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ABOUT
Who is Lexington County School District One?
Lexington County School District One serves about 26,000 students from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 with more than 3,700 employees (not including substitutes)
and 30 schools (17 elementary schools, seven middle schools, five high schools, one technology center). The district also has an alternative learning
program called FOCUS, located in the Rosenwald Community Learning Center.
The 360 square miles that make up Lexington One stretch from the banks of Lake Murray to the county’s southern border with Aiken County. Our district occupies 48 percent of the county’s 750 square miles and is one of the county’s major employers. 2010 Census Data shows Lexington County’s population as 262,391; within the area that makes up Lexington One the population is 121,030 or 46 percent of the county.
During the past 10 years (2006–2016), Lexington One grew by an average of 533 new students per year. The district remains one of the fastest-growing school districts in the state, ranking eighth in total enrollment.
To keep up with this tremendous growth, Lexington has built 15 new schools since 1997. Even so, the district still uses 173 portables.
World language is offered at all levels including elementary, middle and high schools.
Our students excel in state and national award-winning marching bands, symphonic bands, choral programs, strings programs and athletic programs.
Additionally, Lexington One students perform well on nationally normed assessments (ACT, PSAT, SAT, MAP).
Thanks to tremendous community support, our students benefit from a high-performance learning culture that prepares them to be a new generation of leaders and global citizens who are self-directed, creative, collaborative, caring and multilingual.
What is Lexington County School District One’s purpose?
Lexington School District One is dedicated to providing and encouraging a learning environment that prepares our students to be the next generation of leaders and global citizens who are self-directed, creative, collaborative, caring and multilingual.
We provide our students with quality, personalized learning experiences that support their development in critical thinking, collaboration, creativity
and communication. Our teachers at all grade levels are dedicated to helping our students be all that they can be!
Our programs range from the arts to athletics, without losing sight of the importance of academics. We offer a wide range of opportunities for our students to explore and develop their strengths, talents and interests. From athletics and media arts to agricultural business and STEM studies, we strive to help our students experience and participate in a variety of studies and programs. Each of our students and their individual success is important to us.
We focus on providing students with quality, personalized learning experiences that support their development in four essential 21st century skills that we refer to as the four C’s — critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication. Our Schools of the Future — Now! initiative and its three components — LexLeads, LexLearns and LexLives — guide our graduates as they become confident in academics, accomplished in 21st century skills, global in orientation and sophisticated in learning.
THE MISSION
The mission of Lexington County School District One — where caring people, academics, the arts and athletics connect — is to prepare 21st century graduates while serving as the center for community learning.
Therefore, we will provide:
an array of exceptional learning experiences in a high-performance culture of excellence that sets high expectations for every student.
opportunities to develop talents, interests and skills through choices from a comprehensive system of 21st century learning experiences in the arts, academics
and athletics.
various innovative learning delivery and support systems to personalize learning and to ensure that our students are learning sophisticated 21st century
skills, knowledge and attitudes.
opportunities to practice leadership and citizenship in a global context.
access by the community to a range of learning and participatory community experiences throughout life.
a learning environment and professional culture of caring and support.
THE VISION
The graduates of Lexington County School District One are a new generation of leaders and global citizens who are self-directed, creative, collaborative, caring and multilingual, and who flourish in a global, competitive 21st century.
Our graduates are confident in academics, sophisticated in learning, accomplished in 21st century skills, global in orientation, and prepared as leaders and citizens of our democracy.
Therefore:
our schools serve as the center for community learning.
our students are engaged in high-quality learning and are provided an exceptional array of 21st century learning experiences.
our collaborative and innovative organization for learning develops self-directed, creative and collaborative graduates.
our culture and our academics develop leadership and citizenship skills for the global world and for our democracy.
all stakeholders accept collective responsibility for the sophisticated learning of our students.
each student receives the personal support necessary to reach his or her goals through a caring environment that advocates for students and works to eliminate barriers to learning.
