Cool School: Oakbrook Middle School

Fine arts, rigorous academics, and a long list of fun and engaging clubs, Oakbrook Middle School students continue to soar to excellence in Dorchester District Two.  

They’re our Cool School of the week.

Performing arts and clubs help to keep students engaged in learning at Oakbrook Middle school in Ladson. “We are one of the coolest schools in the Lowcountry,” said Principal Bentli Lewis.

With around one thousand students, Oakbrook Middle is the largest middle school in Dorchester District Two. “What makes us so special is we have a plethora of opportunities for our students that extend beyond the classroom,” Lewis. 

“While they’re here on campus, they get to grow as people.  We get to tap into their talents and give them something bigger to be a part of.  We’re doing that through so many different clubs and opportunities.  Apart from our performing arts programs and our athletics teams, we also have clubs such as the newspaper club, Girls with Gears STEM club, specifically for female students, library ambassadors, photography club, and more. We’re using those clubs to tap into their interests, and into their talents so we can kind of grow and mold them as young people and not just provide them with an education.”

Most of Oakbrook’s clubs meet after school or during lunch break, but some are also classes.

The new Girls with Gears club introduces girls to STEM careers.  Media specialist Rebecca Webb sponsors the new club.  She says, “A group for girls in sixth through eighth grades that are learning about STEM concepts, the design process, and just learning about what other STEM careers are out there, so maybe they will be interested in joining them in the future. It’s so important.  So many girls are learning who they are in middle school.  It’s a tough time, and females are underrepresented in STEM careers in general, so we wanted to give these girls an opportunity to really get to see what’s out there, what’s available to them.”

Oakbrook partnered with the school’s former student, NBA superstar Chris Middleston’s Foundation, and Ideal Foundation to create a mural, a daily reminder, and encouragement for students and staff to invest in opportunity.  

“We want our kids and our staff to invest in opportunity.  It was a cool experience that we got to have partnering with the Chris Middleton Foundation and the Ideal Foundation, where a mural was donated to our school that actually reads invest in opportunity.  We were able to come up with that phrase as a team because every day we want our staff to invest in opportunity, which are our kids, but we also want our students to invest in opportunities,” said Principal Lewis. “Opportunities is going to allow them to grow and be better not just as students but as people.”

“I like walking around and seeing all the art on the walls from different classrooms, or art just put up like this one. I love my school.  I’m learning, but I’m also having fun with it. Nothing is really boring. My school is cool because I do have teachers who care for me, so I never feel unsafe in this school, but also I do have fun with it as I’m learning,” said eighth-grade student D’Amare Spellsrattley.

“I think it’s a wonderful place because I’ve had so much fun here, and it’s fun to learn here. All the opportunities that our school has are wonderful, and I’m just thankful they’re giving us all of these opportunities,” said seventh-grade student Spiro Mitias.

Principal Bentli Lewis says, “Our kids, they have to have something they feel a part of.  Every child is different.  They come on this campus with what I call carrying the invisible book bag. We don’t know what’s in that book bag. We don’t know what’s coming with them. We don’t know what taps into the depths of who they are as a person, but sometimes these clubs and organizations and these teams can give them a space to feel like they belong, gives them a safe space but also a space to grow to become a better person.”

If you would like to nominate a Cool School or educator, send an email to Octavia Mitchell at [email protected].