Richland County School District One

2008-2009

Every year Richland One students and staff members are honored at local, state, regional and national levels for their outstanding academic, athletic and professional achievements. Here’s just a partial list of the many reasons we had to celebrate during the 2008-2009 school year:

	Hopkins Middle School Principal Goler Collins was chosen as one of four finalists for Time Warner Cable’s 2008 Champion Principal Award. More than 60 principals nationwide competed for the award which honors principals who support and encourage their teachers to use technology in the classroom.
	Thirty-three Richland One high-school seniors were named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, National Achievement Scholarship semifinalists and National Merit Commended Students, putting them in an elite group of high academic achievers across the nation.
	Adult education student Sophia House was named the 2008 National Dollar General Student of the Year, an award which is sponsored by the ProLiteracy America organization. She received her award at the National ProLiteracy America conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. ProLiteracy America is the largest adult literacy organization in the United States.
	Five Richland One employees were recognized as winners of the 2008 Diane Harlin Award for Excellence in Bookkeeping. The awards are presented each year to five school bookkeepers who epitomize standards of excellence for accuracy, timeliness and professional improvement. Winners were Pat Brunson of Dreher High School; Crawford Williams of W.A. Perry Middle School; Tonia Jenerette of Hopkins Elementary School; McKenzie Newton of Satchel Ford Elementary School; and Stacy Cunningham of Forest Heights Elementary School.
	Richland One’s Office of Financial Services received its 20th consecutive award for financial reporting excellence from the Government Finance Officers Association and the American Association of School Business Officials.
	The S.C. Minority Business Enterprise Center awarded Richland One its 2008 Procurement Award. The district was honored for its support of minority and rural businesses involved in its recent school construction projects.
	Crayton Middle School dance teacher Katy Strickland was named the South Carolina Dance Association’s South Carolina Dance Educator of the Year for 2008-2009.
	Lower Richland High School teacher Twanda Addison was named the 2008-2009 S.C. Association of Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year. Addison teaches health science, pharmacy technology and medical terminology at LR. She qualified for the award when she was named the 2008-2009 S.C. Health Science Technology Educators (a division of SCACTE) Teacher of the Year.
	The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) presented Richland One's Challenger Learning Center with the SEMAA Group Achievement Award for exceptional performance, innovations and impact made on K-12 students in the NASA education pipeline. The award was announced at the NASA-SEMAA Conference for Directors in Washington, DC.
	Nate White, principal of Olympia Learning Center, was awarded the prestigious Carolina Careers Governor’s Award as a 2008 Educational Champion of the Year. This award recognizes South Carolina educators who develop innovative and challenging programs to prevent or reduce the number of students dropping out of high school.
	The Satchel Ford Elementary Fine Arts Committee received the 2008-2009 State Department of Education Volunteer Award.
	Richland One fifth-grade teacher Kelley Sumner was named the 2008 National Elementary Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Sumner, who has taught at H.B. Rhame Elementary for 12 years, received the award and a $2,500 prize at the annual conference sponsored by the National Council for the Social Studies.
	Dreher High School senior Noah Fram made a perfect score on the ACT college entrance exam.
	Seven Richland One art students won first-place awards at the South Carolina State Fair.
	Twenty-four Richland One elementary schools received the highest national award for student nutrition from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
	Four members of the A.C. Flora High swim team (Ben Blackwell, John Metts, Janson Busby and Bill Flatt) captured first-place medals at the state championships at Clemson University.
	Olympia Learning Center Principal Nate White received the School Health Services Award from the S.C. Association of School Nurses. The award is presented each year to an individual who has made a positive impact on the lives of children through school health programs.
	Richland One was the first local school district to be awarded a $200,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation to create a Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) Program. JAG is a highly successful national dropout prevention program.
	Forty-five more Richland One teachers earned certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, bringing the district’s total number of National Board-certified teachers to 266.
	Richland One/Title I received site certification from the Parent-Child Home Program National Center. It met the criteria as an official replication site of The Parent-Child Home Program. Serving 100 families, the program targets children ages 16 months-2 years old.
	The C.A. Johnson Preparatory Academy Dance team performed at the 2009 BSC College Football National Championship Game in Miami, Florida.
	RISE SC, a network of individuals, businesses and advocacy organizations committed to comprehensive and sustained reform of our public education system, recognized Pine Grove Elementary School for achieving 100% voter registration among its certified staff. The school was awarded a $1,000 check.
	Dywanna Smith of Hand Middle School, Richland One’s 2008-2009 Teacher of the Year, was one of five finalists for 2009-2010 South Carolina Teacher of the Year.
	The Lower Richland High School girls basketball team won the 2009 Class 3A state championship, the team’s fourth consecutive state title.
	The S.C. School Boards Association presented St. Andrews Baptist Church its Champions for Public Education Award. The church was recognized for its generous support of students and staff at H.B. Rhame Elementary School.
	Lower Richland High School won the South Carolina Academic WorldQuest Competition. WorldQuest is a team game testing competitors’ knowledge of international affairs, geography, history and culture.
	Students from Southeast Middle School won a student movie production contest sponsored by Fort Jackson. The purpose of the movie was to introduce new students to their school.
	Lewis Greenview Elementary Principal Delores Gilliard and School Improvement Council Vice Chairman Carlos Primus were named 2009 South Carolina School Improvement Council (SIC) Advocates of the Year.
	Richland One’s Challenger Learning Center did a live amateur radio downlink with astronauts orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station.
