Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 5A
The first away game
This past Friday, the Winder-Barrow
High School Bulldoggs, cheerleaders,
coaches, support staff, and the DoggBand
loaded up and headed to Duluth for our first
official away game.
Whitney and I had signed up to
be bus chaperones, and it was like
going back in time 16 years ago to
my first bus chaperone trip when she
was in 9th grade. All the hustle and
bustle in the band room, inspections,
and dismissal. What fun memories!
What I had forgotten about was
the actual school bus ride. I think
buses have shrunk in size since those
days, and the backs of the seats are
higher.
This is not good for a person with
claustrophobia. In the olden days,
I got my very own personal seat
that I did not have to share with
anyone. Part of this reason was I
was also Keeper Of The Medical Bag in
years 2, 3, and 4. This year the buses are
full to capacity, and I actually had to share
my seat. Thankfully, it was with Whitney.
Unfortunately, I got on the bus a bit sooner
than necessary. No movement, no air flow,
I couldn’t see over the seat in front of me,
nor the back of my own seat. As one by one
the bodies came on board, it felt like the
world was closing in on me. I was by the
window, so at least I was able to scramble
up and hang my head out the window for a
bit and get some fresh air. Once we started
moving, it was fine... as long as I kept my
mind off of the tiny little section space that
I was wedged into. The trip took a little
longer than expected, because of a detour
made necessary by a train stopped on the
tracks.
Aside from the claustrophobia, it was
great being on the bus with the band
kids again! The major difference this time
around is that Whitney actually claimed
me as her mom, and even sat with me! It
seemed really odd not knowing the other
chaperones or the kids.
I found myself looking for “my” kids,
and every now and then I would see some
one who reminded me of one of the 2000-
2004 group.
I love doing the chaperone thing with
Whitney, but I sure did miss the old Friday
Night Crowd — Nancy and Phil Stephens,
Linda and Charles Perry, Karey Russell,
Delores Smith, Kitty McCall, Christine
Shaheen, Beth Savage, and all the other
parents who made it so much fun.
The Doggs looked great on the field, and
it was a very exciting game. Back in the
day, I was more interested in band stuff
than football, but this year the games have
been exciting to watch. Here’s to hoping
that trend continues, and the Doggs go all
the way!
I’d love to say the band looked great on
the field. Well, actually, they did look great
cathy
watkins
bennett
on the field. We just had to watch from
behind. The hosting school, Northview in
Duluth, has a policy that doesn’t allow any
visitors on their side of the field. I went to
every away game from 2000-2001 to 2003-
2004, and that has never been an
issue. Chaperones, band support
folks, parents, and students have
always gone across to the hosting
side in order to watch BOTH
bands perform. We'd clap and
holler for our kids, and when they
finished playing, we respectfully
watched the home team’s band
play, and clapped and hollered for
them just the same. It’s just what
you do. We have seen some awe
some bands from other schools,
and always support them with our
cheers and applause.
We were quite disappointed
and upset that we weren’t allowed
to go across at Northview. There were
resource officers who simply would not let
us pass. Not just WBHS, they said, but no
visiting teams are ever allowed over there.
We tried explaining that this was their first
show to march, because of prior halftime
shows being canceled due to weather, but
no exception was to be made. A few
parents went rogue and went the opposite
direction and somehow made it across the
gator-filled moat and past the fire-breathing
dragon, and got into the stands, and were
able to shoot a front-on video of the show.
It’s on Facebook, if you want to see it.
As a mom, a band chaperone, and “Keep
er Of The Medical Bag” for three years, it
was also concerning to me that our kids
were on the other side of the world with no
adult support.
Well, they’re not really kids, and they cer
tainly know how to behave, but you never
know when someone might need some
thing, have an accident, or any kind of inci
dent that could require adult supervision.
That in itself would seem to merit allowing
chaperones/parents into the stands.
Oh well. Here at WBHS, we welcome
visiting band supporters into our stands,
and show our support to all the visiting
bands.
Our band kids are taught to appreciate the
opposing team’s band, and show them the
respect they deserve.
