Education
Valley/Mountain Park CRO is focused on improving education in our local schools. In consultation with Greenville School District, we provide equipment, supplies, and salaries to supplement and enrich the educational environment in schools in Travelers Rest, Slater-Marietta, and Berea.
Books are a big deal. We purchase books to replenish school libraries, books designed to introduce students to potential careers, and books in Spanish.
Educational software has changed the nature of education, especially education for younger children. In consultation with the District, we provide educational software that entices students to read at their own pace. In addition, we provide equipment that permits teachers to electronically interact with students working on their computers.
Tutoring changes kids’ lives. We provide financial support for after-school tutoring that has dramatically improved student test scores. In addition, Valley/Mountain Park residents have been providing tutors and mentors for in-school help in reading at Slater Marietta School for over 20 years!
Technology
Robotics is a thriving after school in Greenville County. CRO provides funding for teams at Northwest Middle School, Heritage Elementary School, and Blue Ridge High School.
CRO funded teams participate in competitive robotics using equipment from VEX robotics. Each year teams attend between 3-5 local competitions designed by VEX engineers. The game each year is different demanding that students master skills including designing their robots to meet the year’s challenge, building their robots, programming their robots, documenting their efforts in an engineering notebook, and driving their robots to obtain a winning score. Students also have access to 3D design computer programs to test out their designs before construction.
In addition to mastering the technical aspects of robotics, programs that include competition have additional benefits including learning how to work collaboratively, handle stressful situations, and communicate effectively.
Northwest team goes to Worlds! Two of the Northwest Middle School teams qualified to compete at the South Carolina State Championship in 2025 and came in first and second! The winning team got to compete at the World VEX Championship in Dallas in May 2025. CRO thanks the B&R Machining and Fabrication for helping the team travel to Dallas.
Teams from all over the world compete at VEX Worlds. The Northwest team got to meet and interact with fellow robotics students from many foreign countries. One member of the team qualified for Worlds three times!
In one part of the competition, teams play with a partner team and share the score. In another part of the competition teams play alone and their solo score is used to rank the team internationally. The Northwest team ranked in the top 5.5% of teams in 2025.
Basic Needs – Nutrition & Clothing
A hungry and cold child cannot learn. Children cannot learn without access to basic needs, especially food and clothing. In 2024, the average poverty rate in the schools supported by Valley/Mountain Park CRO was 70%. As a result, CRO received requests for both weekend food support via our weekend backpack program and clothing, especially warm clothing.
Nutrition
CRO provides nutritional backpacks to needy families with children attending Slater Marietta Elementary, Gateway Elementary, Northwest Middle and TR High Schools. School Counselors identify the families in need. In 2025, CRO spent $85,000 providing food support to needy families selected by school counselors. We anticipate greater need in 2026 because of diminished federal support.
In addition to the backpack program, Cliffs Valley and Cliffs Mountain Park residents ran a food drive in 2025 that collected 1,400 pounds of shelf stable food and $30,000. The food and funds were given to Foothills Family Resources in Slater Marietta who provides resources including food to residents in need.
Clothing
Schools request warm hoodies for their students. CRO has provided hoodies to all students at Slater Marietta Elementary School and Berea Middle School in 2025. Each school designed the hoodies for their school. The hoodies at Slater Marietta Elementary School are decorated with the school’s mascot – a turtle. The students received their hoodies en masse in the school gym and lots of happy faces were seen as they tried on their new warm hoodies.
At Berea Middle School four hoody designs were created. The school divides its students into four houses – each house has its own hoodie design. During the school year the houses compete for points in areas of scholarship and behavior that can be redeemed for treats. The program has been successful with evident improvements in scholarship and behavior.
Schools CRO Supported in 2024-2025
Elementary Schools
Slater Marietta
CRO has a deep history with the school stretching back to 2007 and funded multiple programs at Slater over the years. In 2025 Slater became a Title 1 school which provides federal funding for at least a year. This funding has permitted Slater to request important but less critical equipment. Thus, in 2025 CRO was able to replace a non- functioning poster maker. The posters are used in the classroom to support weekly classroom curriculum.
CRO also provided a hoodie for every student and food via the backpack program to Slater.
Heritage
CRO began supporting Heritage in 2025. We fund a variety of programs including purchase of educational software that encourages reading, student headphones for individual computer work, tablets for teachers to permit interaction with students while still connected to the smart board, and several student incentive initiatives. One important program was expanding their robotics program to provide more equipment and the ability to host tournaments at the school. They are the only school in the Upstate hosting a tournament exclusively for elementary students.
Gateway
Gateway has been supported by CRO for some time. We provided useful equipment during the pandemic to enable teachers to communicate while masked. In the 2025 – 2026 school year our major programs at Gateway were the backpack program and school T-shirts.
Middle Schools
Berea Middle School
Northwest Middle School
Many Greenville schools created federally-funded after-school tutoring programs to compensate for learning deficiencies during the pandemic. These programs ceased in 2024. CRO supported continuation of the tutoring program at Northwest in the fall of 2024. Support included paying the teachers who stayed after school two days per week to tutor and the school bus driver who transported the students home. Note that district policy requires that tutoring at middle schools requires teachers to be the tutors.
In its two years of operation, the program, known as Panther Success, has significantly increased student test scores by 60% during both the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.
Other current funded programs at Northwest include the food backpack program, a food drive and provision of book backpacks for students without them (note – there are no longer usable lockers in Greenville schools).
High Schools
Travelers Rest High School
CRO has maintained a long-time interest in student physical fitness. CRO purchased new weight room equipment in 2025. We also provide weight room snacks.
Travelers Rest High also participates in the weekend backpack program.
Furman University’s Bridges to a Brighter Future Program for High School Students
The Bridges program enrolls 75 students each year equally divided among tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders. These students are selected by school counselors as having excellent academic credentials and a desire to attend college. CRO supports Bridges by Cliffs resident participation in activities in the program including helping students prepare for interviews and grant preparation. In addition, residents offer lectures in the summer residence program.
This year each Bridges student received hoodies with the Furman logo on the front and the phrase “Success, Nothing Less” on the back.
