Congratulations Devonshire Elementary!

A school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg has been recognized

ERS would like to give a huge congratulations to Devonshire Elementary, and its principal, Suzanna Gimenez, for the recent feature on The Today Show. The segment highlighted the use of a full-time social worker and reforms that led to the dramatic gains in student achievement. Watch the story here.

Devonshire is part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), a previous ERS partner district. It’s a school where about 94% of students come from low-income households and was also on the state’s low-performing list. It began a strategy for turnaround in 2007 and has since seen huge gains. See more in our Turnaround in Action video.

Devonshire was also given an award for closing the achievement gap among boys of color by the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, a national organization. Read about the award here.

Suzanne Gimenez also announced that she will be retiring at the end of this month. We’re all so appreciative of her exemplary work in school design and wish her the very best.

For more information on ERS’ school design work, start with the School Design page on our website.