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October 2019

ACROSS THE DISTRICT PALMETTO AWARDS: Some Lexington Two schools are among a list of Palmetto Gold and Silver Award winners recently rec-ognized by the SC Depart-ment of Education. Busbee Creative Arts Academy (right) earned a Palmetto Silver Award in the 2018-19 year, while Fulmer Middle, the former PIneview Ele-mentary (now Riverbank Elementary) and Saluda River Academy for the Arts earned Palmetto Silver Awards for 2017-18. The Palmetto Gold and Silver awards program was estab-lished by the Education Ac-countability Act of 1998 “to recognize and reward schools for academic achievement and for closing the achievement gap,” with new criteria added this spring to include analysis of annual school report cards and other measures. NSBA VISIT: Members of the board of directors of the National School Boards Association -- led by President Beth Branham (center right) -- made a visit to South Caroli-na and several Lexington Two schools. Members started off with a rousing welcome and readings at Riverbank Ele-mentary, followed by tours and lunch at the Innovation Cen-ter, and finally a tour and greeting from the band and cheer-leaders at Brookland-Cayce High. We are proud of Beth Branham and all the NSBA does to advocate for education!

TOP 10 SAT RANKING: Lexington Two ranks among the top 10 SC public school districts earning the highest

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average scores on the SAT college-entrance exam, according to data released by the SC Department of Education. Lexington Two’s Class of 2019 test-takers outperformed state and national averages. The average SAT score for Lexington Two is 1051 -- 30 points higher than the South Carolina average of 1021 and 12 points higher than the national average of 1039. It also is 25 points higher than the district average in 2018. The latest achievement of Lexington Two’s Class of 2019 comes on top of a district record $17,421,140 in scholarships. The roughly 450 graduates are today attending more than 60 US colleges and universities.

FLOCK LOVES TEACHERS: Three Lexing-ton School District 2 teachers were recognized recently as part of House of Raeford’s new “FLOCK Loves” campaign, which spotlights incredible people and organizations across the community. The new “FLOCK Loves Teach-ers” recognition includes a surprise visit to the winning teacher’s classroom, along with Ama-zon gift cards. The inaugural event recognized, right from top, Riverbank Elementary third-grade teacher Kaylee Madge, Saluda River Academy for the Arts fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Burgess and Fulmer Middle teacher Jessica Zearfoss, who teaches the moderate IDSC class. Teachers are selected by school administrators for commitment to students and schools. The program will continue throughout the school year. PERFECT! Fourteen elementary and middle school students in Lexington Two received the highest achievable scores on the most recent SC READY Math Tests. The SC College-and Career-Ready Assessments are statewide as-sessments given to students in grades 3-8 in Math as well as English language arts (ELA). The students are: CAYCE ELEMENTARY: Nathan Boulet, third grade; Mackenna Maddox, third grade

RIVERBANK ELEMENTARY: Arica Quick, third grade; Campbell Parsons, fourth grade

SALUDA RIVER ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS: Elliot Bridges, fifth grade; Bradlynn Sturkie, fifth grade

SPRINGDALE ELEMENTARY: Matthew Per-ry, third grade; Timothy Cornett, fourth grade

WOOD ELEMENTARY: Austin Thompson, fourth grade

FULMER MIDDLE: Ethan Jeffcoat, eighth grade

PINE RIDGE MIDDLE: Margaret Petermann, eighth grade; Mary Stewart, eighth grade; Raven Taylor, eighth grade; Gracyn Whitaker, eighth grade

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AIRPORT HIGH SCHOOL

HOMECOMING COURT: Congratulations to Airport High’s Homecoming Court: Queen, Indiyah Scott; first runner-up, Amea Zeigler; and second runner-up Nia Stevens.

