Red Cedar Elementary captures top South Carolina honor for schools
Red Cedar Elementary School students, teachers and parents went wild Tuesday afternoon upon hearing the school had won a prestigious state award.
They gathered in the Bluffton school's auditorium to watch a live ETV broadcast of the winners of the Palmetto's Finest awards. When the program began, the boisterous room full of little ones suddenly became quiet.
After the announcement was made that Red Cedar had been named a Palmetto's Finest School, the room was filled with clapping, shouting, dancing and lots of confetti.
"I'm very excited, I think more for the students than for me," principal Kathleen Corley said.
The S.C. Association of School Administrators, the professional organization for school leaders in South Carolina, gives out the awards every year to schools that provide the best in innovative, effective educational programs, according to a news release.
Red Cedar was one of 11 schools in South Carolina chosen as a finalist for the 2015 awards, the release said. Other winners were Oak Grove Elementary in Lexington, Gregg Middle in Summerville and Chapin High in Chapin.
The winners are chosen through an application process that includes such criteria as student achievement, instructional programs, professional learning communities and school culture, according to the release.
This isn't the first time a Beaufort County school has won the award. Okatie Elementary School won in 2014. Beaufort Middle School and Hilton Head Island High School did so in 2012.
"I'm extremely proud to be part of this school district, to be part of a group of educators that are in this building that work tirelessly every single day to provide to our students what they need to be successful from one grade level to the next, and in life," superintendent Jeff Moss said.
He said the school's teachers and administration not only look after the academic needs of the students but their social needs as well.
More than half of the school's population is still learning English, and 70 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, according to a news release. The five-year-old school has improved its state academic rating from average to excellent.
"Our motto is, 'Whatever it takes,' and it's not just a phrase," Corley said. "It's a way of being."
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- Okatie Elementary named 'Palmetto's Finest', March 26, 2014
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This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 2:06 PM with the headline "Red Cedar Elementary captures top South Carolina honor for schools."