Richland County School District One preliminarily clears underperforming list, officials say

At a CNI committee meeting on Oct. 21, Dr. Minor told commissioners that preliminary calculations indicate Richland County School District One will not have any schools rated “unsatisfactory” on the 2024–25 state report cards, which the district said are tentatively scheduled for release Monday, Nov. 3.

The update covered four schools that were designated unsatisfactory in 2023–24: Burton (PAC/Pack) Elementary, C.A. Johnson High School, E.E. Taylor Elementary School and Watkins Nance Elementary School. “From our current preliminary calculations, Richland County School District 1 will not have any unsatisfactory schools for the '24–25 school report card ratings,” Dr. Minor said.

The statutory basis for the district’s identification process is South Carolina Code §59-18-16-15, which Dr. Minor cited in his presentation. That statute defines an underperforming school as one receiving an overall school report card rating of “below average” or “unsatisfactory,” and requires schools with an unsatisfactory rating to submit revised strategic plans and report to the local school board at least once a quarter.

Officials walked through each school’s quarterly progress. At Burton (PAC/Pack), district staff reported disciplinary hearings fell from 35 in 2023–24 to 18 in the most recent period and suspensions decreased, work the presenter credited to targeted behavioral supports and a “reset” program. “If students aren't in school, they're not going to learn,” Dr. Minor said while describing the reduction in out-of-school discipline.

At C.A. Johnson, leaders said academic teams are ensuring students take required preparatory ELC courses in the spring to meet performance goals. Dr. Hassinger, speaking about college and career readiness (CCR), said some CCR data remain embargoed but that the district expects to be above 70 percent for CCR this year. Speakers also explained statewide changes that create a tiered credentialing system for incoming ninth-graders and noted that the college-ready SAT threshold moved from 1,020 to 1,040.

District staff highlighted the Palmetto Pathways system the state provides and that the district adopted to audit transcripts nightly, flag missing credits and ensure students are enrolled in and credited for required courses. “It gives us one more check to make sure that our students have what they need,” Dr. Minor said.

Miss Sturtevant described how Watkins Nance used MTSS-driven screening (STAR) to identify students significantly below grade level and to reduce the size of its urgent-intervention group; she said some students in that group are being referred for evaluations under tier 3 interventions.

Officials emphasized that the current findings are preliminary and dependent on the state’s final report cards. Dr. Minor said once the Nov. 3 lists are released, the district will identify any schools rated below average or unsatisfactory, provide the required forms and work with school improvement councils and teachers to update strategic plans for board approval. The committee discussed scheduling a fuller presentation to the board after report cards are published; the next regular board meeting was mentioned as the second Tuesday in November.

No motions or votes were taken; the item was presented for information and the meeting was adjourned.

What’s next: district staff will present final, state-certified report-card outcomes after the Nov. 3 release and follow the statutory process for any schools still identified as underperforming.