• Category 2

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: suburban
    Town Population: 85,000
    Student Enrollment: 525
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 24%
    White/Caucasian: 56%
    Hispanic: 14%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 5%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 48.8%
    % ELL Learners: 13%
    Founded: 1944
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Katy Ginn
  • CONTACT:
    805 Ocean Boulevard
    St. Simons , GA 31522
    912-638-2851
    kginn@glynnk12.org
St. Simons Elementary School
St. Simons , GA
Joining Hands to Build a Brighter Future for our Community!"

Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
In planning for parent involvement, we differentiate our activities to meet the needs of various families. We serve a diverse population of students and families, and our goal is to provide opportunities for all families to be connected to the school. We provide opportunities for families to volunteer at events hosted by the school and the PTA, including fundraisers, Cultural Night, Fall Festival, and Art Day. We host fun events in our low income neighborhoods, partnering with community centers to offer game nights, Lego nights, Bingo for Books, and other fun family events. We also provide snacks and educational materials for families at these events, making the activities both fun and informative. Last year, we had a Tailgate night last year at the local high school football game, providing snacks, books, and fellowship with families prior to the game. We are planning a family drive in movie night this year. Building relationships with our families is critical to our success.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Perhaps the most uniquely innovative, successful community initiative at St. Simons Elementary School is the Ocean Lab. This initiative is truly a partnership between our community, parents, and teachers. The Ocean Lab is fully funded by community donors. The lab provides opportunities for students to study and explore our local beaches and habitats, focusing on Science and Math Standards, with an emphasis on conservation and preservation. Ocean Lab activities take place both in our Ocean Lab and on walking field trips around our campus and to the beach across the street. Many of our disadvantaged families have limited transportation and have not had the opportunity to visit and explore our coastal habitat. Through participation in the Ocean Lab, the children not only learn about our coastal Georgia habitat, but also gain a respect for this fragile ecosystem and its creatures so that they may guard and protect them for future generations.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
School improvement is a strategic, data-driven process. It requires a committed, determined focus on shared goals. Like any real change, school improvement is not always linear, and it takes time. It requires several key components.

• Development of a shared mission and commitment to that mission
• Identification of goals and appropriate, research-based means for achieving those
• Implementation of research-based strategies with fidelity
• Continual examination of meaningful data
• Identifying trends, both positive and negative
• Celebrations of success, along with continued perseverance and critical
examination of curriculum, instruction and student assessment data
• Inclusion of all stakeholders at each step of the improvement process
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Our top two goals for the 2020-2021 school year are:
1) Consistently implement effective instructional practices as measured by leader monitoring, feedback, and student achievement.
2) Use evidence-based practices to reduce loss of instructional time and use the continuum of services to address behavioral concerns consistently for all groups.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The single most important factor in our success is a shared belief that all students can and will succeed. This shared belief holds everyone accountable for student success. All staff must be committed to this shared vision. Hiring the right staff members and retaining high quality teaching and support staff is critical in this shared vision. When a committed, knowledgeable staff is in place, they hold one another accountable for student success. The school administration is key in establishing this shared belief not only in the hiring process, but by committing to high expectations and support for teachers and staff daily. Teachers and staff must feel valued, appreciated, and supported, and administration must be approachable, knowledgeable, and fair. Our mission statement is, “Joining Hands to Build a Brighter Future for our Community,” and all staff members must be committed to working together for student success.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
The Visible Learning initiative by John Hattie has had the greatest impact on student achievement. It has provided us with a framework upon which our students are able to articulate the expected learning and know when they are successful. In turn, our teachers have gained clarity in what they are teaching. Because of the implementation of the practices from this evidence- based research project our teachers are equipped with best practices that are known to have the greatest impact in the classroom as well as those that have little, to no, or negative impact on student achievement. This has enabled us to create a learning environment in which teachers are able to provide targeted feedback to ensure every student progresses through the curriculum.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Our Title I School-wide Planning is based largely on the needs of our most disadvantaged subgroups of students, and we utilize our Title I funds for our Read 180 and System 44 teacher and program (Reading Intervention Program), funding for classroom libraries, Chromebooks to increase student access to online programs and interventions, and ACHIEVE 3000 (Online Nonfiction Reading Program). In addition to planning for academics and high-quality instruction, we utilize Title I funding to partner with our parents and community to plan parent engagement activities that meet the needs of various parent/family groups. Our mission statement, “Joining Hands to Build a Brighter Future for our Community,” speaks to our commitment to building relationships with our families and community. Our Title I Parent Involvement Coordinator speaks fluent Spanish and is a valuable resource to all parents, not just our Spanish-speaking parents.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
We begin planning for our professional development activities by looking at student achievement data, teacher observation data, and needs assessments results. From there, we build a plan to address achievement gaps by providing various opportunities at the school level. These include professional learning communities, peer observations and coaching cycles, regular meetings with school administration and the instructional coach to provide on-the-spot professional learning, and mini-sessions throughout the year that focus on the successful implementation of district curriculum.
We continually seek opportunities to build teacher leaders through participation in district level professional learning as well as attending national and state conferences including the Visible Learning Conference, Institutes at the Teachers College of Reading and Writing, Georgia Educational Technology Conference, Georgia Association for Gifted Children, Eureka Math Conferences, and others as appropriate.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Data from a variety of sources (formative assessments, summative assessments, discipline, attendance, and surveys) is continually reviewed to evaluate instructional effectiveness and to inform decision making. Planning for student success begins months before the beginning of the school year. The master schedule is built around individual students, prioritizing the specific interventions of Special Education students, English Learners, and students in the Early Intervention Program. Individual student names are discussed as the schedule is built to meet their specific intervention needs identified through MTSS. Our high quality, experienced intervention teachers are expertly trained and are considered leaders in our district. Students are grouped to ensure that interventions are administered with fidelity. Teachers and administrators closely monitor student progress, success, and concerns and collaborate regarding individual student learning needs.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our school's mission statement is, "Joining Hands to Build a Brighter Future for Our Community," and we believe this partnership is key to maintaining a positive school culture. We believe that school climate has a direct correlation to student success. Our state Climate Rating has been 5 stars since 2015. We continually review our stakeholder survey data, attendance data, and discipline data to evaluate and improve our school culture. Like all schools across the country, our school culture was disrupted this year due to COVID-19. Despite these hardships, we have worked hard to maintain a positive culture by reaching out to our community and families in strategic ways. We are working creatively to provide opportunities for our community and families to be safely involved in our school. Providing a safe, loving environment for students is at the heart of our school planning, and this expectation is communicated to all staff members, from custodians to administration.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: pre k - 5
    School Setting: suburban
    Town Population: 85,000
    Student Enrollment: 525
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 24%
    White/Caucasian: 56%
    Hispanic: 14%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 5%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 48.8%
    % ELL Learners: 13%
    Founded: 1944
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Katy Ginn
  • CONTACT:
    805 Ocean Boulevard
    St. Simons , GA 31522
    912-638-2851
    kginn@glynnk12.org