SUMMERVILLE — Every school in Dorchester District 2 rated average or higher in the first state report card issued since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The S.C. Department of Education evaluates all school districts in the state based on several factors, including test scores, student growth, graduation rates and college and career readiness. The report card looks at a minimum of 85 percent of students tested, and all the schools in DD2 greatly exceeded that threshold with a minimum of a 96 percent participation rate, according to superintendent Shane Robbins.

State report cards haven’t been issued over the past two years due to COVID-19.

Of the schools in the district, 10 were rated excellent, six were rated good and eight were rated average overall. Newly opened East Edisto Middle School was not included since it only began instruction this semester.

This is the first time in at least five years that no school was rated below average or unsatisfactory, according to Thad Schmenk, director of assessment and accountability.

The schools that were distinguished as excellent were Ashley Ridge, Fort Dorchester and Summerville High Schools; Rollings Middle School of the Arts; Beech Hill, Fort Dorchester, Knightsville, Spann, Summerville and Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary Schools.

The schools were also graded on some achievement indicators, such as growth in English language arts and math, science and social studies, school climate and English learner’s progress. In some of these categories, a couple schools were rated as below average or unsatisfactory, but Schmenk said he sees room for improvement and has high hopes for the schools.

Five schools were rated below average in the science and social studies achievement indicators, five were rated below average in the growth in English language arts and math and one was rated as unsatisfactory. Six schools were rated below average in the school climate indicator.

Knowing now that some students may need more support, Robbins suggested paying more attention on what’s going on inside the classroom to see where students are in terms of meeting learning standards.

“We’re going to have to be more targeted in our approaches to try to make these kids achieve more focus,” Robbins said.

All three high schools either exceeded or maintained their pre-COVID-19 college and career readiness ratings, according to a DD2 press release. The district increased its graduation rate to 93.3, which is the fourth consecutive year of improvement.

DD2 board member Justin Farnsworth said upon looking at the report card, he wasn’t surprised at the results, even with COVID-19 forcing students to learn remotely for some time.

“It just shows that we’re able to bounce back from difficult issues that came up,” Farnsworth said. “That’s the resilience of kids, the resilience of our educators and it’s just having the best of the best.”

Robbins echoed Farnsworth’s sentiments in a press release, attributing the success to the educators, staff, students and families of DD2.

“While we are proud of this year’s results, we will continue to seek ways to grow and improve,” Robbins said.

Report cards are available at www.screportcards.com.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/AP) - Tornado watches around the Lowcountry have been allowed to expire as Tropical Depression Nicole moves farther from South Carolina.

Remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole put the Lowcountry under tornado watches throughout Thursday night going into Friday morning.

Most of the watches ended Friday morning, and a watch for Georgetown and Williamsburg Counties ended just before noon. Two tornado warnings were issued in the Tri-County during the storm activity.

A tornado warning was issued at 12:20 a.m. for parts of Charleston County, however, it expired at 12:41 a.m.

Another warning came Thursday afternoon as a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located at 5:17 p.m. near Knightsville The warning expired at 5:45 p.m.

The National Weather Service has not verified if any tornados touchdown during either of the warnings. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division says county emergency managers across the state reported minimal damages. None of the managers requested state assistance.

Click here to download the free Live 5 First Alert Weather app.

Live 5 Meteorologist Joey Sovine says gusts to tropical storm force are possible Wednesday through Friday.

A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area.

A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form, but does not indicate that any actual tornadoes have been detected.

Tropical Storm Nicole has sent multiple homes collapsing into the Atlantic Ocean. Nicole made landfall as a hurricane early Thursday near Vero Beach, Florida, but the brunt of the damage was along the East Coast well north of there, in the Daytona Beach area. Its damaging coastal surge was hitting beachfront properties in Daytona Beach Shores that lost their last protections during Hurricane Ian.

The Live 5 Weather team declared Thursday and Friday as First Alert Weather Days because of possible impacts from the storm.

Sovine says coastal flooding is likely through Friday around high tides with beach erosion and high surf also likely.

Sovine said heavy rain could be possible with rainfall totals between one and four inches. Breezy conditions could occur through Friday and winds may occasionally gust to, or over, 40 mph near the coast.

