Sycamore High School highlights achievement gains, community partnerships and celebrates staff

Sycamore High School presented its school improvement plan update Thursday to the Cheatham County Board of Education and received board recognition for student and staff achievements.

Principal Wendy (Sycamore High School) reported the school achieved level-5 growth for a third consecutive year, indicating students showed more than one year''s worth of growth on course end-of-course tests. The school''s current goal is to reach 80% of students scoring on track or mastery, though administrators said they will celebrate year-to-year gains even if the 80% threshold is not reached immediately.

Wendy described targeted strategies: teachers adopting small caseloads of "bubble" students to provide encouragement and test-time supports, integrating writing tasks across non-tested subjects, and scheduling job-embedded professional development. She credited cross-curricular planning and teacher-led professional development for recent gains in algebra and biology.

The presentation highlighted community partnerships: Sycamore students toured a new Habitat for Humanity build in Ashland City that included solar panels, and the school has raised $6,118.50 for Habitat to date through student fundraisers. Science teacher Carolyn (Darbus) secured a $5,000 AO Smith grant for STEM equipment for the science department, principal Wendy said. The Cheatham County Enhancement Coalition provided guest speakers and led a community-wide suicide-awareness event; one speaker, Laura Stack, founder of Johnny's Ambassadors, addressed ninth through twelfth graders on substance risks.

Wendy also showcased teacher leadership: staff members from Sycamore have led professional development at the district and state levels, including sessions on CTE, flipped-classroom models and formative assessment strategies.

The board honored students who attended the Tennessee School Board Association SCOPE conference in Nashville on March 11; the delegation joined 246 peers from across the state to debate K''12 education policies. Principal Wendy read the student delegation names and shared committee outcomes on issues debated at the conference.

The board also recognized multiple employees of the month across district positions, including teachers, support staff and program leaders; certificates were made available for principals to distribute.

Board members thanked Sycamore staff and administrators for hosting the meeting and praised the school's work ahead of state testing. Several board members noted facilities improvements and ongoing work to support extracurricular programs.

Principal Wendy and the district HR office also announced a new quarterly HR newsletter for staff that will include retirement and benefits information, wellness resources and district highlights; the series will be issued quarterly starting in June.