Dear Rock Rest Parents and Friends:

Rock Rest Elementary School is a great school.  It is a school that teaches children a “growth mindset.” Our staff works hard on building a positive culture that embraces the uniqueness of each child and celebrates their strengths.  Three characteristics that guided our work this year were curious, agile, and efficient problem-solvers.  We wanted to develop learners who modeled the characteristics of Union County's "Portrait of a Graduate."  By cultivating the curiosity of our learners and encouraging their flexibility as thinkers, we saw enormous growth in children's confidence and problem-solving skills.  Additionally, they became more efficient with their work and their work matched grade-level expectations.   

We are proud of our results last school year.  Students navigated the complexities of Covid by persisting and pushing through.  Teachers challenged and addressed struggles by providing students with rich instruction that was based upon research and best practices.  Our students demonstrated significant growth and demonstrated their understanding of grade-level concepts.  We are proud of our Rock Rest Rockets!

We are a Title 1 school.  That means a large number of our population receive free or reduced lunch.  As a result of that, we receive Title 1 funds so that we can provide a strong instructional program, parent involvement activites, and other programs that benefit our children.  Being a Title 1 school is a gift because we receive additional resources that allow us to support and grow our children through small groups and one-on-one conferences.  An example of a resource that is vital to our school is our support staff.  They work all day with children, ensuring that students receive targeted instruction tailored to their needs. We love our students and we are so proud of our school.

Once a year, the state provides families with updates on each school’s achievements through the North Carolina School Report Card. This Report Card includes information about school and student performance, class sizes, attendance, school safety, and instructional resources.  Report card data is available for our school district and for the state’s education system as a whole.

Rock Rest is one of the best schools in the state and that is evident by the growth of our children, by the strength of our staff, by the joy in our building, and by the uniqueness of our families.  Our results are amazing and that occurs because we work together to help each child.  Our staff works to incorporate a “culture of excellence” and in that we are striving to help every child recognize the excellence that is in them and the potential that is possible if they work hard each day to be the best citizen possible.  Additionally, we are working to raise children who treat each other with kindness and respect.  This “culture of excellence” teaches children that they are capable of amazing results and leads to confident and caring citizens.

We are proud to be a public school that serves a wonderful community of learners.  We celebrate our children and their work every day.  Our children meet their learning targets and those targets reflect high academic standards.  Our children know their targets and they celebrate with their peers, with their teachers, and with our staff.  We are proud to be a public school that serves a diverse group of learners and we are glad that we work with a public that takes learning seriously.

I encourage you to review our Report Card carefully; then, feel free to call the school with any questions or concerns you may have. I also welcome your feedback on any other areas of interest you may have in our school.

Thank you for supporting our efforts to provide your child with a high-quality education.

Sincerely,

Kristy L. Thomas