Ebinport School Improvement Council honored with state award

The Ebinport Elementary School Improvement Council has been honored as the recipient of the top statewide award for excellence.

The Ebinport council received the 2016 Dick and Tunky Riley Award for SIC Excellence. The annual award was presented Saturday, during a state school improvement council, or SIC, meeting at EdVenture Children’s Museum in Columbia.

Kelly Scott, chair of the Ebinport council, said the group of parents and school staff volunteers teamed up with others for a variety of projects with the aim of “educating the whole child.”

“We don’t want them to just be academically smart when they come out,” Scott said. “We want their emotional needs to be met, because that’s how they learn.”

The Ebinport council was chosen for the Riley award from 10 councils that were named in January to the S.C. 2016 School Improvement Council Honor Roll. Four other councils were named as finalists for the award.

The Ebinport council “has done some outstanding work in the area of literacy that is well-deserving of this statewide recognition,” said Michael Guarino, chair of the state SIC board.

That work included starting an Eagle Eyes mentor program that pairs fourth- and fifth-grade students with kindergartners who start school with below-average readiness in reading skills, according to the nomination.

The Ebinport council also established five Little Free Libraries in low-income areas in the school’s attendance zone, giving students easy access to books during evenings and weekends.

The Ebinport panel also has worked with the school staff to sustain a teaching garden where students have a chance to learn, touch and taste their work every spring and fall through activities aligned with state standards.

In addition, the council collaborated with the school on a social and emotional learning pilot project that targets students’ social and emotional skills, the nomination said.

That project was launched “after a review of school climate data indicated that both staff and students were noticing behavioral issues that disrupted learning,” according to the nomination.

“The SIC is continuing to spearhead the expansion of this effort and is actively working to share information about the program with other SICs in its district,” the nomination said.

The Riley Award was created in 2002 to recognize the contributions made to public education by nearly 15,000 SIC members in every public school in the state.

The award is named in honor of the former South Carolina governor and U.S. education secretary and his late wife, and recognizes their commitment to public education.

Four other SIC groups received honorable mention for their work last school year: H.E. McCracken Middle School, Beaufort County; Jennie Moore Elementary School for the Creative Arts and Laing Middle School for Science and Technology, both in Charleston County; and South Florence High School, Florence.

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Ebinport School Improvement Council honored with state award."