Annual Report to Parents

2025 ANNUAL REPORT TO PARENTS

2025 Report to Parents 
2212 Whites Road, Fort Mill, SC 
Phone: 803-396-3450 

School Improvement Council Members

• Christine McNeil - Principal 
• Ebony Bankhead - Chair 
• J. Cook, J. Wilke, W. Leach - Assistant Principals Wendy Byrd - Secretary 
• Harshawardhan Bhide - Parent 
• Tammy Hess - Parent 
• Shannon Brown- Community Member 
• Kendra Collins - Community Member 
• Melissa Grupp - RTS Literacy Lead 
• George Latzos - RTS Literacy Member 
   

Website: https://fcms.fortmillschools.org/ Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/forestcreekmiddleschool

School Area Goals 

Student Achievement 
Based on the Spring 2025 SC Ready ELA Reading Assessment for grades 6-8, 81.1% of female students achieved the meets or exceeds level, compared to 77.8% of male students. To address this achievement gap, Performance Goal Area 2 for the 2025-2026 school year aims to further reduce this disparity by 1.0%. 

• Key strategies for the 2025-2026 school year include:Implementing BOOST, a school-wide Tier 2 intervention system designed to target specific literacy gaps. 
• Integrating STEAM and high-engagement instructional strategies within core subject areas.
• Facilitating teacher professional development focused on literacy strategies rooted in the science of reading. 

Teacher/Administrator Quality: 

• Implementing a three-year data recognition spreadsheet to ensure every student is celebrated. 
• Utilizing "Happy grams" and positive referrals to highlight student success. 
• Restoring positive behavioral systems to team-level control. 
• Reviving school-wide quarterly celebrations to reward responsible behavior. 
• Offering diverse choice enrichment groups for student engagement. 

Furthermore, administration supports our faculty by providing weekly free breakfast and a weekly duty-free lunch, made possible through the generous support of our PTO volunteers. 

State Assessment Data 
SC READY ELA 2025 ~ 83.3% M/E 
This year’s theme of Unplug, Reset, Restore emphasized decreasing classroom screen time and reminding staff to unplug and reset during their days off.

Our objective for the 2025-2026 academic year is to improve staff satisfaction from 96.4% to over 97%, with an ultimate target of 100%. To achieve this, we will focus on the following strategies: 

• Establishing collaborative coaching cycles for educators. 
• Refining school systems and removing non-essential Wednesday afternoon meetings.
• Ensuring professional development is held during contracted hours and aligned with feedback from staff surveys. 
• Providing Tier 1 professional development focused on effective instructional strategies and classroom management. 

School Climate: 
In terms of school climate, our objective is to improve satisfaction among both parents and students. While our teaching staff already maintains a 100% satisfaction rating, we are striving to reach 85% for parents and 93% for students. 
To meet these targets, our 2025-2026 strategies include: 
6 2.0 % 10.8% 31.5% 55.8% 7 4.5% 12.8% 47.3% 35.4% 8 6.0% 14.1% 37.8% 42.2% Average 4.2% 12.5% 38.8% 44.5% 
SC READY MATH 20225 ~ 70.5% M/E  Grade Not Met Approaches Meets Exceeds 6 4.0% 17.9% 29.9% 48.2% 7 6.2% 21.0% 28.0% 44.9% 8 9.2% 30.1% 37.8% 22.9% Average 6.5% 23.0% 31.9% 38.6% 

Vision & Motto 
Forest Creek Middle School will provide excellent instruction founded on a growth mindset, adaptability, and innovation. 
At Forest Creek Middle School, we: Focus on a growth mindset, Commit to excellence, Make meaningful connections, and Succeed together. 

School Achievements and Student Success 

• The Coyote Crew continues to foster a welcoming environment by hosting the newcomer’s breakfast and mentoring 6th-grade students, alongside leading School Spirit events and the Rising 6th-grade meeting. 
• Academic excellence was highlighted by the induction of over 50 students into the Junior Beta Club and our Junior Scholars' participation in Winthrop University's Jr Scholars Day. 
• Our MathCounts team, composed of 14 students, secured a $500 Showcase cash prize after earning over 65 points in the competition. 
• Career readiness initiatives included the 6th-grade Career Speaker day, the district-wide 7th Grade Career Fair, and the 8th-grade Job Shadowing day. 
• Student character is celebrated through the recognition of traits like humility, courage, and kindness, while staff contributions are honored through monthly Thankful Thursday entries. 