NEW BETA CLUB MEMBERS: The school recently welcomed new Beta Club members: Aisha Albert, Isabella Anderson, McKenna Barfield, Janet Bautista, Jasmine Bosto, Lillie Brady, Lineth Castillo-Ortega, Gracyn Caugh-man, Devin Chavis, Cailin Cook, Ja’mese Corbitt, Trinity Craig, Lydia Creech, Tyler Dasher, Jamia Douglas, William Elswick, Alejandra Gabino-Hernandez, Campbell Garner, Elisabeth Gonzalez, Tiaryca Green, Amayah Harmon, Aidan Henry, Mary-Kathryn Huggins, Jillian Jacques, Jordan Jacques, Simone James, Abigail John-son, Arthur Kaminski, Chase Keisler, Karthik Kondapeta, Katlyn Kozlowski, Charity Lee, Tiffany Lin, Michael Lykes, Melanie Morales, Alexandra Moti, Don-ald Nix, Lakeria Pearson, Arianna Pee, Ashley Robinson, Taahir Sabree, Nina Shealy, Jackson Shumpert, Sally Skin-ner, Carley Spires, Chloe Sturkie, Emily Sulser, Branson Turner, Sarah Twitty, Simona Wankhede, Nevaeh Washing-ton, Sara Whitehead, Camryn Wiley, Ashely Wojcik, Xingyun Yin, William Zueger, Terri Zummach. They were inducted on October 8. Rachel Rabon is the sponsor.

INDUCTEES: Airport High School ’s Eagle Club will recognize the 2019 inductees into the Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, November 1: Ray Stackley, Class of 1969; and Raymond Hallman, Class of 1982 (posthumously). There will be a drop-in at 5:30 p.m. in the arena/commons area of Airport High School with the formal induction at 6:15 p.m.

DRILL TEAM HONORS: Congratulations to the Airport High School JROTC Drill Team. The team competed in the Greater Midlands Area Drill Meet held at Logoff-Elgin High on October 7, plac-ing: First Place Squad Regulation w/o Arms; First Place Platoon Regulation w/Arms; First Place Pla-toon Regulation w/o Arms; First Place Solo Exhibition w/ Arms; First Place Duet Exhibition w/Arms; First Place Platoon Exhibition w/Arms; First Place Platoon Exhibition w/o Arms; Second Place Color Guard; Second Place Squad Regulation w/ Arms; and First Place Overall!

BAND HONORS: The Airport Marching Band placed first at the Hartsville Tournament of Bands Competition on September 28. Awards were: Best Color Guard, Best Visual, Best Music, Best Percussion, and First Place overall.

BROOKLAND-CAYCE HIGH SCHOOL

STATE FAIR RIBBONS: Two of Michelle Giovannone’s students won third-place ribbons from the SC State Fair -- Mayra Lozano-Roman in 2-D and Kyaw Too in 3-D.

CHAMBER HONORS: The Cayce-West Columbia Chamber is recognizing Ryan Van Omen as Oc-

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tober’s Teacher of the Month and Jo-seph Buchmaier as Student of the Month. They will be recognized at the monthly Chamber breakfast.

CITY PARTNER-SHIP: James Brown’s AP and en-vironmental science students are growing and planting milk-weed, part of a part-nership with the city of Cayce parks de-partment in efforts to save Monarch but-terflies.

FEATURED BAND: A performance of the Brookland-Cayce Marching Legacy Show Band was featured recently on a WIS-TV sports segment. Band members also recently participated in the Clemson Clinic (some of the band’s members shown at top).

CAYCE ELEMENTARY

EDMENTUM NEWS: Principal Andrew Drozdak and Assistant Principal Allyson Stoy-Long have received full scholarships to the National Edmentum Educator Summit November 7-8 in Rich-ardson, Texas. They also have been selected as one of the four primary presentations, focusing on leveraging proactive social and emotional learning strategies to capitalize on instructional time. They also have been selected to serve on a question and answer panel at the end of the conference. The event attracts educators and administrators from around the nation.

A BIG THANK YOU!: As part of National Thank a Police Officer Day, members of the Service Learning Club made goodie bags for Cayce De-partment of Public Safety police and fire personnel (right). The roughly 100 gift bags were presented at the school to a group of Public Safety members, to cheers from the large student audience.

USC PARTNERSHIP: Cayce Elementary is one of 23 Midlands area schools selected for the Uni-versity of South Carolina Professional Develop-ment Schools Network. The Cayce team is looking forward to all of the learning and leadership opportunities this partnership will offer.

HELPING HANDS: The Cayce Elementary community raised $200 in spare change to buy a tree to plant as part of a beautification effort in the city of West Columbia!

