While sleepy old Port Royal may be coming to life for some, one thing has not changed and that would be our world-class elementary school under the leadership of Kay Keeler.
It was a sad day when word spread that Keeler may go to Whale Branch, but she will stay at Port Royal.
My child will move on to middle school, but for all the parents who have children at Port Royal, you are blessed. The 250-word letter limit is inadequate to express thanks to all of the staff. When my child started kindergarten, we all knew something wasn't normal with him, but it wasn't until he was in Charlotte DiOrio's third-grade class that we received the devastating news from the Medical University of South Carolina that he was autistic. The next day DiOrio handed me at least 100 pages of material on autism that she gathered by researching the Internet.
Port Royal Elementary had just witnessed its first case of autism and took the issue head on with fierce energy. Autism is not going away, and you couldn't ask for a better school for a special-needs child. Thank you to all of the teachers and support staff. A special thanks goes to Mike Sargent for being a super volunteer, Beverly Smith-Dore for all the support and Mikel Swinton for keeping the school so clean and for his disability advocacy. I will never be able to thank resource teacher Barbara Marsh enough for all the "tough love."
Thank you all. You give some of us in Port Royal a little glimmer of hope that some things are meant to stay the same -- and that is our precious little school.
Janet V. Bible '
Port Royal