Nicole became the 14th named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season on Monday.

As of 10 a.m., Nicole was a tropical depression with its center located near latitude 34.2 north and longitude 84.3 west, about 35 miles north of Atlanta, Ga. The storm was moving to the north-northeast at 23 mph and its estimated minimum central pressure is 1001 mb or 29.56 inches.

Forecasters say an acceleration toward the north and north-northeast is expected Friday.

On the forecast track, the center of Nicole will move across central and northern Georgia Friday morning and over the western Carolinas later.

Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph with higher gusts. Nicole is expected to become a post-tropical cyclone Friday, then dissipate Friday night or early Saturday as it merges with a frontal system over the eastern United States.

Tropical Storm Warnings are now in effect for Charleston, Berkeley, Coastal Colleton and Beaufort counties. Gusts to tropical storm force(40+mph) are possible today through Friday near the coast. pic.twitter.com/VOkWBvcYTx

— Joey Sovine Live 5 (@JoeySovine) November 9, 2022

City of Charleston officials say they will be closely monitoring the tropical storm. Crews have already begun preparing for potential storm impacts.

“Residents are asked to keep an eye on reliable local weather reports over the next few days,” Emergency Management Director Ben Almquist said in a news release. “If bad conditions do arise, citizens are advised to follow the guidance of Emergency Management officials and, as always, motorists should avoid driving through high water when they encounter it.”

The city’s stormwater department has prepared temporary pumps for low-lying areas. Crews will also be cleaning out ditches and drains in flood-prone areas.

To find out how you can help, visit the Adopt-A-Drain website by clicking here.

The Atlantic Hurricane Season runs through Nov. 30.

Nicole made landfall near Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane at about 3 a.m. Thursday, more than a hundred miles south of Daytona Beach Shores, before its maximum sustained winds dropped to 60 mph, the Miami-based center said. The storm was centered about 30 miles southeast of Orlando. It was moving west-northwest near 14 mph.

Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami advised people to understand that hazards from Tropical Storm Nicole “will exist across the state of Florida today.”

Nicole came could briefly emerge over the northeastern corner of the Gulf of Mexico Thursday afternoon before moving over the Florida Panhandle and Georgia, he said.

The storm left south Florida sunny and calm as it moved north, but could dump as much as 6 inches of rain over the Blue Ridge Mountains by Friday, the hurricane center said.

Nicole became a hurricane Wednesday evening as it slammed into Grand Bahama Island. It was the first to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019.

For storm-weary Floridians, it is only the third November hurricane to hit their shores since recordkeeping began in 1853. The previous ones were the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - Three of eight Lowcountry school districts showed their students are meeting or exceeding state grade-level expectations based on new data state education officials released Monday morning.

The 2022 School Report Card indicated 20.6% of schools in the state received an overall rating of excellent, Education Superintendent Molly Spearman said.

The data also revealed how district schools performed at meeting state goals.

In the Tri-County, Charleston County schools scored highest in SC Ready English language arts and mathematics, with Dorchester County District 2 scoring the second-highest. They were the only two districts ranking with a higher percentage across the board than the state averages. The Berkeley County School District, meanwhile, outperformed the state average in end-of-course English 1 assessments.

The Williamsburg County School District scored lowest in English language arts, while the Colleton County School District scored lowest in mathematics. For end-of-course English 1 assessments, the Colleton County School District’s 38.3% placed it lowest compared with the state’s 57.9% average, and Dorchester District 4′s 13.5% end-of-course Algebra 1 assessment score placed it at the lowest among Lowcountry counties compared with the state average of 44.2%.

The state averaged 46.6% of students meeting or exceeding expectations for English language arts scores. For mathematics, the state average stood at 38.9%.

Only the Charleston County and Dorchester District 2 schools exceeded the state average in English language arts. In contrast, Charleston County, Dorchester District 2 and Beaufort County schools exceeded the state average on math.

This chart lists the percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations. Percentages in bold indicate instances in which a district’s score exceeded the state average:

For graduation rate, Dorchester District 2 had the highest in the Tri-County, with 93.3%, followed by Dorchester District 4 at 92%. Charleston County’s 84.6% ranked it third place in the Tri-County.

