Town Creek Elementary School is located in St. Mary's County, Maryland approximately 75 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. As one of the oldest and smallest schools in St. Mary's County, Town Creek was opened in 1958. The school includes kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms with a student enrollment of approximately 280 students. The population represents a variety of economic and racial backgrounds. In partnership with parents and community, Town Creek teachers and staff strive to create a child-centered environment that will enable all students to become successful, active learners and pursue their own, individual level of excellence. Like a treasured antique, Town Creek represents the warmth and tradition of the neighborhood school.

Over the past several years, Town Creek has worked diligently to educate students so they may reach their fullest potential. Success has been demonstrated through results of student achievement on state assessments, such as the Maryland School Assessment. Town Creek has been recognized as an academic leader in the state, as well an exemplar school for our character education program.

Town Creek has developed a positive behavior intervention program focused on recognizing the good things that our students do. As a staff, we have committed to overall school-wide behavior expectations and positive rewards and incentives. We follow the 3R's: respect, responsibility and being ready to learn. These rules have been broken down in every area of our building so our children consistently understand what the rules mean and do not have to relearn the expectation as they travel from one place to the other during their school day or from year to year. Positive incentives are rewarded on a daily basis. TC tickets are given to students by all staff when a student is observed doing a good deed or act of kindness. Tickets are placed into a classroom character container and a name is drawn every Monday for the student in the class to have the star seat cover for their chair and monthly for a celebration party with the principal. Students of character are recognized monthly from each room with their picture posted in the hall. During our quarterly assemblies, these students receive a certificate and a badge. Positive letters for our drawing winners are sent home as well as positive postcards to parents from teachers throughout the year. A school pledge is recited daily to remind our students of the 3R's and our code of conduct.

Character education is instructed in all grade levels. In kindergarten through second grade our focus is on the six pillars of character through the Character Counts program. In the third through fifth grade we are working with the Steps to Respect program which focuses on bullying prevention. Through this initiative academics truly can be our daily priority.

As a school community, we have tried to instill in our students compassion and caring for others. We participate in Jump Rope for Heart, St. Jude's Mathathon, March of Dimes, Harvest for the Hungry and Friends of the Library.

We are proud of our students' accomplishments in both academics and citizenship. These accomplishments are brought to your attention because it is due to a strong character education, positive reinforcement program that we have been able to create a school climate that is conducive to learning and a pleasure to be part of.