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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2016 BARROW JOURNAL • BARROW COUNTY NEWS PAGE 3A County nixes SPLOST renewal vote A back-and-forth conflict between county officials and officials with the City of Winder has resulted in the cancelling of a vote on the renewal of a Special Local Option Sales Tax - at least for this year. The Barrow County Board of Commis sioners. in a called meeting Friday after noon, voted unanimously (with District 2 commissioner Kenny Shook absent) to accept the recommendation of chairman Pat Graham to reject placing the referen dum on the November ballot. Graham said putting forth the referendum in its current form would mean a tax increase for Bar- row County property owners. “I can't in good faith say this is in the best interests of the citizens of Barrow County.” Graham said. County leaders were hoping to extend the current SPLOST, which was initially approved in 2011. this year. There is still time to get a referendum on a future bal lot before the current SPLOST expires, however. Barrow officials could not get on the same page with City of Winder officials in reaching an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) which would have brought in an estimated $66 million in new SPLOST revenue. At issue was the $27 million which county officials wanted to use toward debt on SPLOST 2005 Level 1 projects, includ ing the building of a new detention center and courthouse facility and renovations to the historic structure in downtown Winder. Winder officials, in turn, said they would not support an IGA that would have allowed that big of a percentage of SPLOST funds to go toward that debt. Winder mayor David Maynard and Gra ham exchanged letters during the week debating the issue. Winder attorney John Stell was at Friday's called BOC meeting and presented another letter to those in attendance from Maynard who once again disputed the county's claim that a tax increase would be necessary. "It appears the County has adequate projected SPLOST funds to cover the GO bonds, but has opted to not use SPLOST funds to pay the bonds so that other proj ects can be funded,” Maynard’s July 29 letter said. Graham continued to disagree with Winder officials’ take on the SPLOST numbers. “If the voters in 2005 were told 13 years later this general obligation bond would go on your property tax bill, they would not have voted for it.” the chairman said. “It doesn’t matter how you slice or dice this. This proposal will absolutely, if the voters approve it. raise their property taxes, and I will not support it.” The chairman said she would like for county and other municipality officials to work during the next months to discuss capital needs and put together a referen dum. Graham said she would like for a com mittee to be formed including representa tives from the Chamber of Commerce, the school system and other citizens, to work together to insure property taxes would not increase. Barrow elementary, middle schools exceed state scores By Al ex Pace Journal Reporter Barrow County’s elementary and middle schools have exceeded the state average in most categories on a standardized test. Georgia Milestones results were released last week. The assessment tests students in several subjects, scoring them on levels 1-4 (with 4 being the highest). The district’s high schools had more students score in the bottom category in most subjects, but the district’s elementary and middle schools fared better. The Barrow Journal reported last week that BCSS elementary and middle school stu dents had less students score in the bottom category than the state in most subjects on End of Grade assessments. These assessments are given to students in third-eighth grades in language arts, math, science and social studies. District-wide, scores for the third-eighth grade End of Course test improved in all subjects. The district's elementary schools had fewer students score in the bottom category than the state in every subject. But the middle schools were below the state in sixth and eighth grade language arts and sixth grade social studies. Results for the individual schools in third, fifth and eighth grade includes: 2016 EOC Third Grade Scores in the Bottom Category School ELA Math Science Social Studies Auburn 38.4% 16.1% 21.4% 33% Bethlehem 24.3 15.4 12.5 16.9 Bramlett 21.2 14.3 15.1 21.2 County Line 21.5 16 16 21.5 Holsenbeck 27.3 11.9 18.2 23.1 Kennedy 21 5.7 13 16.1 Statham 29 15.5 25.2 27.9 Yargo 27.5 16 13.2 19.7 District 26.1 14 16.9 22.4 State 33 21 24 25 2016 EOC Fifth Grade Scores in the Bottom Category School ELA Math Science Social Studies Auburn 27.6% 22.9% 21.9% 21% Bethlehem 19.9 16.2 18.4 16.9 Bramlett 23.2 20.4 17.7 19.6 County Line 25.5 17.8 27.9 23.2 Holsenbeck 21.8 22.9 38.9 33.3 Kennedy 16.5 16.5 24.8 16.5 Statham 12.4 17.2 17.2 10.7 Yargo 25 22.6 35 20.6 District 21.5 19.5 25.9 20.7 State 25 26 30 25 School 2016 EOC Eighth Grade Scores in the Bottom Category ELA Math Science Social Studies Bear Creek 19.4% 24.2% 25% 18.8% HMMS 21.1 12.4 22.4 14.5 Russell 17.5 17.1 30.2 17.5 Westside 32.6 33.3 40.7 27.6 District 22.3 21.2 29.1 19.3 State 20 24 40 25 Milestones clarification: A story on Georgia Milestones high school results in the July 27 issue of the Barrow Journal needs clarification. A chart included with the story listed the school-level results, along with district and state levels results. The school-level results only included the spring tests, while the dis trict and state levels included both winter and spring. The Barrow County School System is on a block schedule and high school students take the Georgia Milestones during both semesters. A more appropriate chart, which includes school, district and state results for spring and winter includes: 2016 End of Course Results Percentage Scoring in Bottom Category Subiect AHS WBHS District State 9th grade lit 18% 30% 24% 23% American lit 23 30 27 25 Algebra I 38 37 32* 30 Analy. Geom. 23 32 28 27 Biology 28 19 23 32 Phys. Science 46 43 44 34 U.S. history 26 23 24 25 Economics 25 29 27 28 Statham police to host ‘meet and greet' The City of Statham will host a “meet and greet” on Friday, Aug. 26, at 6:30 p.m. in the Statham Community Center. The event will allow citizens to meet local police officers with the Statham Police Department. There will also be demonstrations by Statham K9 officers Basco and Bella. Saunders posts $25K bail Ron Saunders, former executive director of Adult Literacy Barrow, has posted a $25,000 bail after he was arrested for stealing over $100,000 from the group. Saunders, who was superintendent of the Barrow County School System from 1998-2010, is facing charges of felony theft and forgery after he reportedly admitted to forging signatures on some of the organization’s checks. He was arrested by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office on July 21 at his Winder residence. Adult Literacy Barrow’s board of directors was notified July 18 of suspicious activ ity in its finances. The board suspected Saunders had forged signatures on checks and had those checks cashed. Saunders reportedly admitted to the BCSO that he did forge signatures on the checks in question and to other bank transactions the board was unaware of. The arrest report indicates the incidents occurred from July 2013-July 2016. Strike up the bands... DRUMMING WILDCATS Members of the Apalachee High School band practice earlier this sum mer as work continues for the new football season and school year. Photos by Jessica Brown SOUND OF THE BULLDOGGS The Winder-Barrow High School band recently completed camp and is looking to a new school year. Hwy. 211 bridge reopened The SR 211 bridge over Beech Creek reopened to traffic last week after 60 days of road closure. This is the first project in the state to use preformed concrete panels for construc tion. This cutting edge technique accelerated the schedule and reduced the time the road was closed. “This was a very aggressive schedule to replace a bridge. Conventional bridge construction methods can mean road closures last 180 days or more for complete bridge replacement,” said Georgia Department of Transportation district engineer Brent Cook. Georgia has used the prefabricated panels previously in maintenance projects but this is the first time this technology has been used in the construction of a bridge. The roadway, which is a major artery in the area for school traffic, is back open in time for school to start next week. E.R. Snell of Snellville was the contractor on the project, with construction invest ment of $2.7 million.