Eagle Nest Named to SIC state Honor Roll

Press Release, Dorchester County School District Two

The School Improvement Councils (SICs) of nine South Carolina public schools have been named to the SC School Improvement Council’s (SC-SIC) 2013 Honor Roll for their significant efforts to foster civic engagement in public education.

These Honor Roll SICs will continue in the running for SC-SIC’s annual Dick and Tunky Riley Award for School Improvement Council Excellence. Named for the former U.S. Secretary of Education and South Carolina Governor and his late wife, the Riley Award was created in 2002 to recognize the vital contributions made by the 14,000-plus local School Improvement Council members who volunteer in every public school in the state.

In alphabetical order, the nine School Improvement Councils named to the SC-SIC Honor Roll for 2013 are:

• Beck Academy Middle SIC (Greenville County Schools)
• Blaney Elementary SIC (Kershaw County School District)
• Brushy Creek Elementary SIC (Greenville County Schools)
• C.A. Johnson High SIC (Richland School District 1)
• Eagle Nest Elementary SIC (Dorchester School District 2)
• Ebinport Elementary SIC (Rock Hill School District 3)
• North Augusta High SIC (Aiken County Public School District)
• Okatie Elementary SIC (Beaufort County School District)
• Richland Northeast High SIC (Richland School District 2)

“These School Improvement Councils have demonstrated their commitment to the vital work of building parent and community engagement in their schools,” said SC-SIC Board of Trustees ChairEllen M. Still. “In today’s environment of limited revenue and increased expectations, the contributions made by South Carolina’s School Improvement Councils and their members are even more essential. We congratulate these SICs and continue to honor and support all of our School Improvement Councils for the significant value they bring to their schools, their students, and the future of South Carolina.”

In the past year, local School Improvement Council members across South Carolina committed over 230,000 volunteer hours to their schools at an estimated value of nearly $4 million – a substantialreturn on the state’s current annual SC-SIC budget allocation of approximately $200 per school.

Five finalists from this year’s list of Honor Roll SICs will be selected late next month, with one to be named as the winner of the annual Riley Award. This year’s Riley Award recipient will be announced at the SC-SIC Annual Meeting, March 23, 2013, in Columbia.

School Improvement Councils were established in state law 35 years ago this year. Located in the University of South Carolina’s College of Education, the SC School Improvement Council provides the member training, technical assistance, statutory accountability, and other operational resources necessary for the continued success of the community-based SICs in each of South Carolina’s 1,100-plus K-12 public schools.

More information on SC-SIC, the Riley Award for School Improvement Council Excellence and award winners from previous years can be found online at http://sic.sc.gov.