A bittersweet goodbye: Dr. Gilmore retiring from ACSD

Dr. Margaret Gilmore spent the last six years changing the headlines at Allendale County School District (ACSD) as superintendent.

“Within six years, they’re like my family,” said Dr. Gilmore, whose last day with the district is June 30.

Upbringing: Growing into an educator

Dr. Gilmore grew up on a farm in rural Arkansas as one of nine children and it was there where her passion for educating was born. Her mother and father encouraged her drive to teach since she was only three years old.

“I’ve had great role models, great examples of what good leadership looks like in practice,” said Dr. Gilmore.

She remembers the way her third grade teacher, Lula Clay, would say her name and how special it made her feel.

“I was the only third grader who knew how to tell time,” said Dr. Gilmore. “She would always ask me at lunchtime, every day, ‘Margaret, go down the hall and see what time it is, see if it’s time for us to go to lunch.’”

This responsibility bestowed upon her not only made her feel important, but taught her how to love children.

“A kid may not have a great evening or they may have issues at home, but a teacher can spark that light and just share that love,” said Dr. Gilmore. “Ms. Clay did that for me.”

Another educator who impacted Dr. Gilmore during her youth was her seventh grade principal Samual Johnson. Dr. Gilmore was selected to be Johnson’s secretary as he did not have one. She would write his memos for two periods of the school day, again cementing how to make a student feel valued.

She went on to receive a B.S. degree in Elementary and Special Education and then a Masters in Education from Arkansas State University. Dr. Gilmore also has a doctorate in educational leadership and policy from the University of Memphis obtained in 2014.

She taught special education and then English for 20 years before the opportunity arose to become an administrator while working at Germantown Middle School in Memphis, Tenn. in the Memphis-Shelby County School District before it consolidated.

“I was tough as nails because high expectations are a part of my DNA, and the scholars rise to high expectations,” said Dr. Gilmore.

This attitude is what made her stand out amongst her fellow educators. She was constantly paired with student teachers and called upon to teach advanced placement classes.

Her first role in administration was as instructional supervisor, then as director of leadership, and then as assistant chief academic officer.

Dr. Gilmore then began working with Cognia as the diagnostic review lead evaluator. Cognia is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that accredits primary and secondary schools throughout the U.S. by connecting passionate educators.

Here, Dr. Gilmore was responsible for seeking out root causes as to why schools and districts were not performing.

“That just kind of ignited something inside of me,” said Dr. Gilmore.

In this position she was sent to S.C. where she met an employee of the S.C. Department of Education (SCDE) who asked her to consider being a transformative coach with the state.

After some consideration, she began working to transform underperforming districts and schools in the Spartanburg area followed by other areas in the upstate.

One day she received a call from Molly Spearman, the S.C. Superintendent of Education from 2015 to 2023, who had heard about Dr. Gilmore’s positive reputation.

“She said, ‘I need you to go to Allendale,’” said Dr. Gilmore. First as a transformative coach in 2017, and later as interim superintendent effective on July 1, 2018.

First steps: Getting to know Allendale

ACSD was taken over by SCDE in 2017 under Spearman “as the result of chronic academic under performance and financial mismanagement concerns,” states a press release.

“There was no instructional process in place,” said Dr. Gilmore. “We needed to create a process, an instructional framework, that when we go into every classroom in Allendale County School district, it is uniform.”

ACSD was in the bottom 5% of S.C. schools in terms of performance and required intervention, according to Cognia.

Dr. Gilmore began working as a transformative coach alongside former interim superintendent Dr. Walt Tobin. The pair focused on district turnaround efforts, providing professional development for educators, instructional transformation, and shifting the culture of the community.

This looked like bell to bell instruction, formative assessments, and higher level thinking questions.

“Our vision is bold and our mission is urgent. We will redouble our existing efforts to ensure that every scholar is inspired to learn, challenged to excel, and supported to succeed so he or she graduates ready to compete.”

Dr. Gilmore has carried this quote with her throughout her 40 year career in education and only emphasized it when coming to ACSD.

She did not know much about the community when she first arrived. As an outsider living in Atlanta, Ga., she knew she needed to understand where her students were going after school.

“I remember the first thing we did when I became superintendent is we put teachers and all the staff on buses and took them out to the community,” said Dr. Gilmore. “The purpose is for you to understand their story.”

Eighty percent of ACSD staff commute to Allendale but live outside the county due to the lack of housing.

Dr. Gilmore came to understand the Allendale community had a pessimistic view on learning and was having difficulty finding the faith to grow.

She then realized she was not only transforming the school district, but the community’s relationship with education.

“If you’re not able to get the community to walk alongside you and help you transform the school district, it won’t happen,” said Dr. Gilmore. “We formed the strategic planning team and we met and got the community involved, because what I understand about leadership is that it takes all hands on deck.”

She set forth with three goals: improve student achievement and develop partnerships with communities and faith-based organizations, create a positive and trusting climate and culture, and recruit highly effective teachers and leaders.

To improve student achievement she focused on literacy.

“Poverty is the enemy of education, but literacy is the vaccine,” quoted Dr. Gilmore. “If our kids can read, they can be dangerous.”

This focus on literacy came with free book drives for students and families, and requiring her staff to be amply reading as well.

As Dr. Gilmore began building stronger relationships with the district and the community as well as a better understanding of what they needed, grants, clubs, and programs began being established.

STEM grants and arts grants brought opportunities to students they had not formerly had access to.

A STEM academy was created last year to further critical thinking and problem solving as well as an Innovation Lab where students could hone in on these skills.

