implement strategies to sustain a positive and encouraging school culture.
3. Create a professional learning environment that attracts and supports highly qualified and diverse faculty and staff.
4. Develop coalitions with families and community stakeholders to enrich and support the well-being of our students.
Alana Powers, Principal
Jeremy Horne, SIC Chairperson
