Report to the Community

Child Development Center and Family Services Report to the Community

About Our School

The Child Development Center is located in the building formerly housing Fairforest Elementary School at 3050 North Blackstock Road, on the West side of Spartanburg, South Carolina.  A classic “Little Red Schoolhouse,” the CDC is designated as a historical landmark, built in 1950. The CDC holds a special place in our Fairforest community’s heart. It is nestled between two major highways, near major department stores, restaurants, and businesses.  

Our dedicated teachers and instructional assistants provide a strong foundation for our program, focusing on establishing literacy/language-rich classrooms and a well-rounded, loving environment.  The students participate in Universal Free Breakfast at the CDC, receiving a nutritional meal in the classroom each morning.  Teachers design instruction based on PreK on My Way Curriculum.  Our Literacy Intervention Program assists children with beginning letters and sounds, measured by the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (myIGDIs™); children receive research-based instruction in small group settings.  In addition to the myIGDIs  assessment for Literacy, we also administer (myIGDIs) for Math Assessments. Each of these tests for Literacy and Math are administered three times a year.  Our teachers continue to grow professionally with the help of Dawn Mitchell, through our Growing Great Readers professional development. Several staff members are now pursuing their Master’s in Education. 

The CDC is unique to our District, being a licensed CERDEP school (Child Early Reading Development Education Program). We house 11 of the 19 4K classes in Spartanburg School District Six. This has brought additional support, guidelines, and regulations to our District 4K classes.  Clear roles and responsibilities are defined and strong communication is emphasized resulting in an effective and efficient faculty and staff. Our faculty completes at least 15 hours of appropriate professional development annually. 4K Screening is a valuable service that we offer the District Six community. In addition we offer BabyNet and Child Find Screenings every two weeks, to identify children who are in need of support services. 


Purpose of this Report

This report is issued by the Child Development Center School Improvement Council in accordance with South Carolina law to share information concerning the school’s progress in meeting various goals and objectives, the work of the SIC, and other accomplishments during the school year.

School Improvement Council Members

Angela Lindsey, parent (Chairman)

Caitlin McNeely , parent

Matt Henderson, community member

P.K. Garman, community member (Tietex)

Mirelys Quiroga, parent

Jennifer Campbell, 4K teacher 

Andy Connolly, special education teacher

Beth Thomas, Child Find Coordinator


Krishenda Alexander, principal, ex-officio Helen Mitchell Hammond, CERDEP Coordinator, ex-officio

 

School Improvement Council’s Annual Goals

  1. Increase Family Engagement

Family engagement at the CDC has grown every year.  The 2023-2024 school year has proven to be a banner year as we have focused on supporting the CDC Family Engagement Committee’s planned activities throughout the year.  Our early childhood professionals have collaborated with community members and families to build goal-oriented relationships that greatly benefit our children.

  1. Increase Community Awareness

The SIC continues to reach out to various community organizations to help them be more of the Child Development Center and the 4K Program.  SIC continues to make connections in order to get more community involvement.  Our community partners have volunteered for field day events, attended Family Engagement activities, and helped to make our Teacher Appreciation week a success!


Community Partners

Our community partners in recent years include the following:

Converse University Music Department 

Cyrill-Westside Library 

Dorman High/RD Anderson

First Presbyterian Church

Ingles

Junior League of Spartanburg

Papa John’s Pizza

Saint Matthews Episcopal Church

Petals Tea Shop

Spartanburg Science Center

Spartanburg Community College

Tietex

Triple P

Tyger River Presbyterian Church

USC Upstate

Westview Fire Department

NewSpring Church

 


Child Development Center Mission

 At the Spartanburg District 6 Child Development Center, we strive to provide a positive, nurturing, language-rich environment, in order to build a strong foundation for our young children and their families to meet their full potential and become lifelong learners.  We believe that all students can learn; each student is a valued individual with unique physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and cultural needs; early intervention services are critical to future student academic success; student learning and appropriate behaviors are priorities for our school; exceptional students (special education, Limited English proficient, gifted and talented) require special services and resources; a safe and physically comfortable environment nurtures our students and promotes student learning; embracing diversity can increase our students’ students, and the community share the responsibility for advancing the school’s mission. 

We continually have a vision to establish and communicate a shared purpose and direction for improving the performance of students and the effectiveness of the system. Our motto at the CDC is “Here We Grow!”