Across the Lowcountry, Beaufort County and Georgetown County schools scored higher in graduation rate than Charleston County.

This table lists Lowcountry district graduation rates and bold values indicate district graduation rates that exceeded the state average:

For the first time, schools received a rating for “school climate,” which Spearman said was based on surveys of students and teachers that measured perceptions of safety, working conditions and school environment. Just under 80 percent of parents say their child feels safe at school. About 79 percent of teachers say they feel safe, down from about 98 percent the previous year.

The new school climate measure used a 10-point scale to measure the learning environment at state schools as perceived by teachers and students. The state average overall school climate perception is 6.33 out of 10. Dorchester District 2 was the only school district in the Lowcountry to score a higher overall rate with 6.66 out of 10.

Across the board, teachers had a higher perception of safety in the classroom than students did. In the state average, teachers scored their perception of safety at 8.03 out of 10, while students’ perceptions of safety came in at just 5.10 out of 10.

But five Lowcountry school districts had student safety perception scores that beat the state average. It was only in the Charleston County, Colleton County and Williamsburg County School Districts that students ranked their perception of safety as lower than the state average. Williamsburg County schools posted the lowest student safety perception score at just 2.6 out of 10.

When it came to teacher safety perception, in every Lowcountry district, teachers’ perception of safety in the classroom was higher than that of their students. Only in Dorchester District 2, however, did teacher scores outpace the state average.

Ten Dorchester District 2 received an excellent rating while none of the district’s schools received either an unsatisfactory or below average rating, district spokesman Matthew Kenwright said. Six schools ranked as good and eight ranked average.

The ten district schools receiving the excellent rating were Ashley Ridge High School, Beech Hill Elementary School, Fort Dorchester Elementary School, Fort Dorchester High School, Knightsville Elementary School, Rollings Middle School of the Arts, Spann Elementary School, Summerville Elementary School, Summerville High School and Windsor Hill Arts Infused Elementary School.

The district’s graduation rate increased for the fourth consecutive year under the current report card system, Kenwright said.

“Dorchester School District Two’s success is a testament to the hard work of our educators, staff, students, and families,” Superintendent Dr. Shane Robbins said. “While we are proud of this year’s results, we will continue to seek ways to grow and improve.”

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – It was 1973 when Shirley McGreal, then living in Southeast Asia, saw beady bright eyes staring back at her from between the slats of a wooden crate.

The eyes belonged to a gibbon — a primate native to the region — who had fallen victim to the dangerous world of the pet trade, where gibbons were being sold into homes, zoos, or labs, only to later be discarded.

In 1977, McGreal created the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) in Summerville as a gibbon sanctuary. The now 47-acre property remains nestled in a quiet area of the Lowcountry that is illuminated by the sounds of the primates singing to one another.

Meg McCue-Jones, the Compliance and Outreach Manager, explained that the land was a sod farm in the late 70s and started taking in the gibbons that needed help soon after.

One of the sanctuary’s residents, Gibby, is one of the oldest known living gibbons at over 60 years old.

Like most of the gibbons at the sanctuary, his life started off rough.

McCue-Jones said that Gibby was wild caught, and “with every gibbon wild caught, they shoot mom out of the tree, hoping baby falls, and then they take the baby.”

He was first sold into the pet trade in by a Bangkok dealer, but that was just the beginning. Gibby went to labs at Hofstra University and the State University at Stony Brook.

Researchers embedded electrodes in his skin as part of a locomotion project.

The electrodes and thin wires were inserted into his muscles and connected him to a suit that would measure his muscle movements. McCue-Jones explained that this was obviously not an ideal situation on any aspect, whether it be a human or animal.

At 44, Gibby made it to his first sanctuary, but the conditions were hard on his body. In March of 2007, just four years after his arrival, the IPPL reached out to the sanctuary to relocate not only Gibby, but several other gibbons.

For Gibby, like the other 29 at the sanctuary, Summerville is his last stop. McCue-Jones says that the sanctuary is their forever home.

But with the pandemic, their home has become more difficult to manage.

