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By Carter Staggs
3rd grade
Chandler Creek Press Corps
Chandler Creek is a Kindergarten (four and five-year-olds) through fifth grade public school located in the former Greer Middle School facility. In 1999 to 2000, the former Greer Middle School was renovated and expanded for its future use as an elementary school.
Mrs. Katherine Bayne was named principal of the school during the 1999-2000 school year. The student bodies of East Greer Elementary and Tryon Street Elementary, both of which would close and move to the new school, voted for the name of the new school to be Chandler Creek Elementary, or CCE, which comes from the nearby Chandler Road and Frohawk Creek.
The choices for the school mascot were either the Chandler Creek Champions or the Chandler Creek Crocodiles. Students voted on school colors and mascot, choosing Chandler Creek Champions and the colors, purple and gold. The school motto is, “Creating Champions Committed to Excellence.”
In order to learn more about the history of Chandler Creek, I interviewed some of the veteran staff members.
Mrs. Nesbitt, first grade teacher, turns out that her oldest memory of CCE is the remodeling of the school and when there were no walls. It also turns out that she started out in the 1999-2000 school year with Principal Bayne. Did you know that Mrs. Nesbitt’s first two jobs were as a guidance counselor and a first grade teacher? Her favorite memory in her first few years is brand new stuff and smaller classes.
Mrs. Tijuana Davis, school secretary, remembers when her oldest son came here in K5. She, unlike any of the other people I interviewed, came here during the 2008-2009 school year. The principal was still Mrs. Bayne when she first got here. Her first job here was as bookkeeper as she continues to do now. Her first memory in her first few years was just enjoying children. The biggest change she has seen is more technology.
The last person I interviewed was Mrs. Posley, kindergarten teacher. Her oldest memory of CCE is her first day on the job. She arrived in the 1999-2000 school year with Mrs. Bayne as principal. Her first job was teaching second grade. Her favorite memory of CCE in her first few years was field day. The biggest change to her is that students have to do more schoolwork.
I hope you enjoyed my article about the history of CCE.