The P.U.L.S.E. (Partners for Unparalleled Local Scholastic Excellence)
Program is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership created to implement a comprehensive scholastic excellence program in
Hartsville public schools that will expand curriculum opportunities and
further improve student achievement through collaborative academic and
social development initiatives. The initiative brings together the
Darlington County School District, the South Carolina Governor’s School
for Science and Mathematics (GSSM), Coker College and Sonoco. Sonoco
will fund the initiative through a $5 million grant that will be paid
over five years.
Yale’s Child Study Center to Help Create Pilot Elementary Student Development Program
A key component of the Hartsville PULSE initiative will be the
implementation of a pilot School Development Program (SDP) at four
Hartsville elementary schools that is focused on improving academic
achievement and personal development. The program will be created with
the assistance of Yale University’s Child Study Center Comer School
Development Program, which was founded in 1968 by Dr. James P. Comer,
Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry and associate dean of the
Yale School of Medicine. The nationally recognized Comer SDP model has
been successfully implemented in hundreds of schools in more than 20
states, the District of Columbia, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa,
England and Ireland. The pilot program will begin in the 2011-2012
school year in Hartsville’s Thornwell School for the Arts, Washington
Street Elementary, West Hartsville Elementary and the Southside Early
Childhood Center.
In future years, professional development programs for educators and
multiple service learning activities offered at Coker College via the
growing Yale-Coker partnership will play a vital role in the continuing
process of improvement in Hartsville.
Governor’s School, Coker College to Provide Curriculum Excellence Program
The second PULSE initiative is focused on expanding scholastic
learning opportunities for eligible students in Hartsville’s secondary
and high schools through collaborative teaching programs from the
Hartsville-based GSSM and Coker College.
As an example, GSSM instructors will provide qualified Hartsville public
school students with enhanced science, math and language classes, such
as organic chemistry, advanced physics and Mandarin Chinese. Coker
College, a leading liberal arts private college also based in
Hartsville, will provide college credit courses to eligible high school
students in such programs as art, design, music, theater and dance.
Sonoco’s Targeting Education Improvement in its Hometown
Primary funding for the PULSE programs will come from a $5
million grant made over five years from Sonoco, one of the largest
diversified global packaging companies. Founded in Hartsville in 1899,
Sonoco employs nearly 1,800 workers and has more than 750 retirees and
their families living in the Hartsville area.