Beaufort County schools show gains overall; three schools remain below average, board hears

Beaufort County School District leaders presented the unembargoed 2025 state accountability results to the Board of Education on Nov. 4, saying most schools rated “average,” “good” or “excellent” while three remain below average.

District staff said the district earned gains in several measures, including an 89.3% graduation rate and improved college- and career-readiness indicators. Principal Carlos Williams credited staff and targeted instruction for marked improvements at Whale Branch Elementary, where meeting materials show a 17.2 percentage-point increase in ELA and a 16.8-point gain in math over the comparison period.

"We tracked progress continuously and when we noticed students get off track, we responded with plans," Principal Williams said, describing curriculum alignment, extended planning time and classroom visits as core strategies.

Dr. Siobhan Brown, principal at Lady's Island Middle School, described schedule changes and new intervention blocks that she said moved her school from below average to average: "We allocated double the amount of time to ELA and math and added a tier 2 intervention block," she told the board.

Superintendent-level staff noted that three schools—Battery Creek High School, St. Helena Elementary and Whale Branch Middle—were classified as below average and identified vacancies as a contributing factor in some cases. The district said work to move those schools out of below-average status has already begun, including targeted staffing and instructional support.

Board members pressed for detail on the school-climate indicator, which staff told the board uses a weighted subset of survey questions and is reported on a 10-point scale. One board member said the 6.55/10 figure implied lower satisfaction than some other bar charts suggested and asked for the underlying question-level data; staff said they would provide follow-up details.

Several trustees also asked for clearer, timelier state data to enable faster resource allocation; the chair urged follow-up with the state to shorten the time between testing and results. The board did not take action but directed staff to return with additional data and implementation plans for schools rated below average.

The presentation also highlighted that, districtwide, Beaufort County outperformed the state in some high school subject areas and that a number of schools have moved up two rating levels in recent years. Administration emphasized continued focus on multilingual students, vacancies and targeted interventions as the next steps.

The board's next procedural step is to request more detailed monitoring and progress reporting on the three below-average schools and on school-climate metrics.