And on that note, if you are in the stands
while the visiting band is performing, it
would be really great if you would also
show them the same supportive cheers and
applause that you graciously show to our
own fabulous WBHS Marching Bulldogg
Band! #HighRoad Go Doggs! Yay Band!
Cathy Watkins Bennett is a Bar-
row County native and a gradu
ate of Winder-Barrow High School.
Send comments about this column to
beneath @ aol. com.
‘Jungle Book’ is September movie
The 2016-released “Jun
gle Book” is the feature for
Braselton’s movie under the
stars set for Saturday, Sept.
10.
The award-nominated
movie features Neel Sethi
as Mowgli and the famil
iar voices of Bill Murray,
Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba
and Garry Shandling in sup
porting roles. It is a fami
ly-themed, adventure drama
and rated PG.
The movie is free to all
patrons. Attendees are
encouraged to bring chairs
or blankets to the Braselton
Park in its historic down
town. The movie begins at
dusk as the Braselton Visi
tors Bureau presents this and
other family-focused events
celebrating the town’s cen
tennial year. For all events
or information, visit www.
downtownbraselton.com.
The governor’s opportuninty
Barrow County Board of Education
member Lynn Stephens and I don’t
always agree on things.
And, I am certainly not in
agreement with her suggestion
that we tell Georgia Governor
Nathan Deal to “go to hell”.
While not an initial strong sup
porter of Governor Deal when he
announced prior to his first term,
I have, however, seen him open
a lot of doors for the state and
Barrow County during his tenure.
With that said, I find Lynn
and I do share some common
ground on the governor’s pro
posed “Opportunity School Dis
trict” (OSD)initiative which will
appear on the ballot for Georgia voters
in November.
I, too, find myself opposed. I’m not
sure this is a door that the governor
should open.
Even though it is a state developed
and administered program, it reeks of
a federal program out of Washington,
D.C. It sounds and looks like something
the feds would devise.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have
an answer and the only skin I expect
to have in the game is the fact I’m a
Georgian and I would like for all kids,
regardless of where they live in Georgia,
to have the best opportunity to learn.
Every child deserves a good educa
tion and there is no doubt, education
provides economic opportunities for
everyone.
I’m not a proponent of Common
Core, the new math and a spoonful of
other things our educational system has
implemented or wants implemented. To
be honest, I don’t understand all of the
ins and outs.
I do see the governor’s interest in
upgrading educational platforms in the
areas of the state where scores are low
and some kids come out on the short end
while others do very well.
However, we have 159 counties in
this state, probably 70-75 too many, but
that’s another subject for another day.
That means there are 159 plus school
boards, all of whom want pieces of the
pie. Some get larger slices, some have
brighter students, some have school
boards that take their responsibility
more so than others.
I do believe it is the state’s respon
sibility to see that every student in
every county gets the basic opportunity
or education. And, I believe counties
should be held accountable in some way
for their failures.
But not with the governor’s OSD
initiative.
I, along with board member Stevens,
am not the only one opposed to the gov
ernor’s plan. The Executive Director of
the Georgia School Boards Association,
Valerie Wilson, is opposed as are several
other member members of the Barrow
County Board of Education.
Governor Deal’s proposed OSD pro
posal will allow the state of Georgia to
jimmy
terrell
take over “failing schools" that do not
meet state standards.
The message in the proposal will
allow the state to provide “...
greater flexibility and state
accountability to fix failing
schools through increasing
community involvement."
Supporters of the proposal
point out that most of the fail
ing schools are in high poverty
or minority areas.
I’m not sure where
“increased community
involvement comes into play.
If a school system, or school,
is failing, obviously there isn’t
much community involve
ment.
A lack of community involvement
says the system lacks the proper lead
ership and quality teachers, or the kids
just are not interested and have nothing
on which to build their dreams, or there
is an insufficient tax base to provide the
necessary funding for a quality system.
The governor’s plan will create a
new school superintendant appointed
by the governor and answerable to the
governor. It will create another layer of
bureaucracy and may even create fric
tion with the current State Department
of Education.
The governor and the newly appointed
superintendent would control federal,
state and local funds for those schools
identified as failing. Would this not
eventually create additional competition
for these funds by the schools that are
successful?
