Chandler Creek Elementary Named 2019 Finalist for Riley Award for SIC Excellence
Chandler Creek Elementary is one of five South Carolina School Improvement Councils named 2019 award finalists for their accomplishments in parent and civic engagement within their school communities.
The SC School Improvement Council’s annual Dick and Tunky Riley Award for School Improvement Council Excellence was created in 2002 to recognize the significant contributions made to public education by the nearly 14,000 local SIC members who volunteer in the state’s 1,100-plus K-12 public schools.
Chandler Creek Elementary chose to model its school improvement effort on the SIC Block Party. They identified a need to strengthen community involvement in the school by reaching out beyond the walls of the school building. “We targeted high-need areas which housed multi-family groups. These housing areas equaled to almost half of our student population and allowed us to meet with students, parents, grandparents, and guardians,” explained Principal Jane Mills. “With our efforts, community partnerships grew immensely from local businesses, churches, nonprofits, and high school service groups. Together, we host quarterly block parties serving food, doing arts and crafts with students, playing and dancing, and supplying clothing, and hygiene items to those in need. Our parent satisfaction levels have risen and our school has worked very hard to create new messaging about the positive impact of public education.”
The winner of this year’s Riley Award will be selected from this year’s finalists by an independent panel of reviewers and announced during the 2019 SC-SIC Annual Meeting, Saturday, March 30, in Columbia.
The SC-SIC Riley Award for SIC Excellence is named in honor of former SC Governor and US Education Secretary Richard Riley and his late wife, Tunky, and recognizes the couple’s longstanding commitment to quality public education.
Part of the Center for Educational Partnerships within the University of South Carolina College of Education, the SC School Improvement Council (SC-SIC) was established in state law over 40 years ago to provide the member training, technical assistance, statutory accountability, and other operational resources necessary for the continued success of the community-based SICs in each of the state’s K-12 public schools. Additional information on SC-SIC’s programmatic efforts can be found online at the State SIC Website.