School Improvement Council
Report to Parents 2018-2019
Gold Hill Middle School
Email: mcneilc@fortmillschools.org
Website: http://ghms.fortmillschools.org/
Location: 1025 Dave Gibson Boulevard, Fort Mill, SC, USA
Phone: 803-548-8300
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GHMS1998/
Twitter: @GHMSBulldogs
Motto and Vision
The mission of Gold Hill Middle School is to provide learners with a rigorous education where all students are valued, and the faculty exhibits academic excellence by advancing knowledge through high expectations, collaboration, and engagement.
Current Enrollment
Grade 7 = 267 with 10 Homeroom Sections
Grade 8 = 252 with 11 Homeroom Sections
School Improvement Council Members
Chair: Yolanda Gordon (Parent, also.)
Parents: Kerry Arnold, Auvis Cole, Charlie Funderburk, Kim Miller, Jeanene Mucci, Sheila Kauffman
Community Members: Eben Eddy, Celia McCarter, David Thompson (SRO)
Teachers: Tonya Funderburk, Mary Margaret Guilbault, Amy Morgan
Assistant Principals: Richard Eppes, Daniel McCallum
Our Focus Area Goals
Teaching and Learning - Gold Hill Middle will continue to use effective teaching methods designed to reach all students with an emphasis on strategies deemed engaging and motivating.
Leadership and Communication - Gold Hill Middle will continue to increase the satisfaction level of staff and parents as evidenced by leadership questions on the SC State Department Survey and through a district provided annual survey to staff and parents.
Safe, Supporting, and Inviting School - By the 2021 school year, positive responses on student surveys (SC State Report Card) indicating satisfaction with social and physical environment will meet or exceed 90% (Baseline - 87%). The positive responses on parent surveys indicating satisfaction with the social and physical environment will meet or exceed 94% (Baseline - 91%).
Our Action Steps
Teaching and Learning - Our SIC continues to explore workshop opportunities for our teachers on engagement strategies to reach students in poverty. Our STEAM leaders continue to attend professional development as provided by our school district. These leaders have provided open model classrooms and led professional development for our faculty. All of our certified staff have participated in chromebook professional development as we prepare to go 1:1 with student chromebooks next year.
Leadership and Communication - Our SIC assisted with creating the best platform for communicating with stakeholders, which led to the development of our newsletter "Happenings @ the Hill." This newsletter, published weekly by the principal, is sent directly to our parents, staff, and students. It is also published on social media and our website.
Safe, Supporting, and Inviting School - Our SIC hosted a Future Jackets Night on February 19th in our gymnasium. This event's purpose was to help ease the anxiety of our 8th grade students and parents as they make the transition to high school. Scheduling, IGPs, extracurricular activities, and athletics were just some of the areas highlighted that evening. We will soon be hosting a similar event, our Rising Bulldogs Night, for our 6th grade parents, and expect it to be a well attended event.
In addition to continuing our WEB program (Where Everyone Belongs), we implemented a House System this year as a means of building a greater sense of community/family. This system is made up of eight Bulldog Houses consisting of students in grades 6-8. Character education based HOUSE meetings are held monthly along with House Games hosted each semester. We also offer HOUSE incentives during the school year, and the winning House claims the traveling trophy for that time frame.
We participated in South Carolina's 17th Annual National Day of Concern & Pledge Against Gun Violence in October. Students had the opportunity to view some public service announcements regarding gun violence and sign and post their pledges on their lockers. http://www.pledge.org/
We celebrated Mix It Up Day and Random Acts of Kindness Week this year as well.
We established a school based committee this year whose focus is student and staff recognition/appreciation. We instituted the quarterly "Woot Woot Wagon" which brings snacks and treats to all staff members once per 9 weeks. We conducted a Student Recognition Celebration this year where we recognized and celebrated student involvement in all areas including academics and extra curricular activities. Second semester, we challenged each of our teachers and support staff members to send at least two blue "Gold Hill Good News" notes to students prior to Spring Break. We added an additional Spring
Sports Recognition event so that all of our Spring athletes were recognized and celebrated.
Celebrating Our Staff
Related Arts Team
Woot Woot Wagon and Cozy Comfort Spirit Day Made an Extra Special Day!
Seventh Grade Team
Mrs. E. Platt
Mrs. S. Hyde
Bulldogs Love Paying It Forward
Our school adopted the theme of Paying It Forward this year, and participated in many projects including our continued support of BBEL Academy https://www.facebook.com/BBEL-Academy-367384486737986/.
The culmination of our "One Book, One School Study" was our Bulldogs for Change Night (STEAM inspired LITERACY Night). 15 student collaborative projects were presented. Our school adopted the change project that acquired the most votes. We also hosted a Police Force versus School Squad Charity Basketball Game that evening.
Several of our 'Pay It Forward' projects are highlighted throughout the photo gallery.
