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The Island News formerly Lady’s Island News
YOUR Local Newspaper
Bringing our community together
Aug. 6 - Aug. 12, 2009
Covering Beaufort, Lady’s Island, St. Helena Island, Dataw Island, Fripp Island, Port Royal
Lowcountry Medical Group Imaging Center honored see page 5
Making art and opportunities in the ‘eco-magical’ Lowcountry by Lisa Annlouise Rentz
The creative class in Beaufort County is building momentum, and Natalie Daise’s upcoming gallery show and one-woman performances are setting the tone for the arts community for the rest of 2009. A big part of the creative energy at ARTworks, Natalie is a resident artist, a thoughtful and talented painter, and a colorful and meaningful storyteller. Her opening reception is free to the public, on Friday, July 31, and her dramatic onewoman performances are on August 7-8 at 7:30 p.m., with admission $10 per person. “The stage piece is the origin of all my
art,” she said. “I’m a storyteller, and I’ve moved to the canvas. Instead of my spirit and mouth, it’s my spirit and my brush.” So much is scheduled at ARTworks, where artists work with metal and fill the stage and cover the walls with photos, that the Arts Council of Beaufort County is arranging a Free for Fall event on August 14 from 6:30 – 9 p.m. The three main features of Free for Fall are: 1. It’s free! 2. It’s designed to help you find your new inspiration. continued on page 2
Students at four local schools start early, end later in effort to boost learning While most local schools don’t ring the classroom bells until Aug. 17, four public schools start this week because they need to catch up, school district officials said. In what they called “a bold move to change the course of academically challenged schools in Beaufort County,” the Beaufort County School Board and Superintendent Valerie Truesdale adopted an Accelerated Learning School Proposal that targets Whale Branch Elementary School, James J. Davis Elementary School, Whale Branch Middle School and St. Helena Elementary School.
James J. Davis Elementary School will become James J. Davis Early Learning Center, part of Whale Branch Elementary. St. Helena Early Learning Center will also have expanded services of Head Start, serving pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. Elementary students in grades one through five will continue to be served in the St. Helena Elementary building.
Those schools, with the most poverty of any schools in Beaufort County, have been under review by the State Department of Education for three to five years due to persistently underachieving test scores, the school district said.
“The School District developed a concentrated model of intense district and state intervention at Whale Branch Elementary and proposes to implement the plan to turn around all four schools and move the district toward improvement of student achievement,” spokeswoman Carol Bruno McMillan said last spring.
Because Whale Branch Elementary School has experienced five years of persistently unsatisfactory test scores, it is a candidate for designation by the State Board of Education as a Palmetto Priority School. The State Department of Education has agreed to support Beaufort County Schools in an effort to turn around student achievement in Whale Branch and St. Helena schools.
“The plan includes naming the Whale Branch and St. Helena schools as Accelerated Learning Schools with focused resources and energies to reverse the trend of persistently poor performance. Accelerated Learning Schools will have extended school day (15-20 minutes/day) and an extended school year (200 days) so that students can master grade level standards,” she said.
continued on page 16
In This Issue NEWS
PROFILE
SCHOOL NEWS
Island Notes Jim Hicks
Patty Huckabee
School uniforms listed
SEE PAGE 4
SEE PAGE 9
SEE PAGE 7