Coach Smoak

I am absolutely remiss in not recognizing the fact that Camden High School Boy’s Tennis Coach Roger Smoak recently achieved his 500th win, most of which have come at CHS.  This is obviously an outstanding accomplishment.  But what comes to my mind first when I think about Coach Smoak’s impact is not the record, but [...]

North Central Area Construction

I had the opportunity this morning to drive up into the North Central area and see the progress on the project at both North Central High School and Midway Elementary School.  North Central simply looks like a different place!  What was really exciting was to see the new score board at the stadium.  The old [...]

Schools….

Twice a year, the district publishes Schools, which is distributed in the community as an insert in the Chronicle-Independent.  I particularly enjoyed the one that came out yesterday because it focused primarily on instruction and all the innovative and exciting things that are happening in classrooms across the district.  I also really liked the picture [...]

Sharing Best Practices….

At last week’s State Summer Leadership Conference, a number of our folks were invited to make presentations on “best practices” occurring in our district. I was extremely proud of the fact that so many programs and practices in our district are seen as models for other districts. Our folks who presented include:

Ginger [...]

Moved In – Finally!

I’ve been here for almost a year.  Since my wife, Jean, got down here in August, we have been living in an apartment at Fox Run (a really nice complex) while we built a house.  This week, we finally got moved in.  Since we had stayed in our previous house in Virginia for 20 years, [...]

Budget….

This past Tuesday night, the School Board adopted a budget which I believe will have tremendous impact on the quality of education in Kershaw County.  It was a budget that reflected a great deal of community input and involvement.  I’m really proud of that.  As I’ve said all along, the budget is the most important [...]

More on the Ron Clark Academy Visit….

I continue to get really great feedback on the recent visit a number of our teachers made to the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta.  Following is an email I received from Jody Lackey, a teacher at Camden Middle School:
 I want to thank you for providing the opportunity to the teachers of this district to attend [...]

Vacation Bible School

I had a great opportunity today to participate in the Vacation Bible School co-sponsored by Grace Episcopal Church and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church.  I got to spend time with four different groups of young people in grades K-5 talking about the importance of school and how school is connected to the “real [...]

Pastor Otis Scott

During my first year in Kershaw County, it has been my privilege to work with Otis Scott, the pastor of Camden First United Methodist Church.  Pastor Scott has been a tireless advocate for a variety of community projects, most especially through his work with the Camden First Community Development Corporation.  As Pastor Scott takes on [...]

Election Night……

Since I’m new here, I decided to go to the Kershaw County Government Building last night to watch election returns come in.  It was a really unique and interesting experience in democracy.  As the returns came in from the various polling places in the county, the returns from each polling place were posted on a [...]