Baker Place Elementary School

05/23/2026

🦅 Once an Eagle, Always an Eagle 🦅

After 31 extraordinary years of shaping young minds, lifting up teachers, and pouring endless love into every school community that she has served, we celebrate the retirement of our remarkable Assistant Principal - Ms. Suzy Pierce Thigpen.

Ms. Thigpen, we’ve had the pleasure of being under your leadership for the last two years. Your leadership has always been rooted in compassion, patience, and a belief that every child and teacher deserves to feel seen, supported, and capable of greatness. Thank you for that.

Thank you for being a steady voice in the hallway, calm in chaos, a cheerleader behind every success, and a joyful guide through every challenge. Generations of students carry your influence with them — because you didn’t just help them learn, you helped them believe in themselves.

Your legacy of impact will forever live in the classrooms you nurtured, the teachers you led, the families you comforted, and the countless laughs and little moments that made our school feel like home. As you step into this next chapter—one filled with rest, joy, and well‑earned adventures—know this truth that echoes through our halls:

Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. 🦅

Thank you for giving our Baker Place community your heart. 💛 We love you.

05/23/2026

🍎 OFFICIAL LAST DAY OF SCHOOL🍎

Stop the presses - it is OFFICIALLY Mrs. Quattlebaum's last day of school...ever!!

After 32 years of impacting lives, teaching (over 1,000) students, and making a daily difference, Mrs. Quattlebaum is hanging up her teacher lanyard and name tag for perpetual summer!☀

We are so grateful that Mrs. Quattlebaum chose to call Baker Place home for the last several years; her impact on our students as an EIP (Early Intervention Program) teacher is unparalleled - she has helped students recognize their learning super powers, believed in them and championed them on!

We will miss Mrs. Quattlebaum tremendously, but we know she will make the most of her days in retirement!

Congratulations on this monumental achievement in your career, Mrs. Quattlebaum, you have so much to be proud of! 🤍

05/20/2026

⭐ Off to New Adventures ⭐

Our Eagles are off to new places , they're on their way! Adventure is waiting, today is the day!

The end of the year is always such a sweet time of reflecting, celebrating growth and new adventures, and reminiscing on all the good times we've shared! For our 5th grade Eagles, this year's end brings about new adventures in Middle School, and we can hardly believe the time is already here! These kiddos have made us incredibly proud in their time here - they've accomplished amazing things, grown so much, and left an impact on our teachers and our school building, forever. We will miss them dearly!

Another set of Eagles returned to the nest this week for one last flight - our graduating Seniors for the Class of 2026! We are incredibly proud of the soar of Eagles that we are sending out into the world beyond high school! Continue to make us proud! 🎓

05/20/2026

🎶🇺🇸 Oh Say Can You Sing?!

Our Chorus had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem tonight at the Greenjackets game! What a great way to end the year for our Eagles! 🦅

05/19/2026

🚲 STRIVE FOR FIVE WINNERS 🚲

Congratulations to our Strive for Five attendance drawing winners!

You’ll remember back in October we announced our attendance campaign, Strive for Five, to encourage higher rates of student attendance.

Each month, from October-April, students who met the criteria of being present every day and having no more than three (3) early check-outs (before 3:40) or late check-ins (after 8:40) were entered into our attendance drawing.

We are pleased to announce the following winners in K-2nd:

Collins Jones, Kindergarten
Tyler Johnson, 1st grade

…and the following winners in 3rd-5th grade:

Amirah Butler, 4th Grade
Aiden Phan, 5th Grade

We are so proud of these Eagles for showing up all day, every day! Way to go!

05/15/2026

What an amazing, exciting way to end the last full week of school! Our very own, Mrs. Hammerstrom, has been named a Top 10 Finalist for Columbia County School District-Evans, Georgia Teacher of the Year!

We are so proud of Mrs. Hammerstrom, and we know she will go on to continue representing our school well!

💙🍎 Congratulations to the Top 10 Finalists for the Columbia County School District Teacher of the Year!

We are proud to recognize these exceptional finalists who represent the very best of CCSD. The Top Five Finalists will be announced in August.

