Sugar Creek Elementary, Fort Mill SC

Original Research by School Decision on Sugar Creek Elementary

Sugar Creek Elementary is a regular public elementary school in Fort Mill, South Carolina, serving grades PK through 05 as part of the York 04 school district. The school is located on Farm House Road in a fast-growing suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. Fort Mill was historically a textile mill town and is now one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, attracting families with its suburban residential neighborhoods, a historic downtown district, and corporate office parks. The town sits close to Charlotte and Interstate 77, and the district itself is the fastest growing per capita in South Carolina, a fact that has driven recent large-scale school construction funded by a voter-approved bond referendum.

At the elementary level, the school does not administer a high school graduation rate. State assessment results from the 2024-25 school year show the school’s performance on the SC Ready tests across math, English language arts (ELA), and science. In math, the share of students scoring proficient or above declined as grade levels rose. The highest math proficiency was in grade 3, and the lowest was in grade 5. In English language arts, the pattern was different; the strongest showing came from grade 3, with grade 4 notably lower, and grade 5 back to a strong level. In science, which is tested only at grade 4, the proficiency rate was lower than the math and ELA results for that same grade. Social studies results are available only from the 2018-19 school year, which is too old to treat as current; those results came under a different assessment and cut-score standard. Because the state changed its cut scores for ELA and science in the tested year, and the assessment name changed for science, direct year-to-year comparisons for those subjects should be approached with caution.

Taken across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to other districts in York County, a comparison set of five districts. This is a genuine strength. The school is performing at a high level relative to its county peers, and the ELA results in particular are a strong point.

The student body is diverse. About two-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The racial and ethnic composition includes a sizable share of White students, a substantial Hispanic population, a meaningful Asian student presence, and a smaller but present Black student population, with smaller groups of two or more races and American Indian or Alaska Native students. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the source data, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about how those populations are served.

Enrollment is large for an elementary school, running from a smaller preschool class up to a solid fifth-grade class. The school serves a full PK-through-05 span, which means children can attend from early childhood through the end of elementary without changing schools. The locale brief describes Fort Mill’s residential character as primarily suburban and car-dependent, with walkable areas concentrated downtown and at the Kingsley mixed-use development. The Anne Springs Close Greenway is a major civic anchor offering extensive outdoor recreation.

The district has conducted redistricting to balance enrollment across schools, a direct result of rapid population growth. For a family moving into the area, this means that the attendance zone for Sugar Creek Elementary could shift, so it is worth confirming current boundaries with the district. The school’s overall academic profile is strong, especially in ELA, and the community context is one of sustained growth and development. This is a school that fits a family seeking a high-performing elementary in a fast-growing suburban area near Charlotte, with a diverse student population. A parent who values a school that is solidly above the county average, with particularly strong reading results and a large elementary program from pre-K through fifth grade, will find a good match here. The science results for grade 4 are lower than the school’s ELA performance, and that may be a topic worth exploring further with the school.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 77% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 76% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 66% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 382%

School 82% · District 84% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 468%

School 68% · District 83% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 83% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Science

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 70% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · even with county median

Social studies

Grade 586%

School 86% · District 91% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

This schoolYork 04, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income70%Higher-income88%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income54%Higher-income74%20 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income70%Higher-income80%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income58%Higher-income77%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income54%Higher-income73%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income53%Higher-income61%8 pp gap