Berkeley County School District has some crafty and innovative educators.
BCSD is excited to share that H.E. Bonner Elementary and Marrington Middle School of the Arts are both recipients of an Arts Curricular Innovation Grant (or ACIG) for the 2025-2026 school year. The program is administered by the South Carolina Department of Education.
Additionally, the district had four schools that earned ABC Advancement Grants, which are a part of a separate grant program via the South Carolina Arts Commission.
Distinguished Arts Program grants
Specifically, H.E. Bonner Elementary and Marrington Middle School of the Arts each clinched a Distinguished Arts Program (or DAP) grant, which is one of three types of grant programs featured by the ACIG. Both of the schools’ grants are worth more than $12,000 and will fund different arts-related projects.
Marrington’s project is called “Achieving Excellence Through the Arts”. The school received $18,000 to implement its arts mission goals and objectives for all Marrington students.
Music teacher Melissa Reinheimer said the school is creating world-class innovators through the teaching of rigorous arts standards by:
Using the arts as a unifying theme to drive instruction (arts integration, AIRs, clinicians, master classes)
Promoting an environment to develop creative instructional techniques (materials and supplies, instrument repairs, soundboard operator for school-wide musical)
Providing co-curricular experiences with outside stakeholders to foster global perspectives in our students (field trips, clinics, competitions and performance assessments)
Some of the funding will also go toward tuition for graduate classes and staff development for fine arts teachers, she said.
H.E. Bonner Elementary’s arts instructional coach Christina Mixon said the $12,600 grant they received will be used to support artist in residencies and school wide performances. The school will invite Charleston Stage to work with kindergartners; multidisciplinary performing and teaching artist Bhakti Larry Hough will work with second graders; Cat Brantley will work with third graders; and Libation will work with fourth graders.
Additionally, Mixon said they will be able to host the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble to perform for the entire school.
The school just finished its Boosterthon fundraising to support arts initiatives at the school, including after-school clubs, grade-level performances, school-wide performances, and artist in residencies for all of the remaining grade levels – including CERDEP and Headstart. The school was able to raise $55,000.
ABC Advancement Grants
ABC Advancement Grants are funded by the South Carolina Arts Commission (or SCAC) and support schools committed to implementing standards-based arts curricula and to making the arts an integral part of the basic curriculum and daily classroom instruction.
BCSD has four ABC-Certified Schools: H.E. Bonner Elementary, Howe Hall AIMS, Philip Simmons Elementary and Philip Simmons Middle. All four schools have each been approved for ABC Advancement Grants worth $13,000 each.
Mixon said H.E. Bonner Elementary’s grant will go toward supporting after-school clubs.
Howe Hall AIMS plans to use its earnings for professional development for teachers. It will also help bring the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble Performance to visit the school, as well as percussion master James Cannon to come and work with the fourth graders. Wood sculptor Roger Day is slated to work with the first graders as well. The grant will further cover travel expenses for events like the Palmetto State Arts Education annual conference, the ABC fall and spring site visit.
At Philip Simmons Elementary, music teacher David Frazier said funds will support the school’s strategic plan for the arts, which includes getting artists in residence to visit the school, and setting up field trips for students (seeing the Charleston Symphony Orchestra is one of the planned trips). Funds will also support professional development.
Philip Simmons Middle’s theatre teacher, Charles Atkins, said in addition to the fall and spring ABC site visits, funding will support three week-long artists in residence to work with the students in art, band and theatre. Funds will also cover supplies and materials for those subject areas.