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PAGE 2A BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016 BOE plans to keep same millage rate By Alex Pace News-Journal Reporter The Barrow County Board of Edu cation plans to keep the millage rate steady this year. The BOE will likely approve its tentative millage rate of 18.5 mills at its Sept. 6 meeting. Current tax digest projections show a slight decrease for FY2017, despite early estimates that the digest would increase 3 percent. Despite the decrease, the district still has a rollback rate based on reas sessments of property on the digest in 2015. The district also had an increase in exemptions this year, with 45 percent of the increase coming from baby boomers reaching the exemption age. Keeping the current millage rate of 18.5 mills, the district expects to receive $558,000 less than it did with the same millage rate last year. The BOE will be required to set three hearings after approving the tentative rate. School system enrollment increases for new year By Alex Pace News-Journal Reporter Barrow nutrition program recognized The Barrow County School Nutri tion Program has been awarded “Best Practice” awards in multiple catego ries. The district was recognized for lead ership development and training to achieve professional standards and use of social marketing for school nutri tion programs. These awards will be given out on Oct. 6 at the Georgia School Nutrition Kick-Off Luncheon in Macon. Enrollment increased in the Barrow County School System this year. The Barrow County Board of Education discussed its enrollment at its Aug. 30 meeting. The district had approxi mately 96 more students on the 20th day of school this year than it did last year, totaling 13,559. But not all grade levels are seeing an increase and school leaders are trying to find out why. Enrollment is up in both the middle and high schools, but the district’s elementary school enroll ment is down almost 2 per cent. The largest drops were in Bethlehem (7.6 percent) and Kennedy (5.9 percent). Director of student and data services Matt Thomp son said the district's larg est enrollment drop has been in kindergarten and first grade. But economi cally, the decrease makes sense according to Thomp son. Students enrolled in kin dergarten and first grade this year would have been born during the height of the recession. Birth rates tend to decrease during economic downturns, according to a study pre sented to the BOE by the Pew Research Center. Barrow County had its lowest birth rates since the 1990s in 2009 and 2010, according to Thompson. But there was a slight increase in 2011 and 2012, which may be reflected in next year’s enrollment. Birth rate isn’t the only influence on the district’s enrollment. The change may also be from move ment in and out of the county, but that data is not available. OTHER BUSINESS Also at its meeting, the BOE: •learned Auburn Ele mentary School and Yargo Elementary School are piloting an Academic Par ent Teacher Team program, which administrators say is boosting parent partici pation. •discussed an upcoming outdoor elective course offering at Apalachee High School. Dustin Cannarella and other AHS staff are planning an summer out door education course, Appalachian Trail Experi ence. Students would walk the Georgia part of the trail in an estimated 17-day trip, learning about ecology, geology, history and liter ature. The course will be offered as an elective. Stu dents would have to pass a physical, and other health/ safety training is being addressed. •compared its Advanced Placement versus Move on When Ready options. AP courses are high school courses that a student could receive college credit for if scoring high enough on a test. MOWR courses are college courses done through dual enrollment. The state pays for tuition and books for MOWR. •discussed an Instruc tional Conversation Ped agogy started at the dis trict’s elementary schools. Organizers say teachers are used as “facilitators,” and students are more hands-on in leading discussion. Julie Eldridge, the English learn er support coordinator, said it makes students feel empowered as though the classroom is their learning community. She also said it helps conversation skills. •learned construction on the new elementary school is “coming along extreme ly well,” according to assis tant superintendent of sys tem operations Joe Perno. •learned the BOE may vote on a contract price for the county amphithe ater at its September work session. •added several items to its consent agenda, includ ing a $102,600 purchase of Dell Chrombeooks using Title I funding: a wellness program policy; and a personnel sick leave bank policy. Two policies (assignment to school; and transfers and withdrawals) will be open for public comment until the BOE’s Oct. meeting. BOE continued from 1A “If you read this pream ble and you know nothing about what this is and what this does, you would feel as though you’re voting against motherhood and apple pie,” she said. She said the amend ment takes away the local community's involvement, despite the preamble's wording. That “erosion of local control” is one of the reasons the GSBA is making a push against the amendment. “What this legislation does is it creates a super intendent that is appoint ed by the governor and reports directly to the gov ernor,” said Wilson. “...We don’t believe that you see the best in what happens in schools by taking away the local input into what’s happening.” The amendment would allow the state to take over the “supervision, manage ment and operation” of “failing” schools based on accountability measures. That includes control over federal, state and local money for those schools. Wilson said many of the schools on the list for OSD are high-pov erty and