About The Forest-blade. (Swainsboro, Ga.) 1996-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2021)
2A The Forest-Blade • ummiEmaniielConntyLive.com • Swainsboro, Georgia • February 17, 2021 Dr. Judy's retirement approved at recent BOE meeting The Emanuel County Board of Education con vened Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Swainsboro High School cafeteria, where the board approved the retirements of Superintendent Dr. Kevin A. Judy and Assistant Superintendent Toni Terwilliger. The board also approved the employment, retirement and res ignation of several certified and classified employees during executive session, listed below. The meeting began with Chairman Mason Henry welcoming all in attendance before delivering the night's invocation. Board member Johnny Parker fol lowed with leading in the Pledge of Allegiance before the approval of the night's agenda being made. Five items for discussion listed on the consent agen da were unanimously approved by board members. The five items included minutes from the Jan. 12, 2021 board meeting, financial reports, 2020/2021 fund raisers, surplus materials and extracurricular activity approval. Dr. Kevin A. Judy announced the following: • Budget meetings with administrative staff and departments have recently begun. • A board/budget retreat has been set for 5:30 p.m. March 23 to discuss Emanuel County Schools' budgets, as well as the approval of new positions needed to be filled to ensure that the school system has the best can didates possible. • Partnership with Ecovase, a company who per forms static spraying of all Emanuel County School facilities and buses to help prevent Covid and other bacteria and viruses. Dr. Judy informed the Board that • Drive-thru Service • Free In-Town Delivery • Accepts All Insurance • Friendly Knowledgable Staff • Free Health Screens 3hop Ripe PHARMACY & Offs Mon - Fri 8:30 -6-Sat 8:30 -12• Closed Sun 605 W Main St • Swainsboro 478.237.7032 Here for your convenience Full Service Pharmacy PRESIDENTS’ DAY all buses and schools were sprayed on Feb. 2 and will be done again in April. • Dr. Judy thanked Southeastern Technical College for agreeing to allow the school system to utilize the parking lot next to the city auditorium for bus training purposes. • Dr. Judy announced that he and Jansen Ware have been working with the staff of Swainsboro Middle School on renovations planned for the summer. He further stated that classrooms and hallways will receive new paint, lights, flooring and ceiling tiles, and that redesigning of the office and ISS area will take place to utilize wasted space in the area. Enclosing showers in the school's PE area was also discussed since they are no longer used and can provide additional storage for athletics and PE classes. • Renovations have been completed in the Swainsboro High School Culinary Arts Tab. Dr. Judy gave board members a tour of the area following the night's meeting to highlight the phenomenal renovations and discussed the excitement for school students to begin utilizing the new area. •Dr. Judy then went over first semester information packets prepared by Kinvolved, a two-way communi cation module used by the school system for commu nication between parents, teachers and students. This communication system allows parents to respond back. It has the capability of translating up to 85 different languages and helps track attendance within the school district. Dr. Judy pointed out the breakdown by schools of their usage. A total of 290,598 messages have been exchanged so far this school year. Positive messages sent to parents totaled 13,458, which averages to 65 messages per student. This system is safety-secured and meets all requirements of FERPA. As an overview, school administrators can also see all messages sent between a parent and teacher. Inappropriate messages are forwarded to the superintendent. The school sys tem wants to continue its usage. •Dr. Judy thanked the administrative staff of Swainsboro High for hosting the night's meeting and for their hard work this year with keeping students and the school safe. In reference to the board's executive session, the fol lowing approvals for employment, resignations, and retirements were discussed: •Board members approved the employment for clas sified employees Angel Beasley, paraprofessional; and Sandra Allen and Togan Gay, substitute teachers. •The board approved the resignation of certified employees Elizabeth DeVane and Donna Godowns, teachers. •Board members approved the resignation of classi fied employees Susan Brinson, paraprofessional; and Tiffany Bush, SFS assistant. • The boarda approved the retirement of certified employees Teresa Burke, human resource director; Maribeth Clark, principal; Dr. Kevin A. Judy, super intendent; Toni Terwilliger, assistant superintendent; Elaina Wilkes, psychologist; and Teresa Bright, Sharon Edenfield, Mary Hundley, Regina Paul, Connie Proctor, Cynthia H. Riner, Carrie Rowland, Paula Scott, Corbin Michael Williams, and Deborah Williams, teachers. •Board members approved the retirement of classi fied employees Diane Morris, bookkeeper; and Carolyn Williams, paraprofessional. Arrest made in On Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, investigators with the Emanuel County Sheriff's Office arrested Ethan Jase Strickland, 21, of Lyons, in con nection with the theft of two stop signs with solar-powered lights. Warrants for the arrest are outstanding for Cody Shane Williams, 28, of Cobbtown, also connect ed to the theft. The stop signs were reported stolen from Leman Road on Dec. 22, 2020. Investigators Matt Lamb and Ashley Denney uncovered infor mation leading to the identities of Strickland and Williams. They began building their case, which culminated in arrest warrants being issued. Strickland is STRICKLAND charged with two counts of Theft by Taking and two counts of Criminal Interference with Government Property. Williams' outstanding warrants are for the same charges. Sheriff Brewer com mended Lamb and Denney for their inves tigative skills in a case with minimal informa tion initially available. stop sign theft STOP SIGN AND SOLAR-POWERED LIGHT Mattress Sale January 18th - February 20th >4 SHS Tigers ready... (From front page) Swainsboro came out shooting hot as Tyler Kelly lit up the Yellow Jackets for 10 points in the opening quarter. Fred Seabrough put in 9 points in the 2 nd quar ter to give Swainsboro a 37-28 lead at halftime. Jeff Davis did a good job of making shots and hanging around, even closing the gap to 4 points in the final period as their bench cheered on the visitors. However, Swainsboro just had too much fire power and salted the game away for a com fortable win. Kelly led all scorers with 20 points while Seabrough and Demonte Smith put in 16 points each. Heading into the playoffs, Swainsboro will need to ramp up the energy and play with more intensity. "We got to handle the ball better down the stretch," said Hobbs when asked about what his team needed to do better with the postsea son set to begin. "We also need to make our free throws if we are go ing to make a (playoff) run!" Swainsboro won the title last year with a 30-2 record and over whelmed teams defen sively. The Tigers have the personnel on hand to squeeze teams into submission and this is the time of year to let it all loose. The 'Den' will be rocking as the play offs start this weekend and the Tigers defend their region crown and get set to defend their state championship in the state playoffs just around the corner. The Lady Tigers beat Jeff Davis and then won a coin toss to take the #4 region seed. Swains boro Lady Tigers host ed Vidalia this week on Tuesday and will need a win to advance to play East Laurens on Thursday. Swainsboro dominated Jeff Davis 76-27. Serah Kelly had 20 points, Tanyia Wil liams had 18 points, and Jayden Wynn had 17 points. Swainsboro is 6-6 in the region and 8-8 overall. The Forest-Blade The Forest-Blade is pub lished weekly by Eman uel County Newspapers, Inc., 416 W. Moring Street, Swainsboro, GA. $1.00 per copy, $38 per year in-county and $49 per year out-of-county. POSTMASTER: Send POD Form 3579 to Eman uel County Newspapers, Inc., P.O. Box 938, Swains boro, GA 30401. Telephone 478.237.9971. Periodical Postage paid at Swainsboro, GA 30401. (USPS 204-840)