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CONGAREE ELEMENTARY

ROLLING ON: Congaree held its first PTO Skate Night (right) at Three Fountains Skating Rink. Great family fun for the school community!

FULMER MIDDLE

STATE FAIR WINNERS: Eighth-graders Molly Tatum (artwork, top left) and Savannah Newman (artwork bottom left) were State

Fair art winners, among just 22 eighth-grade student works selected statewide for recognition and display during the fair’s run. Their teacher is Melanie Ward. GRANT RECIPIENT: Leighton Harris, orchestra director, is a Mid Carolina Electric Cooperative Bright Ideas Grant recipient. She plans to use the funds to build her culturally relevant music library for her student musicians.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS SUPPORT: Special Education teacher Jessica Zearfoss received an Amazon gift card from House of Raeford's "FLOCK Loves Teachers," mentioned earlier in this newsletter. The gift card will

support her coffee program that her students run, in order to raise money for their participation in the Special Olympics.

LEXINGTON 2 INNOVATION CENTER

STATEWIDE MEETING: L2IC recently hosted CTE instructors and administrators from around the state for an annual fall meeting.

STUDENT NEWS: Congratulations to Haley Foster, who will be working as an intern with Nephron Pharmaceuticals. In addition,

Abel Manilla has been selected for a full Work-Based Learning position with Apex Electric. GRANT RECIPIENT: Mike Harlen (Project Lead the Way, center right) received a Bright Ideas Grant from Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative. He will use it for a special project with his engineering students.

PINE RIDGE MIDDLE

GRANT RECIPIENT: Science teacher Maggie Cusey won a Colonial Life Grant for a unit on force and motion. Amanda Chapman, also a Sci-ence teacher won the same grant for the PRMS school-wide Stem Challenges.

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RIVERBANK ELEMENTARY

SWAMPFOX STARBASE: Fifth-grade OASIS stu-dents spent a recent week at McEntire Air Base par-ticipating in the Swampfox STARBASE program. Students worked collaboratively using the engineer-ing design process extending their math and science knowledge in the areas of Force and Motion (Newton's Three Laws of Motion, Bernoulli's Princi-ple, including Rocket Launching, and Eggbert the Astronaut Landing Shuttle), Molecular Models of Matter, Chromatography, Nanotechnology, 4-Quadrant Coordinate Grids, and Navigation and Mapping.

GRANT RECIPIENTS: Congratulations to Brittany Staples and Kathy Seibert, who were awarded Mid Carolina Electric Cooperative Bright Ideas Grants in the amounts of $965 and $958.

SALUDA RIVER ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS

LOVE OF LITERACY: The school presented an Arctic-themed Literacy Night, which included the annual book fair, games, crafts, and an arts-integrated PTO performance by second- and third-graders. The Cayce-West Columbia branch of Lexington County Library joined the event.

PBIS PRESENTERS: Members of Saluda River ’s PBIS team had the opportunity to share the school’s story of progress at the recent National PBIS Leadership Forum in Chicago.

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE: During the week of October 7, K-5 students had the opportunity to work with four Artists-in-Residence in the areas of visual art, theatre, dance, and music. This event was made possible by the Arts in Basic Curriculum Grant, funded in part by the SC Arts Commis-sion.

HELPING HANDS: The SRAA community raised $200 in spare change to buy a tree to plant as part of a beautification effort in the city of West Columbia!

SPRINGDALE ELEMENTARY

CHARACTER COUNTS: “Dolphins Committed to Character” promotes and recognizes students who demonstrate positive character traits. Each month, a new character trait is intro-duced and promoted. Two students who demonstrate the monthly character trait are chosen from each grade level to be recognized by displaying their picture and a sur-prise! September’s character trait was COOPERATE and these students demonstrated cooperation in many ways. In photo, front row from left, Carter Holly, Brayn Diaz-Vasquez, Paxton West, Easton Roof, CJ Russell. Middle Row: Pyper Metts, Bentley Hite, Molly Laird, Gabe Smith, Zalaisha McClellan; back row, Summer Gripper, Harlem Couch, Jaxon Bradley, Brayden Bailey, and Jude Tatum.

WOOD ELEMENTARY

PARTY ON: The school recently held a community block party, and it was a huge draw for students and families!