Polar Plunge for Special Olympics ($4,000 Raised)
Cards Sent to Levine Children's Hospital
Cancer Awareness & Research Support
Continued Our Support for Allplaytogether
Provided Opportunity for This FMSD Student Project
Provided Silver Award Opportunities for Girl Scout Troops/Cadets
Provided Opportunity for Shoe Drive
This Year's First BBEL Walk (Over $6,000 Raised)
Participated in the Cookin' for the Kids Chili Showdown
Dodgeball Tournament to Raise Money for Middle School Athletics
Collected Over 1,200 Items for Food Bank
Hat Day for Sunshine for Family Hardships
Career Exploration & Community Partner(s) Events
- We added a STEAM Career Fair Guest Speaker day for our 6th graders and had a special guest, Optimus Prime, visit GHMS!
- Our 7th grade continued the tradition of attending a Career Fair (hosted at Pleasant Knoll Middle School).
- Our 8th graders continued their tradition of job shadowing.
The Bulldog Shake
Round 1 - What does your shake say about you?
What is the Bulldog Shake?
Our Bulldog Shake Winner, G. Atkinson
Coaching Scenario
Board Room Scenario
Defending the Big Bad Wolf
Bragging Rights and Other Highlights
- We had a distinguished guest speaker for our Veterans Day program, Mr. Jacky Bayne. Mr. Bayne is a Vietnam Veteran from Fort Mill who was declared dead twice in the same war. https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/andrew-dys/article12310598.html
- We continued our tradition of hosting Operation Get Smart for all students. http://doc.sc.gov/programs/getsmart.html
- Our Related Arts Department hosted the 11th Annual Festival of the Arts in December. The festival included student performances in Band, Chorus, and Theater Arts as well as numerous displays of student projects and holiday goodies made by our FACS classes.
- After reading texts with the theme of heroism, Mr. Cook's Language Arts students presented their ideas on how they could make a heroic contribution. The students voted on these ideas and decided to write letters and make cards for children at Levine Children's Hospital.
- M. Senthil was the District Spelling Bee winner.
- T. Kovas was our International Lion's Club Peace Poster winner.
- Our PTA hosted a GHMS Spirit Night with the Hornets along with several other Spirit Night events. They have helped fund numerous teacher requests this year including software programs and licenses, literacy items, theater stage-craft items, and other classroom supplies.
- Our FIRST LEGO League team qualified for the state championship this year after finishing 1st in robot games and 2nd place overall in the York qualifier.
- We had collaborative student projects this year between our Honors
Computers and Honors Art classes where students had to create an Emoji that does not already exist and present this proposal to the Unicode Consortium. - Our musical this year was Legally Blonde, Jr., the Musical coordinated by our Theater Arts and Choral Directors (Ms. Shrum and Mrs. Call).
- Mrs. Jenkinson's English 1 Honors students also collaborated with Mr. Dimaria (Computers Teacher) using a software program called ALICE. http://www.alice.org/
- Our Girls and Boys Soccer teams were conference champions.
- Our 6th grade Academic Team won their division for the season.
- 5 of our students advanced to the state You Be the Chemist challenge held in Columbia, South Carolina.
- Our Honors Art class designed a dress to be worn in the York County Fashion Week Project Runway Competition in October.
- We hosted three student guest speakers this year: M-G. Carter (FMSD student) presented an anti-bullying lesson to our 6th grade FACS students. A. Sykes (FMSD student) spoke to our entire student body about overcoming obstacles, perseverance, and second chances. C. Gray (Saint Anne Catholic School of Fort Mill) spoke to our 6th grade about the dangers of vaping.
- Our Black History Month program was hosted, organized, and delivered by our students and staff.
- Our Theater Arts classes hosted black box evening events to showcase their script writing and performance skills as well as did 'push-in' performances in classrooms of mini-skits that they had written dealing with ethics and values.
- J. Smith was accepted into the SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities.
- H. Keene has been accepted into the 2019 GoSciTech Summer Camp at the SC Governor's School for Science & Mathematics.
- Officer Prescott (School Resource Officer @ Nation Ford High School) spoke to some of Mr. Kiggans' math classes about internet safety and cyberbullying.
- Mr. Charlie Funderburk, Tega Cay City Manager, assisted with a Project Based Learning assignment in some of Mr. Kiggans' math classes.
- Our 8th grade Band and Honor Chorus participated in Disney Performing Arts earning their "ears."
- Two of our teachers have submitted grants to our Foundation for Fort Mill Schools regarding related arts program improvements.
- Two of our students placed in the middle school division of the district's Putting the "A" in STEAM Art Exhibition: 1st Place - H. Horner & 3rd Place - T. Kovas
- Our Upstanders Club has organized several activities and events to encourage the heart: a staff appreciation breakfast, a campus clean-up, a bus driver appreciation day, and motivational messages throughout our campus.
- Our All-inclusive Book club and Book Buddies have continued their efforts in building relationships through literacy.
- We have been able to maintain an active Recycle Club and Disc Golf Club.
- Mr. Hammond hosted an after school Chess Club this year on Mondays.
- S. Henriksen, L.B-Rodriquez, and D. Tomlinson attended Winthrop University's Garnet and Gold Leadership Summit.
- Our cheer team competed at 5 Invitational Style Events throughout the state of SC, earning three 1st place finishes and two 2nd place finishes. We placed 2nd at Regionals.
Honor Roll Stats
Q1 - 226 All A's / 299 A/B's
Q2 - 212 All A's / 292 A/B's
Q3 - 262 All A's / 231 A/B's