Awards & Accomplishments
Highlights from Spartanburg School District Seven
Spartanburg High School was the first high school in the nation, public or private, to be awarded the US Department of Education Blue Ribbon School Award four times. Blue Ribbon Schools serve as a beacon of exemplary achievements and contributions to ensure successful educational experiences for all children by shining a positive light on America's best schools and programs that work.
The Advanced Placement program has the highest number of AP courses taught in the state of South Carolina. This year Spartanburg High School had 91 students named AP Scholars. Spartanburg High School had the largest number of students recognized as AP Scholars than any other high school in the county.
Spartanburg High School had the fourth highest number of Palmetto Fellows Scholarship recipients in South Carolina this year for public high schools, with 31. Palmetto Fellows Scholarship rewards South Carolina's most academically talented high school seniors with scholarships. This competition is intense and the awards were generous with qualifying students receiving thousands of dollars for up to eight terms of full-time study toward a degree.
223 Spartanburg High School Seniors received $16,213,736 in scholarship money in 2009, over 2.5 million dollars more than any other senior high class in the entire county.
The District 7 Orchestra Program sent talented high school orchestra students toChina this summer to play at prestigious festivals. The Spartanburg High School Orchestra was the only high school to be invited to play at the Great Wall. The Spartanburg High School Orchestra Program is recognized nationally and internationally.
Three District 7 schools were honored by the state's Palmetto Gold and Silver Awards program for academic performance and improvement for 2008-09. Pine Street Elementary and Daniel Morgan Technology Center both received Palmetto Gold Awards, the eighth year both schools have received this distinction since the award's inception in 2001. Houston Elementary garnered the Palmetto Silver Award. Pine Street and Houston also received an additional Silver Award certificate for making substantial progress in closing achievement gaps. Pine Street Elementary was the only elementary school in Spartanburg County to win a Gold Award.
Jesse Boyd Elementary School and the McCarthy Teszler School were honored with Red Carpet awards to recognize their success at creating family-friendly school environments and providing excellent customer service. These two schools were one of only 42 schools honored by the S.C. Department of Education with the prestigious award for doing a superior job in providing customer service and creating a family-friendly environment. Jesse Boyd, who earned Red Carpet as well in 2001, joins the ranks of six other district schools having the received the award over the last four years.
Pine Street Elementary was the only elementary school in Spartanburg County to receive an excellent rating on South Carolina's Annual State Report Card.
The spring 2009 edition of Newsweek listed Spartanburg High School as one of the top 400 high schools in the nation.
Spartanburg School District Seven is among Money magazine’s "100 Top Schools in Towns You Can Afford."
Pine Street Elementary School was recognized as one of the top seven schools in the Upstate by WSPA News Channel 7's Top 7 Schools in the Upstate Report in the spring of 2006. Pine Street was the only Spartanburg County School named.
For the ninth consecutive year, the district received national distinction by the Government Finance Officers Association with the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. The GFOA certificate is the highest form of recognition in government accounting. For the seventh consecutive year, the district received international distinction by the Association of School Business Officials International with the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting.
Six more district teachers earned the coveted National Board Certification in 2009, bringing the total number of Spartanburg School District Seven teachers with the respected credential to 66.
