Greenville County School District

Greenville County School District (GCSD) is a public school district in Greenville County, South Carolina (USA). It is the largest school district in the state of South Carolina. Greenville CSD also takes students from some areas of Spartanburg and Laurens counties. Led by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher, GCSD serves +72,000 students and employs 4,784 faculty members with 8,567 total employees spread across 82 schools and 12 special and early education centers. GCSD has an operating budget of $425 million for the 2007 - 2008 school year.

History

At the end of World War II, Greenville County had 86 school districts. The smallest was a one-room school; the two largest, Parker and Greenville City, served two-thirds of the student population.

On August 23, 1951 the Greenville County Board of Education, chaired by J. B. League, established the School District of Greenville County and appointed nine trustees, with A. D. Asbury as chair. Dr. William F. Loggins was the first superintendent. An educational program of greater equality began to emerge, mainly by consolidating smaller schools.

Public Schools Desegregation

In 1963 the local NAACP filed suit in the federal district court, for the children of A. J. Whittenberg and five other African-Americans to attend all-white schools. They were represented by Willie Smith and Matthew Perry, while the district was represented by its attorney E. P. (Ted) Riley. On April 14, after a federal judge gave the school board thirty days to reconsider, Superintendent Marion T. Anderson announced that fifty-five African-American students would be transferred to sixteen white schools in 1964.

Integration didn't go smoothly and in May 1968 the state supreme court declared freedom of choice plans unacceptable. Opposition organizations were formed including Citizens for Freedom of Choice, Citizens to Prevent Busing, and Concerned Black Parents, chaired by H. L. Sullivan. On February 1970 most all-African-American schools were closed. 60% of the African-American and 10% of the European-American students were reassigned. 75% of the busing involved African-American students.ref|Greenville

Educational Structure

GCSD students attend schools based primarily on the geographic location of their homes. Schools of a lower level 'feed into' a certain school of the next highest level, meaning that students leaving the lower level schools attend the higher level school. Exceptions to the feeder system are students wishing to enroll in the magnet schools programs offered in 12 schools,ref|select or those who participate in the International Baccalaureate, whis is offered in its three levels at four clusters over the county.ref|IB Parents of students may also request transfers out of their students' assigned schools for various reasons (such as to take classes unique to a particular school).

During the 2005-2005 school year 3,555 students graduated from GCSD High Schools. Out of these 86.3% pursued higher education, with a scholarship total of $63.2 million.

In the News

In 2006 21% of the 22,850 AP exams completed in South Carolina were taken by Greenville County students. The percentage of exams qualifying for college credit increased from 43% to 48% (2,192 of 4,568 exams).

In 2005, six Greenville County elementary schools and two middle schools were identified in a study released by the South Carolina Education Oversight Committee (EOC) as reducing the achievement gap for at least one historically underachieving student group.ref|EOC

ee also

*List of school districts in South Carolina

External links

* [http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/ Greenville CSD homepage]

Notes

#"Greenville", A. V. Huff Jr., Conclusion: The Emergence of Modern Greenville
# [http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/district/schools/select2.asp Magnet]
# [http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/district/schools/ib.asp IB]
# [http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/district/news/release/2005b/ach_gap.asp Achievement gap] [http://www.sceoc.com/ EOC]