Richland One Students, Staff Earn Top Honors

Richland One proudly salutes its teachers, students and programs that continue to garner national and statewide honors. More details are listed below:

National Reading Is Fundamental Award
Richland One’s Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program is being recognized as a 2007 Program of Excellence by the Nation RIF organization. As a finalist, district staff will travel to Washington, DC in June to receive the award. Twenty-seven Richland One schools participate in the program which serves nearly 12,000 of our students. Ida Thompson, director of the district’s instructional technology services, credits the schools and their team of volunteers with making the program a success.

Best Buy Teach Award Winner
Dreher art teacher Laurie McKee’s creative thinking has won her a $2,500 grant from the Best Buy Children’s Foundation. To qualify for the Best Buy Teach Award, McKee presented a proposal to have the students in her commercial arts design class create a documentary of the architecture, statues and other unique features of the school before parts are demolished or renovated to make way for the new school that will be built on the site. In addition to developing their computer and artistic skills, the project requires students to use higher-order thinking skills to solve artistic and technological problems. The Best Buy Teach Award is given to schools that demonstrate the creative use of interactive technology in the curriculum. McKee was one of six Midlands winners.

Thomas Blakeney Scholarship Recipient
Keenan High School senior Cornetta Pickett has been awarded the Thomas Blakeney Scholarship by the S.C. Coalition of Title I/Chapter 1 Parents. The $1,000 scholarship was presented at the organization’s annual spring conference in Santee on February 17. Pickett is the first recipient of this scholarship. She has already been accepted for admission to South Carolina State University.

For more information, contact the Richland One Office of Communications at 231-7510 or 231-7504.