high-minority schools. But she said the state doesn’t recognize the large improvements made in those schools. “There is no recognition of the growth that took place,” she said. Wilson said she's also concerned that the state isn’t considering the exter nal factors that contribute to low performance for high-poverty students. Among those is the tran siency of high-poverty students and lack of good healthcare, food, etc. Wilson said she’s also concerned about creating a constitutional amendment for a program that has not been successful. “Nowhere in the coun try where they have tried ‘recovery school districts’ have they been success ful,” she said. Wilson noted the state already has the power to intervene in low-perform ing school districts, but said the amendment would allow the state to control the funding. “This is truly about pri vatizing our public edu cation system.” she said. “And it’s about the dol lars.” Brown still sought by BCSO Tiffani Ann Brown of Winder is still being sought by law enforce ment officials on multiple felony warrants. Brown is a white female, 36-years-old. She is described as having brown eyes and brown hair. She was on the scene during a narcotics bust which resulted in the arrest of Jason Paul Gor don and Johnny Holliday. BROWN Deadlines moved up News and ads deadlines for the Barrow News-Journal and MainStreet Newspapers publications will be moved to noon Friday due to the Labor Day holiday on Monday. The Barrow> News-Journal will be closed on Monday for the holiday. Auburn chief wants officers to have use of patrol cars while working extra jobs Auburn police chief Carl Moulder wants a change in the city policy which cur rently does not allow offi cers to use their patrol cars during off-duty work. Moulder said during a recent city council work session that officers would be responsible for putting fuel in the patrol car. Some officers with the APD work off-duty security jobs and said he believes having their patrol car on scene would help with safe ty issues. “Right now they are in full uniform during these off-duty jobs,” the chief said. “The only thing they don’t have is their vehicle. The vehicle can serve as a deterrent. We don't want to eliminate extra jobs for these officers. It is an incen tive to keep people with us.” The City of Auburn pro vides insurance for patrol cars. “The insurance should not go up,” Moulder said. “They already take their vehicles home with them anyway.” PUBLIX MYSTERY COUPON See What 1$ Gets! Bring this coupon to Publix on August 31, 2016, and find out what one penny gets you! Good with your purchase of $10 or more. Limit one coupon per household per day. Excluding all alcohol, tobacco, lottery items, money services, postage stamps, gift cards, and prescriptions. Customer is responsible for all applicable taxes. Reproduction or transfer of this coupon is strictly prohibited. Effective August 31, 2016 at participating stores in Ga., Ala., and Tenn. Publix. WHERE SHOPPING IS A PLEASURE* LU# 17204 FFA FUN Apalachee High School FFA members Taylor Faith Adcock and Kaije Rusnic enjoy the Slip- N-Slide. AHS FFA begins new year On Tuesday, Aug. 18, the Apalachee High School FFA Chapter held its first meeting of the new school year. More than 40 members, many of them new to the chapter, gathered in the ag room to hear about many of the events that the chapter has planned for the fall. Following the conclusion of the business session, members and guests were treated to pizza and were entertained with an inflatable slip n slide, volleyball and other games. Our next meeting will be held on Sept. 22 which will be a cookout for all members, parents and alumni. Suspect continued from 1A The Statham chief said he requested assistance from the BCSO due to that department having more resources and due to the high emotions involved. “Anytime one of your offi cers are hurt, especially to the degree Lofton was, there are emotions involved,” Johnston said. “While I felt positive that our guys were professional enough to handle it, I did not wish to put them through that. We have a tight bond within the thin blue line, but within our department family it's even tighter. So why push the issue to a breaking point.” According to Capt. Ryan Sears of the BCSO, infor mation was gathered that Fox was at an undisclosed residence in Barrow County. She was taken into custody without incident. The incident has drawn heavy attention from area news outlets, on Facebook and other social media. Johnston said he was thankful for the community’s sup port of Officer Lofton and the entire SPD. “Thank you to all the citizens who support and have supported so awesomely during this incident,” the chief said. “We are thankful to serve such a community.” Radio club celebrates centennial The Tri-County Ama teur Radio Club held a special event this month to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the found ing of the Town of Bra- selton. The club went on the air with three stations oper ating under the special, temporary call sign W4B. As stations called in from across the country, the group shared information about the location and a brief history of the town. The group made almost 300 contacts in 19 states, including Hawaii, and in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada. The special event was also posted on a world wide Amateur Radio data base and this site received over 700 hits. The result was that potentially 1,000 peo ple became aware of the town’s 100 year celebra tion. /^^^xConsidering M R buying or ,9^ / selling? 770-867-9026 www.maynardrealty.com In Loving Memory of my mother HELEN WILBANKS Happy Birthday Mother Those we love don’t go away, They walk beside us every day. Unseen and unheard but always near, Still loved and missed and very dear. Love, Joyce