Principal's Welcome

 

Dear Stone Academy Families, 

I am thrilled to be the principal of Stone Academy. Last year was my tenth year at Stone but my first as principal and it was a wonderful year.  We still had challenges to face in regards to Covid but we worked together and met them head on. I anticipate this school year being as normal as normal can be, with parents being able to join us from the beginning and events taking place that showcase our wonderful school.   If you have been a Stone parent prior to this year, you and I have hopefully already gotten to know one another and I look forward to being able to see more of you this coming school year. For new parents and students, we welcome you and are excited to get to know you. 2022-2023 is sure to be an exciting year for us as we work together to ensure the success of each and every child. 

Our school theme this year is “Bee Kind.” As the Stone Stingers, we continuously strive to be kind to others and treat others as we would want to be treated.  It is our goal to not only help our students succeed academically, but to also help foster empathy, kindness, and respect towards all people.  We all have a hand in providing our students with the skills they need to succeed in this world and the faculty and staff at Stone Academy take that responsibility very seriously. 

Due to the hard work of our staff, students, parents, and volunteers, we achieved great things last year.  As you may have noticed, thanks to the amazing PTA, we were able to spruce up our outdoor spaces with new picnic tables and a brand-new stage (they are actually working on that as I type this).  Our goals for 2022-2023 will remain the same, to increase academic achievement in all content areas and to address our students’ social-emotional needs. Together, we can accomplish great things! I hope that each of you will consider joining our PTA and being involved in the many activities throughout the year that result in our school being the best it can be.

We have received results from our end-of-year state testing and I am proud to say that we met both our ELA and math goals!  I am beyond proud of our teachers and students for all the hard work they put in.  Even in the midst of Covid and trying to get children back up to where they need to be since leaving school in March 2020, we exceeded previous results.  76.7% of our third-fifth graders met or exceeded expectations on the ELA assessment and 77.9% of our third-fifth graders met or exceeded expectations on the math assessment.  82.2% of our fourth graders met or exceeded on the science assessment.  These scores are wonderful and are a testament to all the hard work put forth by our entire school community. 

I am so fortunate to lead this amazing school community. Stone Academy is a special place and I hope that your experience here is a positive one. If I can be of assistance at any time, please feel free to reach out via email (sshouse@greenville.k12.sc.us) or phone (864-355-8400). Please don’t forget to create your Backpack account, as this will be where you receive your monthly newsletters and other important information throughout the year. I also send out weekly reminders via phone messenger so please make sure we have your current phone number on file in the office so you don’t miss important details.  

Sincerely, 

Suzanne Shouse, Principal