Salvatore Minolfo: Longtime educator has a ‘coronary heart for kids and a passion for schooling’

Aiken County’s school machine covers plenty of acreages, and Sal Minolfo is familiar with a full-size portion of it, having served in a spread of roles during the last 20-plus years, en direction to his modern popularity because of the Aiken County Principal of the Year.
The 1990 Silver Bluff High School graduate, who lives in Aiken, is now based totally at Belvedere Elementary School, having stepped into that function at the start of the 2016-17 school year. He reached the region-century mark as an educator, starting his school room adventure via way of Jackson Elementary and Jackson Middle. He completed excessive college in three years.
The heart of Aiken, he showed, is among his favorite haunts, as are two of the South’s most popular vacationer locations.
“I without a doubt revel in downtown Aiken — all the things that they provide downtown, with live enjoyment on Thursdays and a few weekends, and a very good meal — and I surely experience putting out with pals and doing those varieties of things.”
He introduced, “I take a journey annually with my daughters to New Orleans, that is a favorite for us. My oldest ladies … Are both college students on the College of Charleston, so I cross to go to them usually once a month or so.”
Comprising that duo are Olivia, making ready for her senior year; and Elena, getting ready for existence as a sophomore. The youngest of the Minolfo women is Isabella, heading into her junior year at South Aiken High.
The father of the residence also has roles as a member of NewSpring Church, in Aiken, where he is a greeter and a domestic-group chief. “It’s a satellite tv for pc from a church that commenced in Anderson, South Carolina,” he stated.
Aiken resident Brad Hyman, one of Minolta’s friends from church, stated Minolfo has an exceptional conversation and management skills. “He has the capacity to have very tough conversations and try and stay as goal as viable without letting emotions take over, and in my revel in, it’s very uncommon.”

Hyman, who works as a client for Savannah River Remediation, largely knows Minolfo through their partnership as leaders in a domestic organization at NewSpring. “We have had some the difficult conversations in and around those corporations … He can live objective and deal with the troubles handy without letting emotion simply get the higher of him. His insights, on the subject of those discussions, are simply so beneficial.”
He stated Minolfo, in particular, excels at applying the biblical important of “truth in grace.”
Becky Carrier, the Aiken County school district’s bookkeeper for federal packages, defined Minolfo as a godly man with a good personality and a robust humorousness.
Recalling her years of interplay with him whilst both have been primarily based at Redcliffe, she introduced, “He is a tough employee, and … I constantly noticed that he certainly loved the kids. He honestly cared approximately every and each one among them, to make certain that they could examine.”
His history, following graduation from USCA Aiken in 1994, also consists of coaching at Leavelle McCampbell Middle (five years), observed by means of administration carrier at Redcliffe Elementary (six years as assistant main and four as most important), various roles in the district office (with emphasis on special training), every other year of coaching at Leavelle, a year as foremost at Blenheim Elementary/Middle, in Marlboro County, and a 12 months of teaching at Aiken Middle.
His right-hand lady at Belvedere Elementary is Kimmerie Allen, the assistant main.
Minolfo showed he’s enthusiastically awaiting Belvedere Elementary’s protection, that means a sparkling face and a diffusion of latest functions to a structure that dates lower back to 1954. “It’s going to dramatically alternate the school,” he stated.
Additions will consist of a 2nd story and “approximately 20 school rooms, so I’m excellent-enthusiastic about it,” he stated. “It’s going to be first-class – certainly something that the community can be very happy with and be invested in.”
Among Minolfo’s longtime buddies is Columbia resident Tammie Newman, the South Carolina High School League’s director of communications and public relations. Newman, referring to his reputation as a splendid major, wrote that the prize “couldn’t be presented to a nicer man.”
She added, “Sal has continually had a coronary heart for kids and an ardor for education. Aiken County is lucky to have not begun some other ‘home grown’ educator and leader inside the schools … I’ve recognized Sal due to the fact we were young adults at Silver Bluff High; by no means a doubt he might make a fine impact on K-12 lecturers.”
“He’s very devoted,” stated Aiken resident Cheryl Henderson, a retired kindergarten trainer who knew Minolfo from his days at Redcliffe Elementary.