	Student teams from Lewis Greenview Elementary, Brockman Elementary and Keenan High earned first-place titles at the Odyssey of the Mind state competition and qualified for the World Finals of the Odyssey of the Mind competition based upon their performance in the state contest.
	The BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation donated $25,000 to the Magic Johnson Empowerment Center to improve health care and access to health care.
	Richland One honored 144 high-achieving seniors at the district’s 2009 Academic All-Stars Recognition Banquet on April 21 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. To qualify as Richland One Academic All-Stars, students must be ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school’s senior class, have at least a 3.5 grade-point average and have no grade lower than a C for any subject completed for high-school credit.
	The S.C. Association for Volunteer Administration selected the 1st Battalion at Fort Jackson to receive the South Carolina Governor’s Volunteer Group Award. The drill sergeants in Fort Jackson’s 1st Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment are outstanding mentors who have helped to improve student reading and behavior at Burnside Elementary School.
	Richland One’s Office of Communications won four awards for excellence in school public relations through the S.C. chapter of the National School Public Relations Association’s 2009 Rewards for Excellence Program.
	Richland One honored outstanding volunteers during its annual volunteer recognition ceremony in April 2009. Award winners were: Jim Boggs (Volunteer of the Year); Saint John Baptist Church (Partner of the Year); Ft. Jackson soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment (Volunteer Group of the Year); Hyatt Park Elementary Principal Liz Eason (Stevenson Award of Excellence); Mary Frances Koon of C.A. Johnson High (Sam Hopkins Volunteer Administrator of the Year); Annette Folk of Carver-Lyon Elementary (Elementary School Volunteer with the Most Hours); Monika Zambrana of Southeast Middle (Middle School Volunteer with the Most Hours); and Sheila Mazyck of Lower Richland High (High School Volunteer with the Most Hours).
	The Partners In Education Foundation awarded two scholarships – one named in honor of a former Richland One superintendent and one named in memory of a Richland One administrator. Jasmine Ayers, a 2009 graduate of A.C. Flora High School, was the recipient of the 2009 Dr. John R. Stevenson Music Scholarship. The $1,000 Stevenson Music Scholarship is awarded annually to a Richland One senior who plans to pursue post-secondary study in music. Ian Taylor, also a 2009 graduate of A.C. Flora High School, was the first recipient of the Dr. Min Ching Scholarship. The $2,000 Dr. Min Ching Scholarship is awarded to a Richland One senior who has at least a 3.5 grade-point average and plans to major in math or statistics in college.
	Two Richland One schools earned Red Carpet awards from the S.C. Department of Education. Logan Elementary School and the Richland One Middle College were among 42 winners statewide. The highly sought-after Red Carpet awards recognize schools that create a family-friendly atmosphere and provide excellent customer service.
	Morgan Stroman of Lower Richland High was named a 2009 McDonald’s All-American. Stroman, a 2009 graduate of LR, was a member of the school’s state championship-winning girls basketball team.
	Gibbes Middle School and Dreher High School were honored by the Council for Educational Facilities Planners as award-winning examples of architectural design.
	Meadowfield Elementary was recognized as South Carolina’s first Paideia Model School.
	Keenan High teacher Stephen Milligan was named a national 2009 Horace Mann Abraham Lincoln Fellow.
	Hand Middle School was selected as the national site for a pilot program to reduce waste through the use of compostable bamboo lunch trays.
	The Richland One Class of 2009 earned more than $50.5 million in scholarships, setting a new district record.
	Horrell Hill Elementary School student Tyler Gregory Turner-Claytor and St. Andrews Middle School student Tyler Edmond were honored as district winners in the State Superintendent’s Writing Award program.
	Seventeen students from Richland One’s Career and Technology Education Program were recognized as state award-winners and state officers.
	Palmetto Health named Richland One’s Office of Extended-Day Programs a Champion of Obesity Prevention for its continuing efforts to address the medical/nutritional health of students in grades K-12, thereby helping them to perform better academically.
	For the second consecutive year, Newsweek magazine ranked two Richland One high schools among the top 5 percent of public high schools in America. A.C. Flora and Dreher were among 22 South Carolina high schools included on the 2009 Newsweek -Challenge Index,- an annual ranking of the top 1,500 public high schools in the nation based on rigorous course offerings and how all students perform in those courses.
	Theta Brown, a 2009 graduate of Eau Claire High School, was named a Gates Millennium Scholar, a highly prestigious award that will pay the entire cost of her college education through graduation, including graduate school. Brown was one of only eight Gates Millennium Scholars in South Carolina this year and the only one from Columbia.
	Taylor Patterson finished her senior year at Columbia High School with perfect attendance for the year, which qualified her for a drawing for which one of the top prizes was a 2009 Chevy Cobalt. She was one of three lucky winners. The cars were given away through the Chevy Drive for Perfection program sponsored by Love Chevrolet and other Midlands Chevrolet dealers. Richland One high schools participated in the initiative which promotes the importance of students attending school every day.
	Caughman Road Elementary School was recognized by the State Department of Education as a Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) Ribbon School. The award recognizes Caughman Road’s five years of implementing a positive school-wide behavior system with fidelity, teamwork and school-wide spirit.

District’s ‘AA+’ credit rating = savings for taxpayers

Richland One school board members and administrators celebrated the news in May 2009 that the district’s credit rating was reaffirmed by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Rating Service as a "AA+" rating, meaning the district continues to have one of the highest bond ratings among South Carolina’s 85 school districts.

A double-A+ bond rating reflects strong financial management and enables the district to borrow money at a lower interest rate and pass on those savings to taxpayers. Being recognized with a "AA+" credit rating by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s is a major accomplishment particularly given the current economic conditions.