Nestled in the heart of the Palmetto State, the Kershaw County School District is home to more than 10,500 students and over 1,000 employees. Our district is accredited by the South Carolina Department of Education and AdvancED. The district’s general fund budget totals more than $80 million. Our graduation rate is over 90%, and more than 90 percent of our graduates attend college or some other form of continuing education, join the military or enter the workforce. An innovative partnership is providing qualified Kershaw County graduates with full two-year scholarships to Central Carolina Technical College.

Strong leadership
The Kershaw County Board of School Trustees provides solid leadership in preparing our students to be productive citizens in a global society. Our district has nine instructional goals based on state and federal accountability measures. A strategic plan guides district decision-making.

Outstanding workforce
More than 70 percent of Kershaw County’s 750 teachers have advanced degrees, and 15% are National Board certified. Our teachers have an average of 16 years of experience.

Focus on academic achievement
Student learning is at the center of everything in our schools. Our schools regularly earn recognition for having test scores in the top ten school districts in the state. Our graduating seniors earn over $11.9 million in college scholarships.

Small class sizes
The Kershaw County Board of School Trustees has established standards for class sizes, paying special attention to smaller student-teacher ratios at the lower levels. Currently, we average 1:22 in kindergarten, 1:20 in 1st-2nd grades, 1:25 in 3rd-8th grades, and 1:25 in 9th-12th grades.

Technology as a valuable resource
The school district offers a full range of academic programs and extracurricular activities. All 20 schools are wireless and connected by a high-speed wide area network. Students and staff have fulltime Internet access in classrooms, libraries and computer labs, including distance learning opportunities. Kershaw County was the first school district in South Carolina to provide individual wireless personal computing devices to all high school students through an $8 million i-CAN initiative.  All teachers have personal computing devices, and all classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards. Elementary and middle school students are served through technology on mobile carts.

Facilities equalization
The Board of Trustees has made a commitment to providing inviting learning environments across the school district. In November 2016, Kershaw County voters gave approval to a $129 million bond referendum and a 15-year penny sales tax to fund 17 construction projects including three new elementary schools and a new Applied Technology Education Campus (ATEC) to be built on a common campus with Central Carolina Technical College.

Recent awards and honors
As a district with outstanding students, families and employees, our accomplishments are impressive:

• Over 50 percent of the district’s schools earned Palmetto Gold and Silver awards from the State Department of Education for academic achievement and closing achievement gaps.
• The KCSD adult education program helped local adult learners to earn a record number of GEDs.
• KCSD’s average composite score on the ACT college entrance exam outperformed the state average, ranking it in the top 20 percent of South Carolina.
• District results on the WorkKeys test, which measures workplace readiness, exceeded the state average and were among the best in the Midlands.
• KCSD students’ passage rate exceeded the state average on the Algebra I and English I end-of-course exams.
• Due to the school district’s strong financial management, KCSD achieved its highest bond rating ever, resulting in a savings of over $9.5 million in payments on existing debt.
• A Center for American Progress study measuring the productivity of school districts in the country rated the KCSD as providing a “high return on its investment”—the only school district in the Midlands and one of only ten in the state to earn these marks.
• The school district was also named as one of the country’s best for its use of technology by the Center for Digital Education by the National School Boards Association.
• KCSD received 16 awards for its communication efforts in the South Carolina chapter of the National School Public Relations Association’s Rewards for Excellence program.
• Three schools have earned the national honor of "Schools to Watch" - Camden Middle, Lugoff-Elgin Middle, and Stover Middle schools.
• For the second time in three years, North Central High School was named one of the “Best High Schools in America” by U.S. News and World Report.
• Jackson School was named a Lighthouse Leadership School by the Stephen Covey organization, one of only 200 schools in the United States to receive this honor.
• The Blaney Elementary Archery Team reached the National Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky.
• Students from all three high schools raised over $47,500 in one week for the United Way of Kershaw County.