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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. 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