Photo by Mike Rosier/Publisher

Matthew Schilit is the new principal at Strom Thurmond High School. He is looking to take the school to a higher level of performance and academic status.

JOHNSTON - Matthew Schilit is a man on a mission.

And that mission begins each and every morning at 4:30 a.m.

He is up at that early hour and has iron up at the gym promptly at 5 a.m.

Dedication and determination of that order is rare.

Perhaps that is why Edgefield County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mary Rice Crenshaw chose him from a talented pool of candidates to be the next principal at Strom Thurmond High School. Schilit takes over for Greg Thompson, who left the district.

Schilit says that he will approach his new position - and the many goals he has set for the school - with the same fervor he does the weight room, which should be a comforting thought for parents.

“You can’t just sit still,” Schilit says of the potential changes that could come, from the introduction of magnet programs to single-gender classrooms. “We’re going to look at the programs that we have and see what is currently being offered and what isn’t. There is no reason why Strom Thurmond can’t be one of those schools that are winning awards like the Palmetto’s Finest. There’s no reason why we can’t do that here.”

Schilit was accepted in August by the Edgefield County School Board in a rare unanimous vote.At the top of his list of goals are the following: Ensuring that teaching and learning are in fact taking place in every classroom, installing magnet programs to help lift student test scores and offer new areas of study, tackling the dropout rate problem head-on, improving morale in the school, double-checking all safety procedures to ensure a safe learning environment and focusing on becoming an award-winning school.

“We want to bring a spotlight to Strom Thurmond High School,” Schilit said. “But we also want to focus on things like making sure that the morale of the staff here is high and things like the dropout rate. We’re missing the boat on some of these kids so that’s a priority. We’ll also be looking at different magnet programs to see what best fits the student population here. We are going to look at technology and make sure that we’re using it in our classrooms and we’re going to find programs that work.”
Schilit will also be available to discuss any and all issues with parents, teachers and students alike.

“I am going to be visible,” he said. “I am going to be out and about. I’ll be sitting down and talking with members of the staff as well as parents and students. They can definitely come and talk to me.”
Appointments, however, will need to be made sometime after 5 a.m.

“I’m excited,” Schilit said. “We’re going to get this thing done.”

Strom Thurmond High fell just short of meeting No Child Left Behind’s mandated adequate yearly progress, meeting 19 of 21 objectives. Other district schools falling just short of meeting AYP were Merriwether Elementary and W.E. Parker Elementary.

Charter school Fox Creek High School was the only district school to meet AYP, reaching all 9 of its objectives, but the school also posted a graduation rate of only 62.7 percent for the year.