Evening school, Saturday school, the Waterford Reading program, summer institutes, the Practice Makes Perfect Homework Center, a remediation acceleration program, and college dual enrollment classes (AP classes) toward college credit were all offered to help students grow from where they were planted.

Parents were hesitant to many of these new programs. Dr. Gilmore had to ensure parents that their students were in need of these opportunities.

“We needed more rigor in our curriculum and so we needed to offer more AP classes,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many parents said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no. [They] can’t do that.’”

Dr. Gilmore never entertained the thought of ‘can’t’ and provided these opportunities anyway.

“When students know that there’s a sense of belonging and that somebody really cares and they’re really watching what they’re doing…they have the proclivity to perform better,” said Dr. Gilmore.

Students expressed to her they felt like they were in prison when at school. So Dr. Gilmore required each principal to offer after-school clubs.

JROTC, the Bow Tie Club, Honor Society and Beta Club are only a few of the clubs created for student enjoyment. Students also have the opportunity to attend Boys State and Girls State, and the American Legion program focused on exploring the mechanics of American government and politics.

“This is normal for other school districts. This is huge for us,” said Dr. Gilmore.

ACSD’s Beta Club even became a national district of distinction serving in elementary, middle and high school.

When students asked to eat their lunch outside, Dr. Gilmore wrote a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to get benches for high school students to eat and relax outside during their lunch period.

When students asked to go on field trips, Dr. Gilmore made it mandatory for learning to extend outside the classroom.

Some major community partners who aided in making much of this possible were Collum’s Lumber Company, Swiss Krono The Smiles Clinic, Original Six Foundation, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, SRP Federal Credit Union, USC Salkehatchie, Denmark Technical College, and many more.

Partnerships with Boeing and Swiss Krono led to the Take Flight Aviation Camp and a summer institute, respectively.

Rewarding achievements: Changing the headlines

One of Dr. Gilmore’s major goals was to change ACSD’s ‘corridor of shame’ reputation to better reflect the intelligence of its students and the community at large.

Dr. Gilmore commissioned a mural with the words ‘corridor of opportunities’ to remind students, educators, and staff of their mission.

She began rewarding teachers and students for their hard work and dedication to academics.

“I believe that if you want something to be repeated, you reward it,” said Dr. Gilmore.

“When I’m in the classrooms visiting, observing students, and the light bulb comes on and the feeling they get when they succeed, that inspires me. So I want to reward that,” she said.

Intentionally rewarding success was one of the reasons the district’s graduation rate climbed from 74% in 2018 to 87% in 2020– the highest it had been in a decade. In 2021, the graduation rate was 76%.

Dr. Gilmore learned this method from superintendent John Aiken who served Shelby County Schools from 2009-2013.

“He knew how to celebrate people,” she said.

Dr. Gilmore fondly remembers when she was preparing for a presentation for the principal’s meeting with 60 people. She had just completed a Disney marathon the previous weekend as marathon running is another passion of Dr. Gilmores’.

When she went to the front of the room, Aiken excitedly cheered and commended Gilmore for her accomplishment in the marathon.

Dr. Gilmore aimed to replicate this feeling of belonging and acceptance at ACSD not only with students, but with educators.

For the last three years, teachers received a $10,000 sign-on bonus broken into installments of $3,300 per year. There are retention bonuses for certified teachers, a Christmas bonus, mileage checks and more.

At every ACSD board meeting, Dr. Gilmore is calling up the names of students, staff, and teachers who have been performing well. Each is rewarded with either a plaque or cash.

At countless meetings, scholars would run to Dr. Gilmore with open arms and she would tell them how proud she is of their achievement.

Encouraging families to come to the meetings and see the positive growth was another area Dr. Gilmore aimed to strengthen.

“I just love the idea that our parents come out and they support the school district because that collaboration, that partnership, that would move the district forward,” she said.

If parents couldn’t get a ride to see their child be honored by the board, Dr. Gilmore would provide transportation.

All of this together led to district accreditation signifying the district has “met professional standards at an acceptable level and is committed to maintaining those standards,” according to SCDE.

“This is evidence of the student achievement and learning that’s taking place in Allendale,” said Dr. Gilmore.

ACSD is no longer considered one of the state’s lowest performing schools, according to Cognia.

“It has come with challenges, but it is the best experience I’ve ever had,” said Dr. Gilmore.

Retirement: A bittersweet goodbye

“I will never, ever forget this little community,” said Dr. Gilmore.

“The community, the partnerships that we’ve developed, the scholars and the staff, have just been incredible,” she said. “We’ve established a rapport with each other that is just unparalleled.”

Aside from ACSD superintendent, Dr. Gilmore has served as a deputy commissioner of education for the Churches of God in Christ for two years.

She also has been inducted into the Marquis Who’s Who top educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in education administration. Dr. Gilmore was an honoree for a Distinguished Worldwide Humanitarian Award in 2021, and selected as one of ten ambassadors to travel to Israel in March 2023 by the School Superintendents Association.

Dr. Gilmore was named the Superintendent of the Year for 2021 by the S.C. Athletic Administrators Association and has accepted multiple Teacher of the Year awards and Leadership Scholars Awards from the University of Memphis.

She is retiring from her career in education to spend more time with her family. Her oldest daughter recently had a child and her youngest daughter is getting married this summer.

Throughout her 40 years of experience, ACSD was the district she felt most connected to.

“Allendale County School District won by heart in a significant way,” said Dr. Gilmore at the district’s end-of-year celebration. “Thank you for loving me.”

Dr. Gilmore’s last day is June 30. Angela Jacobs will be serving as the Interim Administrator of ACSD.