Arts and Athletics 

• The FCMS Band maintained its tradition of excellence, receiving the SCBDA Outstanding Performance Award and earning SUPERIOR ratings at CPA, a distinction also shared by our Honor Chorus. 
• In the performing arts, students delivered a successful production of Peter Pan, Jr., the Musical, marking the school's fifth production. 
• Our students also represented us in the CRHS Band and Colorguard, achieving champion status at 4A State Competitions and participating in the Macy’s Day Parade. 
• A wide range of sports was offered, from football and soccer to girls flag football and dance, with additional athletes competing at the high school level in sports such as lacrosse and wrestling. 
• The cheer competition team also demonstrated strong performances throughout various 
• seasonal events. 

Community and Enrichment 

• The PTO continues to be a pillar of support, hosting the 3rd annual Music Bingo and Games Family Night and providing treats and holiday gifts for staff and students. 
• River Rock Community Church supported our faculty with the Coffee Bus, meals, and birthday cards, while also assisting with the 'Yotesgiving tradition. 
• Enrichment activities included an 8th-grade trip to Washington, DC, 6th-grade visits to the Schiele Museum, and a successful multidisciplinary STEAM project for 7th graders. 
• Literacy and inspiration remain a focus through Battle of the Books, faculty book clubs, and the Words of Wisdom project, where student and staff quotes are turned into posters. 
• Our guiding coalition continues to refine school systems like FLEX and MTSS (BOOST) to improve our PLT implementation process.  Our school raised over $500 for the Wounded Warrior Project. 

