Faculty and Staff
South Carolina Calvert Academy features a distinguished faculty and staff who like you share a commitment to ensuring the best educational environment for your child. Following the Calvert curriculum that is built upon a foundation of reading, writing and arithmetic these South Carolina-certified teachers create a positive environment for children that encourages learning and success in the virtual classroom.
Interim Administrator
Laura L. Blackmore, MS Ed.
Click here to learn more about Mrs. Blackmore
Faculty
John Allen, Kindergarten and 1st grade
Kris Durso, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Science and 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts
Alexandria Gillcrese, 2nd and 3rd grades
Haley Mabry, 4th and 5th grades
Jessica O’Shesky, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Social Studies and 6th and 7th grade English Language Arts
Candice Poindexter, 6th – 8th grade Math
Cate Thompson, Special Education Coordinator and Teacher
About Laura L. Blackmore
Laura Blackmore received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Winthrop University in 1990. In 1995, Ms. Blackmore received a Master of Science in Education from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While residing in the Pittsburgh area, Ms. Blackmore worked with at-risk children and their families in residential, educational, as well as in-home settings for nearly eight years.
After returning to South Carolina in 1998, Ms. Blackmore was employed as the Unit Coordinator and Educational Director for the adolescent unit of Charter Behavioral Hospital, an acute mental health facility in Greenville, South Carolina.
In 2000, Ms. Blackmore became the Director of Education for Springbrook Behavioral Health System, a 68 patient residential facility serving at-risk and special needs children and adolescents located in Travelers Rest, South Carolina.
Realizing that the residential model of delivering education to children in out-of-home placements was antiquated and ineffectual, in 2003 Ms. Blackmore founded an on-campus public charter school, Wohali Academy, Inc. For the next six years, Ms. Blackmore administered this Kindergarten through twelfth grade Academy, which served at-risk and special needs children and adolescents.
In 2006, Ms. Blackmore was awarded the South Carolina Association of Public Charter Schools’ Administrator of the Year Award at the 5th Annual South Carolina Charter Schools Conference. She was recognized for her outstanding leadership in successfully administering the Academy and for her work in developing “value-added assessments” to determine the school’s long term effectiveness in producing a quality education for its students. Ms. Blackmore’s work, in this regard, has had a direct effect on policy changes at the U.S. Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind law.
Currently, Ms. Blackmore is the Vice President of Education Services for Charter Collaboration, LLC, a consulting firm for start-up charter school groups and existing/operating charter schools.