SUMTER, S.C. — Liberty STEAM Charter School aims to celebrating children and teaching them about valuing community through its weekly Community Culture Celebrations — or CCC — for students in Sumter. As Liberty is expanding in Sumter, it's trying to create leaders both at school and in the community.
"I soar," first-grader Rodney Tindal shares. "That means that I did good in school."
On Friday, 7-year-old Tindal and some of his classmates are getting recognized for their work in and out of the classroom during the CCC.
"That’s what we’re trying to provide here: a model where our scholars can learn to be an asset value in their communities," Liberty STEAM Vice Chair Dexter Davis explains. "Not just to be the best in Sumter, but our goal is to be the best in the nation."
As it wraps up its third year in Sumter, the tuition-free charter school is working to further its mission by inspiring students and encouraging them to support each other through teaching and events like the weekly CCC.
"We’re trying to create leaders. And every leader doesn’t necessarily go to Clemson or South Carolina," Davis shares. "We have great leaders that go into the military straight out of high school, we have great leaders that go right into working as, being an electrician, right? So defining leadership, we need to renew our scholars minds and our educators."
"They’re going to eventually be our community leaders, our future leaders really, and we have to make sure that they’re well set up for the workforce, or college, or wherever they want to be in life," second-grade teacher Micah Vaughn adds. "Education doesn’t have to be one size fit all. We have a choice in the matter in how our kids learn and we celebrate them, so that’s been really, really good."
It’s why Vaughn tells me celebrating students is important. On Fridays, each grade gets together to have dance parties, hear from speakers and one student from every class is awarded a special golden T-shirt or letterman jacket.
"It builds that sense of community outside of the school building to let us know that hey we’re here for each other, we have each other’s back," Vaughn details. "It’s a very meaningful day for all of our scholars to gather together in one place and space for teachers to come together, leadership to come together and some of our families to come together to just celebrate our scholars and all of the great things they’re doing."
This community is built among various community members, from students to teachers to parents like Rodney and Timeko Tindal.
"When you come here, the kids is joyful, the teachers…I mean everybody shows you love," Rodney shares. "So it’s just wonderful."
As the school expands to offer more grade levels each year, Vaughn explain these celebrations are also expanding.
"It is just like mind-blowing like seeing a vision and dream come reality," Vaughn shares about the CCC. "I’ve always been like thinking about things that I want to accomplish and doing things in my classroom to celebrate kids, but seeing it come to a bigger platform as a schoolwide incentive, it’s like okay this is really happening."
Part of the school’s expansion includes a new location for older elementary school kids, which Davis says is expected to open in August at the Sumter Mall.
"We’ve got 13 different zip codes, but we reflect what the community looks like," Davis explains about the school. "This school represents our community. So it’s 65% African American students that will be here. That’s a non-negotiable. Then we drill it down to 35% Caucasian, there’s a percentage of the Hispanic community. It reflects what we see in our community by the analysis and that is a non-negotiable."