24-25 Highlights

• We participated in Hurricane Helene relief in September and early October collecting and distributing several truckloads of essential items to those affected.
• Our Mock Trial team were State Champions this year and recognized at the State House in Columbia, SC.
• We continued to celebrate positive behaviors this year with our Coyote Central cart where students redeem tickets for snacks and other prizes. This year, we included FLEX Fun in the Gym.
• Our Coyote Crew hosted our newcomer’s breakfast again this year and continues to mentor our 6th grade students as well as lead other events such as the Rising 6th grade meeting and School Spirit events.
• Our cheer team created a Coyote Pride Paw fundraiser this year where families purchased a paw print that was painted with their student’s jersey number and sport on our campus highlighting that Coyote Spirit!
• Our 8th grade volleyball team were conference champions.
• We celebrated our honor roll students with a dairy treat at lunch each quarter. This year, we continued to recognize almost 500 students each time.
• Ishaan Singh, 8th grader, represented FCMS and Fort Mill Schools at the SC Scripps Spelling Bee.
• Some of our Coyotes are members of the CRHS Band and participated in the Grand National Championship in Indianapolis where they finished 19th overall of 113 bands and won 2nd place in Class 2A.
• Junior Beta Club members participated in the annual installation of the Fort Mill Scarecrows for the Crawl hosted by the Town of Fort Mill showcasing their community spirit and creativity.
• We have had several faculty members recognized this year as outstanding teachers via the FSI All-Star program with three being selected as top 10 monthly finalists: Kyle Herendeen,
• Kristy Weg, and Elida Westerman.
• Our PTO hosted its 2nd annual Music Bingo and Games Family Night with over 90 participants and continues to sponsor other student and staff events (Blue Ice, Boo Grams, Teacher Holiday Treats and Gifts).
• We had continued success with our MathCounts and Academic Challenge teams.
• Our SIC hosted Connor McKemmey of MAC Mentality this year who shared his story of Life Ignited and the need to practice the MAC Mentality: motivation, attitude, and courage on a daily basis.
• 8th grade students, Liam Woessner, Ben Peterson, and Lilly Hoffman, successfully earned a chance to move to the next level of the Geography Bee and possibly qualify for the National Bee.
• Our FACS teacher, Mrs. Rivard, and FACS students continue to partner with local businesses and schools to support her curriculum including finance and cooking standards.
• We raised over $3500 for the Special Olympics of SC via our Polar Plunge efforts!
• We participated in World Down Syndrome Day on 3/21 by wearing crazy socks. This was a fun day to encourage each other to express their uniqueness.
• We hosted our 6th grade Career Speaker day, attended the district 7th Grade Career Fair, and our 8th graders participated in Job Shadowing day.
• In addition to Coyote Central, we held quarterly Coyote Jackpot celebrations in our cafeteria to recognize students who had consistently demonstrated positive behavior.
• Our Coyote Council continues to make our AM announcements that include celebrating student and staff birthdays this year and welcomed our FMSD School Board during their visit.
• We continue to recognize positive character traits such as respect, commitment, patience, humility, selflessness, kindness, courage, forgiveness, and joyfulness in our students and celebrate staff members of the month via our Thankful Thursday entries.
• We inducted over 35 students into the Junior Beta Club this year at our February ceremony.
• We recognized 42 Junior Scholars at our Junior Scholar Award Night.
• Our students did an amazing job performing Suessical Jr., the Musical, our fourth school production led by Ms. VanValkenburgh, Mrs. Burnett, and Mrs. Rivard.
• Our Band received SUPERIOR ratings again this year for their CPA.
• Happy Mail and Happy Email continued to be delivered this year from Mrs. McNeil and staff.
• We offer several sports at FCMS, including, football, volleyball, basketball, cheer, dance, baseball, track, and soccer. This year, we also participated in girls flag football via a district partnership with Carolina Panthers. FCMS was also the recipient of the FMAC trophy this year.
• Two of our 8th grade athletes, Emma Gambrill and Jamaar Green. represented FCMS at the SCHSL Middle School Leadership Summit.
• BOOST was launched which offered students opportunities to participate in enrichment activities while meeting a majority of staff and making connections as well as to receive remediation in Math and Language Arts.
• Coyote Chats were used this year to increase student self-efficacy regarding learning and positive behavior.
• We introduced Coyote Spotlight recognizing a staff member weekly via email and social media with highlights from words peers and students have said about them.
• We hosted the instructional team from Indian Land Middle School who met with our Instructional Team (Mr. Latzos, Mrs. Grupp, and Mr. Tyler) and Mrs. McNeil to discuss our MTSS program (BOOST) and FLEX schedule.
• Our 8th grade students will attend Washington, DC in May for a culminating middle school field trip experience and participate in an "Enchanted Forest" semi-formal. Families donated several holiday trees and other foliage to bring this theme to life.
• We created guiding coalition teams to help address and create school-wide systems including FLEX, MTSS (BOOST), and Grading Practices, increasing teacher voice and leadership capacity.
• We continued participating in Battle of the Books, Read-In @ the Greenway, celebrating School Library Month, and faculty book clubs.
• Our staff continues to enjoy monthly family gatherings organized by Mrs. Miller, our receptionist, to build staff connections outside of school.
• Our PTO continues to support our staff with a monthly themed Snack Cart gifted by various community partners.
• Our partnership with the Houser Group continues with their monthly sponsorship of our Teacher/Staff of the Month gift packages.
• River Rock Community Church continues to provide the Coffee Bus for our staff as well as breakfast bars, meals, birthday cards, and treats.
• We continued our ‘Yotesgiving tradition this year with the help of our PTO and River Rock Community Church.
• Fun-Fridays continue with our Friday jokes submitted by students and staff (174 jokes were submitted this year!)
• Another 36 Words of Wisdom submissions have been selected out of 94 to be turned into posters that will adorn the walls of the Creek highlighting favorite quotes that were submitted by students, parents, and staff.

Purpose of the Report 
This Report is issued by Forest Creek’s School Improvement Council in accordance with South Carolina law to share information on the school’s progress in meeting various 
goals and objectives, the work of the SIC, and other accomplishments during the school year.