With fear of COVID-19 spreading to the primates, volunteers were no longer allowed to assist with the many daily tasks necessary to keep the place running.

From hosing the outsides of the enclosures, to raking, food prep, and even assistance inside the office—the staff was left with mounting responsibilities.

The economic impacts of the pandemic left donors and community partners reeling financially, but the bills at the sanctuary remained steady.

As a non-federally funded organization, the IPPL relies heavily on donations to meet the needs of the animals.

Stacy Lambert, a Senior Animal Care Giver, said that since a lot of their population has started to reach geriatric ages, their vet bills are getting bigger as they are having more interventions and medications, different procedures, and checkup appointments with Dr. John Ohlandt.

While expensive, their system of care has proven to work.

Lambert says that in the wild, gibbons usually live about 30-35 years. However, in captivity, gibbons living into their 40s is normal. However, the IPPL has quite a few gibbons that are up in their 40s and 50s while, of course, Gibby is 62.

Although the interventions from the IPPL show the ability of the sanctuary, McCue-Jones said all those at the IPPL ultimately wish there was not a need for them at all, and that the gibbons could live freely in the wild.

McCue-Jones said, “as Shirley has spoken of before, if you really think about it, do humans need sanctuaries, should we have them? Should we be treating the animals this way?”

To send the Gibbons a care package full of nuts, click here.

To donate to the IPPL’s missions and day-to-day operations, click here.

To send specified items needed by the IPPL via Amazon, click here.

SUMMERVILLE — Nico Romo has fond memories of large family gatherings in France at a table filled with large bowls of handmade pasta.

Soon, he’ll set the table for close to 100 Summerville diners with their eyes set on rustic Italian cuisine.

The French-born chef, who opened NICO in Mount Pleasant in 2017 before adding Bistronomy by Nico downtown in 2020, calls forthcoming Laura “a love letter to the storied, traditional Italian family recipes” he grew up eating.

The 6,000-square-foot restaurant will open at 101 North Main St. at the start of 2022.

“We literally have a pasta room, so that’s really the excitement of it to me,” Romo said. “We’ll be doing a lot of handmade pasta there, and then we’re going to have a huge wood-fired pizza oven.”

The restaurant is named after Romo’s grandmother, who was born in Italy before moving to France. In fact, Romo’s great grandfather served for Italy in World War I and France during World War II.

“They would spend every summer at home in Italy. Growing up I always had huge family meals,” Romo said while reminiscing about bowls of his grandmother’s handmade gnocchi. “It was always a big party.”

Romo plans to throw nightly dinner parties at Laura, which will seat 70 guests indoors and another 20 to 25 on its patio. There’s also an 80-seat private space that will eventually (spring 2022) be outfitted with all the bells and whistles for weddings, corporate events and other celebrations.

Romo isn’t the first peninsula chef to spread his wings in Summerville. Swig & Swine has a location on Old Trolley Road, and Halls Chophouse, Poogan’s and D’Allesandro’s Pizza all opened Nexton outposts in the last two years.

According to D’Allesandro’s co-owner Nick D’Allesandro, who operates three South Carolina locations with his brother Ben, the area’s recent growth made adding a Summerville shop attractive. The brothers opened D’Allesandro’s Summerville on Feb. 7, 2020.

Noticing the trend, Romo purchased Laura’s North Main Street space close to three years ago, but the project was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike other chefs and restaurateurs to venture northwest on Interstate 26, Laura will be an escape from the food Romo serves at NICO, his traditional French take on oysters and seafood, and Bistronomy, where he serves French Asian fusion in an upscale yet unpretentious environment.

As Romo puts it: “It’s a restaurant for Summerville. It’s not another NICO.”

Antipasti, house-made pasta, Neapolitan pizzas and whole fish cooked in the wood-fired oven will lead the charge on a menu that mimics the family-style meals Romo fell in love with as a kid. Desserts and pastries are earmarked for a display case near the entrance, according to the chef.

Once open, Laura will serve Summerville dinner seven days a week. Lunch and brunch will be offered on weekends, but, according to Romo, Laura will stay closed during the day Mondays through Fridays due to the extended time it takes to prepare the labor-intensive dishes.