Oak Grove Elementary, Chapin High win top SC school honors
Two Midlands schools are among four statewide to receive a top education honor.
Oak Grove Elementary in Lexington 1 and Chapin High in Lexington-Richland 5 were named Palmetto’s Finest schools Tuesday. Red Cedar Elementary in Bluffto (Beaufort County Schools) and Gregg Middle in Summerville (Dorchester 2) were the other winners.
About 1,000 teachers, school supporters and education leaders gathered at their schools in advance of the announcement of the winners, the S. C. Association of School Administrators announced in a news release.
The awards – presented each year to two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school – are based on student achievement, faculty training and community involvement, among other benchmarks.
About the two Midlands schools, as outlined in the news release:
Oak Grove Elementary (Lexington, Principal Sherry Cariens) serves 715 students and was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2012 and became a Lighthouse School for Leadership in 2014. The school’s mission statement embodies the desires and goals of its citizens, “to provide a safe, caring, learning center where staff, parents, and the community learn and collaborate, enabling students to achieve their maximum potential with a high performance learning culture, to become self-directed 21st Century learners and leaders, and to become highly effective global citizens.”
Chapin High (Chapin, Principal Akil Ross) serves 1160 students in grades 9-12. This progressive high school boasts a graduation rate of over 94 percent, 48 percent of the student body is enrolled in at least one Advanced Placement course and 59 percent are enrolled in at least one Career and Technology Education course. Chapin High School is one of the top rated schools in the state of South Carolina and has a 99.3 percent “A” rating on the Federal Report Card. Chapin’s success is the result of an involved community supporting the academic, arts, athletics, extra-curricular, career and technical, military and service programs.
From Staff Reports
This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 6:29 PM.