A Message from the Principal,
Greetings to ALL of our Forest Heights families and community! My name is Jason Koepke and I have currently been in education for 15 years. My passion, drive, and focus has always been providing the greatest opportunity for students around me to be as successful as possible. I was born in New York and my family moved to South Carolina when I was only one year old. My childhood was one that was filled with great adversity, which created a passion within me to see young people achieve their greatest dreams. Every experience has worked to make me the man and educator that I am today. On my educational journey, I have worked to found a home and school for at-risk youth for eight years, taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, served as an assistant principal and principal at a couple of elementary schools in Union County. Most recently, I had the privilege of serving as the 6th grade assistant principal at Saint Andrews Middle School in Richland One.
As we look toward the 2022-2023 school year, I can’t wait to begin our educational journey together! We will have many positive challenges ahead, but we anticipate nothing but greatness from our students, faculty/staff, and the whole Forest Heights Elementary community. My passion is providing the highest quality instruction within a safe environment that allows students to grow tremendously as they achieve their maximum potential. Another passion of mine is cultivating and maintaining an incredibly positive culture and environment while celebrating every win that our students and faculty/staff accomplish. Discipline will be another focus as we approach the 2022-2023 school year. I desire to celebrate the greatness that has been happening at FHES while continuing to implement processes, procedures, and accountability that will cause our Eagles to fly higher and higher! We will implement PBIS (Positive Behavior Incentive System) this school year, which is a system that celebrates good behavior weekly and creates a culture of positivity and accountability. Let’s continue to watch our Eagles grow and soar to new heights in our beautiful Forest!
My vision for FHES is that we will faithfully collaborate with the community, students, parents, guardians, faculty/staff and all stakeholders, to provide an educational experience that is safe, challenging, engaging, and rigorous in order to promote the highest achievement and success within our student body. Each of our students deserves the absolute best opportunity to thrive and display their greatness. I am extremely excited about hitting the ground running and working with our families and students! Please know that my heart burns for each of our students to achieve their maximum potential and growth and my administrative team, faculty/staff, and I are all willing to do whatever we can to ensure this takes place. I am looking forward to an AWESOME second year at Forest Heights Elementary School!
Through our collective Communication, Collaboration and Commitment, we will make this village work! We believe that:
“Eagles Fly High….No Matter What!”
Educationally Yours,
Mr. Jason Koepke