Under the new law the state could
declare 20 schools per year as failing
and add them to the program. There
would be a maximum of 100 schools
under the new superintendent and gov
ernor at any one time.
At the present time, Fulton County,
and this should be no surprise, has the
largest number of schools that would be
eligible for the program.
It may sound selfish but I prefer for
my tax dollars to stay in Barrow Coun
ty. If Fulton County has a problem, let
Fulton County come up with a solution
from within.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce
is also a big supporter of the governor’s
proposal.
For the past five years Georgia has
been a great state for the relocation
of businesses and for new start-ups
because of the tax structure, a strong
workforce and a good, although crowd
ed, transportation network.
The governor’s thinking is probably
Georgia can do more and it can. It
should. But learning starts in the home
and if the support team is not there, we
are not going to see a dollar spent for a
dollar’s worth of improvement.
Let the counties figure it out!
Jimmy Terrell is a retired law enforce
ment official. He can be reached at
ejterrell65 @ gmail.com.
September 6, 2016 ~ Crossword Puzzle
770-867-9026
www.maynardrealty.com
Headmaster’s
Corner
by
Steve Cummings
READING IS THE KEY
- You’ve probably seen the
bumper sticker that says, “If
you can read this, thank a
teacher.” How very true.
This week at ACS, we are
bringing the fun to learning as
we host our annual “Reading
Under The Stars” extravagan
za. We will give parents an
overview of our Accelerated
Reading Program, while our
elementary students read books
in a unique setting modeled af
ter a starry night. They even
get to wear their p.j.’s!
At ACS, we know that read
ing is the key to learning. We
begin teaching phonics in K3,
so our youngest students are
reading before they reach ele
mentary school. If you want
this type of academic founda
tion for your child, check us out.
ATHENS
CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
“Affordable Quality Education Since 1970”
K3-12TH CALL (706) 549-7586
www.athenschristian.com
Across
1. Agree
5. Aspect
9. Got bigger
13. Kuwaiti, e.g.
14. Middle Eastern sweetmeat
15. ‘The of the Ancient Marinef
16. Single-stranded macromole
cule (2 wds)
19. Spanish title for married women
20. Contents of some cartridges
21. Knowing, as a secret (2 wds)
22. “Cogito sum”
23. Rate per hundred parts
27. Like young Abe Lincoln
31. Accumulate
32. Criticize, slangily
33. Soon, to a bard
34. Ballpoint, e.g.
35. Chutzpah
37. “ bad!”
38. Length x width, for a rectangle
40. Drink from a dish
41. Do watercolors
43. Cleaning cabinet supplies
44. Vocal expressions
47. Quaker’s “you”
49. Legal prefix
50. Chocolate substitute
52. Spanish nobleman
55. Sanctuary in another country 42. Shrink
to avoid persecution (2 wds) 45. Final words
58. Cross
59. Gillette product
60. Arid
61. Fencing sword
62. Remnant
63. Makeup, e.g.
3. Honey
4. African American Vernacular
English
5. Empty
6. Misfortunes
7. “The Three Faces of ”
8. Female restaurant server
9. Rolled oats with dried fruit
and nuts
10. Houston university
11. Arabic for “commander”
12. Lent’s start, e.g.: Abbr.
14. Second largest of the
Great Lakes
17. Fifth canonical hour
18. Minor player
22. Auspices
23. Kind of cross
24. File
25. Hindu queen
26. Accommodate
28. Bit of high jinks
29. Who “ever loved you more
than I,” in song (2 wds)
30. Comb stoppers
35. North American songbird
36. Miles per hour, e.g.
39. With a leg on each side
41. Monetary unit of Serbia
CUSTOM
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1
2
3
4
13
16
19
Down
1. Bump
2. Western blue flag, e.g.
46. “M*A*S*H” role
48. All the rage
50. Chicken enclosure
51. _vera
52. Confusion
53. Delight
54. “One of ” (Willa Cather novel)
55. Grand (“Evangeline” setting)
56. “Wheels”
57. Big Apple attraction, with “the”
23
24
25
31
34
38
3^
43
50
51
55
58
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