During our 20th year of operation, Round Top Elementary continues its mission to help all students develop the World Class Skills of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by providing a rigorous and engaging academic learning environment characterized by: relationship building, critical thinking, collaboration, meaningful feedback, and arts integration. As a SC State Department of Education Collective Leadership Initiative, AVID Elementary, Arts in the Basic Curriculum school, and 7 Mindsets school, we believe that teaching these skills and providing opportunities for students to utilize them builds confidence and aids in the development of a “growth mindset” while working towards the school vision that “All Who Enter Learn to SOAR.” 

We believe children learn through observation and imitation of the adults in their lives; therefore we commit to teaching and modeling the following:

• Growth Mindset: choosing to think positively about challenges helps us to grow as we change for the better.

• Knowledge: learning is a limitless process influenced by the provision of equitable opportunities and life experiences.

• Achievement: understanding that everyone can achieve and that our individual success is a result of continuous effort and personal accountability.

• Integrity: behaving in respectful ways that earn trust with  everyone - students, teachers, parents, and community members.

• Service: providing selfless, intentional, and purposeful acts of kindness for others with humility.

We believe equipping students with these skills prepares them to excel in their personal pathways. This year, students continued to achieve as they explored their talents and discovered their strengths:

• All students and teachers participated in daily social emotional learning lessons using the 7 Mindsets curriculum. These teacher facilitated lessons taught students essential social emotional competencies proven by research to be essential for personal happiness and success.

• One student was honored as a recipient of the Jefferson Award for his efforts in “multiplying good” in our community, performing at Soda City each weekend to raise money for Midlands charities to include: The 911 Fund, animal shelter, and homeless shelter.

• One student was offered a role in a children's television series.

• One student was featured on WACH Fox news in recognition of her service for raising over $400 for Pet Meals on Wheels to feed pets of local senior citizens. She also raised $600 for Christmas bags and $500 for the Richland 2 food pantry.

• Six students were selected to represent RTE and Richland 2 at the Tri-District Arts Consortium for demonstrating artistic excellence in Dance, Strings, Visual Arts, Theater, and Vocal categories -the highest number of students selected from all Richland 2 elementary schools. Two students qualified in more than one category. 

• Forty RTE Alumni attended our 8th Annual Aviator Senior Walk, where our current Aviators celebrated the high school graduations of former RTE students. These Aviator Alumni continue to excel in their secondary pursuits achieving: track, softball, and various academic scholarships.

We believe that rigorous learning environments for students is a direct result and reflection of the rigorous learning opportunities for educators. To that end, RTE’s dedicated faculty and staff engage in on-going professional development in an effort to learn evidence-based strategies that are proven effective for meeting the needs of all students. Professional learning for the 2022-2023 school year focused on increasing the routine use of evidence based instructional practices to include: guided reading, interactive read aloud, shared reading, interactive writing, independent reading/writing, strategy groups (for ELA and Math), and peer teacher observations. Additionally, teachers used AVID strategies to differentiate the learning process and increase rigor. Faculty and staff individually and collectively continued to excel in their professional pathways as evidenced by the following:

• RTE increased the number of professional leave days among staff from 24 during the 2021-22 school year to 52 during the 2023-24 school year. These numbers represent the collective number of days faculty and staff participate in professional development opportunities on the local, state, and national levels.

• RTE participated in its second year of the Collective Leadership Initiative training with the SC State Department of Education, completing “Implementation Level” requirements. As a result of our efforts to improve school conditions, RTE was invited to present in the May 2023 CLI Showcase Program. 

• Thirteen faculty members serve on the RTE Collective Leadership Initiative school team, representing all grade levels and teams, including classified staff. The CLI Team works to improve school conditions by: building teacher leadership capacity and creating systems designed to support school needs, thereby positively impacting school culture. 

• RTE achieved Arts in the Basic Curriculum certification, earning grant funding for fine arts learning experiences. This process was facilitated by teachers in the fine arts department.

• RTE hosted an AVID Elementary Showcase whereby teachers from the southeast region attended this professional learning experience, which allowed them to observe RTE teachers modeling the use of AVID strategies in their daily classroom instruction. 

• Thirteen faculty members have completed AVID Pathway and/or 2023 Summer Institute Training to complete the following courses: AVID Elementary Foundations K-2; AVID Elementary Foundations 3-6; Creating Engaging and Rigorous Classrooms; Transforming Literacy Through Content Area Reading; Site Team Leaders.

We believe that the success of our school lies not only in the achievement of its students, and the talent of its teachers, but also in the support of our families and community. 

• The School Improvement Council focused its efforts on supporting the school’s plan to increase parent engagement by creating the Aviator Good Habits Challenge, which provided parent education about student success skills, as students earned incentives for practicing these good habits at home, such as: reducing screen time, getting 8 hours of sleep, and other good habits. 

• The Parent Teacher Organization raised over $45,000 utilized to replenish classroom literacy materials, increase school wide literacy resources, fund teacher grants, and support future playground upgrades. Additionally, the PTO hosted Boosterthon, WingMan 5K, and Spring Fling events to build community and relationships among RTE stakeholders (teachers, students, parents, and community members). 

We are proud of our long history of excellence in academics and the arts. As we continue our journey into our 21st year of operation, our goal is to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to create a lasting legacy of: Knowledge, Achievement, Growth Mindset, Integrity, and Service for generations of Aviators to come!