The Aiken County Public School District announced a new principal for Silver Bluff High School on Tuesday at the School Board’s regular meeting.
Bert Postell, who was principal at Fort Dorchester High School in North Charleston for five years, will be at Silver Bluff High. He will begin in July.
While Postell was at Fort Dorchester High, the school’s graduation rate rose from 78 percent in 2012 to 86 percent in 2016; Advanced Placement enrollment increased from 195 enrollments in 2011 to more than 800 in 2016; and the school’s rating has moved from good and below average in 2011 to excellent, according to a news release from Aiken County Public Schools.
Fort Dorchester also won Palmetto Gold honors in 2013, 2014 and 2015, while receiving Gold awards for closing the achievement gap in 2014 and 2015.
The number of LIFE scholarship recipients at the school has increased from near 40 percent to just over 50 percent, and the number of Career and Technical Education completer certificates awarded also increased.
Postell said he began to look for an opportunity to replicate the success he has witnessed at Fort Dorchester – a school with more than 2,300 students – in a more close-knit community environment.
“One of the things I am most looking forward to is being a part of a community where you have the opportunity to serve and really get to know people,” Postell said. “I have been in a school that has 2,300 students, and even though I have had an amazing experience, I want to reinvent myself and help the community reinvent it’s pride and joy – the high school. That is something that is really exciting to me.”
Postell’s career began as a military officer in the U.S. Army.
“I learned a lot about structure and chain of command, and I learned that people don’t do things just because you say so,” Postell said. “That experience in the military helped me understand the importance of pulling people together for a common goal because we are all on the same team.”
Aiken County School District Superintendent Dr. Sean Alford said Postell has a proven record of facilitating increased academic expectations and developing strong community ties.
“Mr. Postell is a seasoned high school principal with an outstanding record of innovation,” he said. “He has created programs emphasizing work-based learning opportunities, international curriculum, increased access to Advanced Placement and college level course work, and community partnerships and engagement.”
In addition to his work as principal and as an assistant principal at Fort Dorchester High, Postell was an assistant principal at Ashley Ridge High School and Hilton Head High School and, for several years, was a teacher at Beaufort High School and Marion County Public Schools in Ocala, Florida.
Postell earned a Master of Educational Administration degree from USC Columbia; a Master of Business Administration degree from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri; and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from The Citadel in Charleston.
He holds South Carolina state certifications in categories including secondary principal, secondary supervisor, business education, government and mathematics.
