I want to welcome you back for the 2019-2020 school year in our Georgetown County School District. It is going to be a great year!
While the 2018-2019 school year presented challenges, the Georgetown County School District continued to meet these obstacles and continue to be successful.
For the fourth consecutive fall, our school year was interrupted by inclement weather just as we were getting started, this time in mid-October. Like the three previous fall weather events, we worked closely with other county and state agencies in dealing with Hurricane Florence and the extensive preparations for predicted flooding. Luckily, the damage was not as drastic as expected or from the storms of the previous three years.
Financially, we have maintained our strong bond rating of Aa3 which reflects our “well-managed financial position with satisfactory reserves, and low debt burden with manageable pension costs,” according to Moody’s Investors Service. Out of 83 Districts in S.C., we rank near the bottom regarding millage rate for the District. Fourteen of our eighteen schools serve universal breakfast and lunch free of charge to all children.
As in previous years, we strive to make our facilities as safe as possible. We continue to utilize SROs/off-duty police officers at all school locations and many events. We have made renovations to secure entrances. The added cameras, check-in stations, visitor screenings, volunteer screening, metal detectors, drug dogs, etc. are part of our procedures to keep our campuses secure. We have also added cameras to our buses.
Georgetown County offers all students opportunities to develop world-class skills and life and career characteristics described in the “Profile of the South Carolina Graduate” by preparing them to be leaders in their communities, successful college graduates, outstanding members of our workforce, and our military. During the 2018-2019 school year students participated in robotics, STEM Camps, career internships, academic competitions, and all state fine arts to name a few of the extra-curricular experiences. Project Lead the Way became a reality in our elementary, middle, and high schools. Additional opportunities through virtual learning were experienced through more than 950 courses by our high school learners. These ranged from career classes, core honors classes, and advanced placement scenarios. These exciting, challenging, and rigorous courses added much depth to our program and allowed students to experience distance learning before attending college. Our 2019 graduating class earned an impressive $14,919,614 in scholarship money.
Georgetown County School District could not continue to be successful without the many vital partnerships that help our GCSD population. Our community, businesses, civic organizations, foundations, and parents are extremely supportive and giving. This enables us to serve not only the students’ academic needs, but their physical, social, and emotional needs as well.
Since the 2016 school bond referendum was overwhelmingly passed by voters, much research, planning and site work has taken place. The fruits of that labor are becoming evident throughout the district. Auxiliary gyms are either completed or near completed at each of our high schools, which also feature professional-grade rubber tracks at each stadium. The auxiliary gyms will offer the schools a great deal of flexibility for games and practice schedules. Also, vital upgrades to heating and air conditioning units, roof repairs and technology are important improvements being made that might go unnoticed. This is most definitely an exciting time as facilities and equipment will be improved to help better educate our students.
We appreciate the continued support of our community, administration, teachers, staff, students, and parents as we continue to be successful having our students exemplify the “Profile of a South Carolina Graduate!” We look forward to working hard in 2019-2020 to achieve another year of great student accomplishments!