A ZIP code should not define your success.

“A ZIP code should not define your success.”

That message stayed with me after attending Dr. Kelley's Anderson School District Five State of the District Leadership Breakfast. Thank you to Mr. Harold Kay II, our Area 5 trustee, for the invitation.

I appreciated seeing ASD5 Board Chair, Sandra Leverette and Vice Chair Tommy Price, along with SC Representatives Blake Sanders and April Cromer, Anderson County Councilman Chris Sullivan, County Auditor John Benca, City of Anderson Councilman Kyle Newton, and numerous Anderson County employees. It was also a pleasure to meet Rep. Cromer face-to-face for the first time and introduce myself.

Anderson Five serves approximately 11,600 students across 22 campuses, with families speaking nearly 30 languages. The district is outperforming state averages in several key measures, but chronic absenteeism remains a serious challenge at 24.2%, nearly one in four students. This challenge isn't unique to ASD5, and I appreciate the district's commitment to reducing it. When students aren't in school, they miss more than classroom instruction. They miss opportunities to learn, build relationships and develop habits that test scores can't necessarily measure. If our mission is to prepare students for college and careers, learning to show up, be on time and be ready to learn and work is an important part of that preparation. Of course, we must also understand and help address the barriers that keep some students from attending regularly. I’m glad to report that Dr. Kelley’s team is committed to overcome this reality with intentional and creative efforts.

Through my work with AnMed Foundation’s Access Health and The Duke Endowment’s Healthy People Healthy Carolinas initiative- Live Healthy Anderson County, I've been involved in efforts to improve community health and opportunity for more than a decade. I've seen firsthand how closely education, health and opportunity are connected. Transportation, food insecurity, healthcare access and family circumstances all affect a student's ability to succeed.

That is why education and health must be part of the same conversation.

Supporting students means addressing the conditions that shape their ability to learn, grow and thrive.

As Governor Henry McMaster reminds us: “Communicate. Collaborate. Cooperate.”

Thank you to Dr. Kelley, our teachers, administrators and school employees for supporting students every day. There is much to celebrate, much to learn and more work to do. Meeting these challenges will take all of us.

When we hear that Anderson Five serves approximately 11,600 students across 22 campuses, with families speaking nearly 30 languages, the word ALL takes on an even greater meaning. Every child brings different strengths, needs, experiences and circumstances.

Every family deserves to be heard, and every ASD5 employee deserves to be valued for the work they do.

Meeting those needs is no small task. Every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow and reach their full potential.

"Putting Kids First" means every single one of them.

Putting Kids First