About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 2021)
Meet world champion barrel racer Lily Verhoven. SPORTS, IB City Council to recognize ‘Lloyd Seay Day’, inside, sa DawsonCountyNews WEDNESDAY I AUGUST 25, 2021 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00 Schools update COVID-19 protocol Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com The Dawson County School System will be resuming con tact tracing within the class room, according to an official statement from Dawson County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Damon Gibbs. “We will notify the parent or guardian of any student who has been directly exposed to a posi tive COVID case (within six feet for 15 minutes or longer),” Gibbs said in the written statement. As of the end of the school day on Monday, Aug. 23, there are 67 students and 13 staff members who have reported positive cases of COVID-19 throughout all seven schools, just for one day. Any symptomatic children must stay at home. If a parent receives a letter from the school system notifying them that their child has been exposed to a positive case of COVID-19, the parent may choose to self-quarantine their child. If so, they must notify the school system and the stu dent will access their school materials and assignments through Schoology. The school will also go back to reporting daily COVID-19 statistics rather than weekly sta tistics. Additional strategies and policies may be added and can be found on the district’s web site. “When we closed out the 2020-2021 school year in May, we felt optimistic that the end of the pandemic was in sight,” Gibbs said in the written state ment. “But unfortunately, that is not the case.” DCMS expands art, other elective programs with new renovations ‘A beacon for Christ’ Jacob Smith Dawson County News People gather for the ribbon cutting of theTree of Life Learning Center onThursday, Aug. 19. Dawsonville United Methodist cuts ribbon on new learning center Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com The Dawsonville United Methodist Church officially opened their new day school program, Tree of Life Learning Center, by cutting the Dawson County Chamber of Commerce ribbon the morning of Thursday, Aug. 19. “The ministry had any idea to be a light and a beacon for Christ here,” DUMC pastor Sean Smith said. “Our focus has been to focus on the young er families in our area. We just wanted to get the day school going to meet them right where they are at.” Smith’s daughter, Christina Smith, will primarily run the day school for children ages two through six. Their doors will open officially on Aug. 30. Classes will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. Without any external advertisement, four students are already enrolled at Tree of Life. “My passion was to have my own program and work with children in ministry,” Christina Smith said. “Every child has a gift and we’re going to let them discover that gift here.” When first encountered with the idea, Smith did not know how funding for the day school would come about. A stranger showed up with a check for $25,000 and then a grant from the city of Dawsonville for $20,000 brought thday school the funding they needed, according to Smith. A music teacher and a coach from Playball, an international youth sports program, will come throughout the week to encourage students to take up different hobbies. The phrase, Tree of Life, is men tioned in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and Revelation, the last book of the Bible. That was important to both Sean and Christina when determining the name of the day school. Eventually, Smith said she would like to be able to run a youth summer program out of the day school, but for now, she “cannot wait” for the day school to officially start. By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com Dawson County Middle School started the 2021-22 school year with a number of new renovations and improvements, allowing administrators to expand the number of art, music and other elective classes available to the students. According to DCMS Principal Kim White, the back wing of the middle school was previously used for storage and didn’t house any classrooms. With new renovations completed over the summer, students will go back to school with a slew of new options for elective, or “connections” classes. “I’m so blessed that the board and Dr. Gibbs has given us the opportunity to finish the new area to give our students opportuni ties,” White said. “Without the new wing, our building was not set up to meet the needs of twenty-first century learners, so it’s state-of- the-art.” Additions include larger chorus and band rooms, an engineering and technology room, and a computer lab where students can learn computer coding and programming. In mov ing classes like chorus and band into the new wing, the middle school will also be expand ing the athletic department with a new weight room and wrestling room. All of the new classes are aimed at offer ing students more options for connections, to help find what each student is passionate about before they move up into junior high and high school. “The purpose of this middle school is so that we can create a connection between us all the way to the high school with the path ways,” White said. “Our job is to really start laying a foundation for the pathways so that by the time they get to the high school and See DCMS 12A NGHS patients being treated in ambulances as delta cases surge Conner Evans DCN Regional Staff As COVID-19 continues to surge, the Northeast Georgia Health System is near capacity and some patients have had to wait in ambulances for treat ment. Since the latest wave of COVID-19 cases and hospital izations started in late July, NGHS has had to treat some patients while they were still in their ambulances waiting for a bed, said Beth Downs, a spokeswoman for NGHS. At one point Wednesday, Aug. 18, there were nine ambulances in the bay waiting to deliver patients, Downs said. “The entire hospital system is extremely full at all levels of care right now,” according to a statement from Dr. John Delzell, the health system’s incident commander. “We are near capacity for both medical/ surgical beds and ICU beds, and our Incident Command leaders are working hard to stay ahead of the community’s level of need.” Emergency beds have been intermittently full with dozens of patients waiting on a hospital bed, Delzell wrote. “We have put tents back up on our Gainesville and Braselton campuses to help See COVID 14A 0 9 0 9 9 4 Inside Volume 7, Number 31 © 2021, Dawson County News Dawsonville, Georgia Church Events 2A Classifieds 8B Dear Abby 6B Deaths 2A Legals 9B Opinion 9A Sports 1B 5A Cody Hall named to UGAs £ 40 under 40’ list 6A McGriff leaving position at Chamber of Commerce GALLBLADDER CANCF 1 TESTICULAR CANCEk -mrnnm afo ovarian cancer UtUKblA U COLON CANCER __ _ _ ____ LIVER CANCER TDI ICTtn MELANOMA B l\UU I LU PANCREATIC CANCER CVDEDTC CRD lung cancer LArblAlO rUl\ BREASTCANCE^^i [ALL CANCER TYPES-Bit PROSTATE C COLORECTi i INH NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL CANCER INSTITUTE ■•built to be at 0311913 Visit builttobeatcancer.com to learn more.