Finalists include:
🍎 Ann Sturkey, Westmont Elementary School
📚 Julie Cunningham, Columbia Middle School
🌟 Anna Connolly, Blue Ridge Elementary School
🍎 Heather Cottingham, Grovetown Elementary School
📚 Gayla Hammerstrom, Baker Place Elementary School
🌟 Kyle Teagarden, Evans Middle School
🍎 Ashley Farmer, Brookwood Elementary School
📚 Tayler Norwood, Stallings Island Middle School
🌟 Alyson Kline Lakeside High School, Evans GA
🍎 Brittany Hayes Grovetown High School

05/15/2026

🏈 KINDERGARTEN KICKOFF 🏈

We had the BEST time tonight meeting so many new and rising Kindergartners at our annual Kindergarten Kickoff event!

Our upcoming Kindergarten Eagles got to tour the building, do some football-themed arts & crafts, see some Kindergarten classrooms, practice going through the lunch line, and even “sign” with us to join our Eagles team next year! We even sent them home with some “Kindergarten Prep” kits!

We can’t wait to watch these future Kindergarten Eagles meet their teachers and officially walk 300 Hall in the Fall!

05/14/2026

🧡 MARIGOLDS OF THE MONTH 🧡

Congratulations to our Marigolds (Faculty & Staff) of the Month - we are so fortunate to have so many amazing people at BPE! Give a cheer and round of applause for this month's Marigolds - Mrs. Rachel Schneider and Mrs. Kelley Powell.

These amazing Eagles have been recognized by their peers as people who go above and beyond to help others in an effort to make Baker Place Elementary the best school in Columbia County!

Mrs. Schneider is a phenomenal first grade teacher! She loves her students and the work that she does, and is always going above and beyond to recognize and celebrate others around her! Mrs. Schneider is always positive and works to uplift others and lead her first grade team well!

Mrs. Powell is an amazing first grade paraprofessional! She leads our paraprofessional teams across all grade levels and is always willing to jump in and do whatever it takes to make things happen! Mrs. Powell is hands-on, organized, and upbeat - her positive, helpful attitude ensures that all of our first grade teachers and paras get what they need to be successful!

Each month, our faculty and staff leave "Marigold Shout Outs" for other faculty and staff members as a way to recognize their hard work, acknowledge their efforts in supporting our school team, and spread kindness and joy around the building. We are pleased to celebrate our amazing Marigolds of the Month! Please help us recognize them!

05/10/2026

To our very first teachers - Moms - we appreciate, celebrate, and honor you today, and everyday. Happy Mother’s Day!

05/09/2026

📸 Career Day Photography 📸

One of our career day presenters for our 2nd and 3rd graders was a professional photographer- Kylie Hickman Photography.

During her sessions with classes, she snapped some incredible images of our Eagles and shared them with us! You can even see a group photo of some of our presenters who happen to be friends with our very own, Mrs. Lindberg!

We are incredibly grateful for the career connections that Mrs. Lindberg has, and for her sharing them with us! Career Day 2026 was an incredible success!

05/08/2026

💜🎖MONTH of the MILITARY CHILD + 2026 MILITARY FLAGSHIP AWARD🎖💜

Before this week ends, we have one more incredible announcement - Baker Place was recognized by the Georgia Department of Education as a "2026 Military Flagship School"! What an incredible recognition for all of the work that Baker Place does to include, honor, and support our military-connected student population!

The Military Flagship School Award is an award given by the Georgia Department of Education to schools that go above and beyond to provide a supportive environment for military-connected students, often focusing on easing transitions related to deployment and frequent moves.

This high honor and recognition comes on the heels of us concluding our Month of the Military Child celebrations in April! During this time, we hosted Military Appreciation Breakfasts for our service member families, Military Support Dress Up Days, and so much more! You can view some pictures from our MoMC celebrations below!

We could not have accomplished this amazing feat without our Military Committee - Mrs. Hammerstrom, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Torres, Mrs. Stringer, and Ms. King - our two amazing Military Family Life Counselors - Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Rodriguez, and our administrators, teachers, staff, and community partners! Most importantly, we could not have done this without our military families - thank you for making Baker Place your home! We honor and appreciate you! 💜