PSES/PSMS 'Iron Horses' see successful first year

Building a family among staff and creating a “positive school culture” between students, teachers, parents and the community were two main goals that the Philip Simmons Elementary and Middle Schools surpassed in their inaugural year, according to Principals Dr. Karen Whitley and Anthony Dixon.

Given the task of opening a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) focused school, Whitley and Dixon armed each of their students with a Google Chromebook and set off to blaze a trail for innovations in public schooling.

PHILIP SIMMONS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Along with uniting the school and the community, Whitley explained that setting a standard for their 300 students was essential.

“We had, what I consider, great test scores,” said Whitley. “In some of our benchmarks, we were very close to the top compared with other grades and other schools. Considering that we had homeschoolers that came in, folks from private schools, folks from other states, certainly the Daniel Island and Cainhoy children, bringing everybody together and establishing a baseline of where folks were and moving them forward was important.”

With the STEAM initiative comes an expectation to be pioneering in each area. To ensure that the students are reaching their maximum potential, each grade does two STEAM projects per academic year and each class produces one musical performance, according to Whitley.

One example of what a STEAM project actually entails comes from the PSES 2016-2017 second grade class.

“When we started the school year we didn’t have any playground equipment installed yet,” said Whitley. “The second grade kids decided they wanted a swing. Well, they divided up into groups in their classroom and had to research. They had to use one of the second grade science standards and it was push and pull. They did research on what kind of piece of equipment they needed, designed it, drew it out and then they built a model. They had researched the cost, where you could get it and then each of the groups in each of the classes gave a presentation to myself, my assistant principal and instructional coaches about the piece of equipment that their group decided on and why they decided on that piece of equipment.”

In order to help raise money to fund the project, the students made Christmas ornaments to auction off to parents. They also received additional funding from the PTA, but have not quite met their goal, explained Whitley.

“We’re still looking for funds to actually be able to fund that STEAM project,” she said. “And the exciting thing about that is those kids can always come back because we’re going to find the money. So for the 2016-17 second grade, this was like their contribution to the school.”

Due to grants awarded to the schools by BP and funding from the Daniel Island Rotary Club, they were able to furnish a state-of-the-art “Maker’s Space” that opened at the end of May, as well as a fully functioning television news room.

The “Maker’s Space” and news room will be utilized by all grades at PSES and PSMS.

“It’s just a really exciting place that kids can go and they can be very innovative,” said Whitley. “They can work together and collaborate, use their thinking skills and think outside the box, invent. It’s pretty exciting.”

She added, “Our news room that my media specialist put together is cutting edge technology. She has a news crew that runs it and that’s also pretty exciting for the kids.”

The school’s innovativeness did not go unnoticed. According to Whitley, they were proud to receive a News 2 “Cool School” Award during their inaugural year.

Looking forward to next year, Whitley emphasized the importance of feedback.

“It’s certainly just looking at the year that we just finished and looking at the things we’ve done well,” said Whitley. “We’ve met with people and gotten feedback. And moving forward next year is just shining a light on the negative and making it a place that kids want to come and want to learn.”

PHILIP SIMMONS MIDDLE SCHOOL

For the 254 students at PSMS, a similar and impressive first year unfolded, according to Dixon.

“PSMS had 23 students become Junior Beta members, six students identified as Junior Scholars, two Duke Tip Scholars, one student in All-County Band, Regional Band and All-State Band, one student in All-County Orchestra, one student make it to the Low Country Spellbound Bee and four students earned awards from the South Carolina Bar Association through our Mock Trial Club,” he said.

Dixon added that the Trebuchet Team brought home second place in middle school accuracy and third place in accuracy overall against middle, high school and college/professional divisions. Additionally, at the Lowcountry STEM Festival, the school’s Bottle Rocket Club swept the competition, placing in first, second and third place.

The school’s success did not go unrecognized. They were awarded at $10,000 BCSD Innovation Grant from BCSD Technology that provided the school with a Google Expedition Kit containing 30 devices, 30 Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, an iPad and a router, explained Dixon.

PSMS was also awarded a three year, $37,176 Arts in Basic Curriculum (ABC) Grant, which according to Dixon will provide “leadership to achieve quality, comprehensive arts education—dance, music, media arts, theatre, visual arts, and creative writing—for all students in South Carolina.”

Moving forward, Dixon explained that PSMS has set a list of goals they hope to achieve over the next two to five years. They include promoting teacher and student collaboration to set measurable short term goals aimed at growing students’ behaviors and achievement; supporting teachers in providing targeted, effective in-class interventions; promoting teacher and parent collaboration, as well as collaborating with the community; and finally, increasing the involvement of strategic partnerships in developing a sustainable positive school climate.

The first day of school for the 2017-2018 year is Thursday, August 17.