CONWAY, SC (Press Release) – Students in grades six, seven and eight, and faculty and staff at St. James Middle School in Myrtle Beach have been designated as a School to Watch. This national designation places SJM in the spotlight for building community and providing a world class education for its students.
After several sessions of conversation, meetings and visitations, the committee selected St. James Middle for priorities set by the school focusing on academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity, and organizational structures and processes.
Dr. Dwight Boykin, Principal was notified by mail and congratulated for helping advance the field
of middle level education. “We press for success for all of our students, each and every one,” Boykin said. “The focus of our team of teachers, staff members and administrators here at St. James Middle, is to prepare every Eagle to thrive in our 21st century world.”
The endorsement makes St. James Middle the first school in Horry County to be named. It is also the largest middle school in South Carolina and only one of 400 middle schools across the entire United States to be selected for membership into this national forum. Boykin and several staff members will be recognized at the SC Middle School Conference in March in Myrtle Beach, and again at the National Conference in Washington, DC in June.
The award was announced to the school by The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. The Forum is an alliance of over 60 educators, researchers, national associations, and officers of professional organizations and foundations committed to promoting the academic performance and healthy development of young adolescents.
