South Pointe High School Improvement Council (SIC) is one of five SICs that have been named statewide 2017 award finalists for their accomplishments in parent and civic engagement within their school communities.

The SC School Improvement Council’s annual Dick and Tunky Riley Award for School Improvement Council Excellence was created in 2002 to recognize the significant contributions made to public education by the nearly 14,000 local SIC members who volunteer in the state’s 1,200-plus K-12 public schools. This is the second consecutive year that a SIC from Rock Hill Schools has been named as a finalist. Ebinport Elementary School won the Riley Award in 2016.

In alphabetical order, this year’s Riley Award finalists are:

• Bluffton Middle SIC (Beaufort County School District)
• Harbison-West Elementary SIC (District Five of Lexington & Richland Counties)
• South Florence High SIC (Florence Public School District One)
• South Pointe High SIC (Rock Hill Schools)
• St. James Elementary SIC (Horry County Schools)

“We congratulate these School Improvement Councils on the outstanding work they have done for their schools and students,” said SC-SIC Board of Trustees Chair Amelia B. McKie. “When parents, educators, students, and community members come together to share their ideas and efforts for our schools, we all benefit – especially our children.”

The winner of the this year’s Riley Award will be selected from this year’s finalists by an independent panel of reviewers and announced during the 2017 SC-SIC Annual Meeting, Saturday, March 18, at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia.

The SC-SIC Riley Award for SIC Excellence is named in honor of former SC Governor and US Education Secretary Richard Riley and his late wife, Tunky, and recognizes the couple’s longstanding commitment to quality public education.

Part of the Center for Education Partnerships within the University of South Carolina College of Education, the SC School Improvement Council (SC-SIC) was established in state law 40 years ago to provide the member training, technical assistance, statutory accountability, and other operational resources necessary for the continued success of the community-based SICs in each of the state’s K-12 public schools. Additional information on SC-SIC’s programmatic efforts can be found online at http://sic.sc.gov.