Lexington One believes that the 21st century graduate should:
be confident in academics;
master world-class knowledge, 21st century content (deep learning in the liberal arts, the three R’s, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics or STEM), speak multiple languages and be college- and career-ready;
be sophisticated in learning;
know how to learn, understand cognitive strategies, be self-directed (applies learning independently to solve problems, initiates plans or a course of action, self-monitors, self-corrects), and able to analyze, synthesize and problem-solve, create innovative solutions, acquire and apply information and technology for research and analysis;
be accomplished in 21st century skills;
develop expertise in the four C’s (critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity), and digital and media fluency, display life and career personal characteristics of interpersonal skills, work ethic, self-direction, personal responsibility and management, persistence and integrity;
be global in orientation;
understand other cultures, demonstrate sensitivity to differences, be knowledgeable about global issues and our interconnectedness, and acquire other languages (multilingual);
be prepared as leaders and citizens of our democracy; and
be understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship with civic literacy, develops habits, attitudes and skills of capable leadership, and is ethical and caring
Our system of learning is personalized, flexible, responsible and participant-driven. Grounded in world-class knowledge and skills, our system of learning offers multiple pathways toward college, career and citizenship preparedness with access to an array of highly effective, engaging, rigorous and well-designed learning experiences with few boundaries of time, space and place.
What are the district’s notable achievements?
Lexington County School District One is the number one place to lead, learn and live.
As one of the fastest growing school districts in the state of South Carolina, we are proud of the excellent academic reputation we have established.
As educators, we are most proud of the academic success of our students. Our students are recognized nationally for exceptional academic achievements. Whether it’s in academics, the arts or athletics, Lexington County School District One students are among the state’s most competitive. It’s not just our students who are award winners, though. Our teachers and professional staff are, too.
Looking back over the past three years, we take great pride in our accomplishments. Most recently, our district completed the recruitment, selection and transition to a new superintendent, Dr. Gregory D. Little. He assumed the duties left vacant by Dr. Karen Woodward, who served as Lexington District One superintendent for 16 years.
Other notable accomplishments from the past three years include:
moving world language to the core in all of our middle schools;
becoming a partner district with TransformSC, a collaboration of business leaders, educators and policy makers working to transform South Carolina’s public education system;
reporting soft skills through the development of a Habits of Scholarship report card;
the authorization of Lexington Middle school as an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program;
the opening of River Bluff High School, a state of the art institution which showcases the flexible use of time and space;
the opening of six Centers for Advanced Study which provide students with focused knowledge and skills at the advanced level;
establishing comprehensive leadership development programs at every school including several Lighthouse Schools through Leader in Me; and
establishing Meadow Glen Middle as the first Expeditionary Learning school in the state.
These long lists and news releases are
examples of accomplishments that illustrate our success —
2015–2016 Honors and Achievements and 2016–2017 Honors and Achievements.
Where do we want to improve over the next three years?
While Lexington County School District One has a strong reputation and a history of excellence and innovation, we know that standing still is not an
option. Our goal is to continuously improve, and we believe that through focused attention, careful review and meaningful feedback, there is no
limit to what we can achieve.
As we look ahead to the next three years, the future of Lexington District One looks extremely bright. Under Dr. Little’s leadership, the district has already begun investing in human capital.
The district has developed the Lexington One Executive Leadership program to provide more intensive training to our current principals and Central Services employees. Continuing our efforts in developing human capital, our plans are to restructure our office of Human Resources to reframe our recruitment and hiring practices based on dispositional hiring and assessment.
In an effort to address our need for quality school principals in the future, the district has partnered with the New City Leadership Academy to develop a world class training program for our assistant principals who aspire to be principals.
In addition, Dr. Little has created a culture of inclusion and mutual respect. He has re-named our district office — Central Services — to emphasize his belief in customer service first whether in out interactions with our students, their families, our staff or others.
We also want you to know...
Students are our number one focus in Lexington County School District One. They are our inspiration, our passion and our joy.
From Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12, we strive to provide innovative educational opportunities that help shape students into global leaders. As a result, Lexington County School District One students are sophisticated in learning and excel in academics, athletics, fine arts and leadership, earning awards and honors across a variety of disciplines throughout the district and beyond.
In fact, the district has a “Dream Big — Making Dreams Reality in Lexington One” video series that showcases successful Lexington One graduates and highlights the importance of public school education. You can see those here.
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