About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2021)
Wednesday, December 15,2021 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A BOE approves school calendars, meeting schedule for next year By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com At the Dec. 7 meeting of the Dawson County Board of Education, board members voted to approve the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school calendars, as well as the 2022 meeting schedule for the school board meetings. Board members were pre sented with and approved both the 2022-23 and the 2023-24 school calendars. According to Superintendent Damon Gibbs, a lot of work and input goes into making the proposed school calendar every year. “There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into the school calendars and that work is put in by a lot of folks, so I want to just thank our governance teams that played a role in that and the work that they do in going back to their schools and get ting information from other staff members,” Gibbs said. “Our teacher forum, our par ent cabinet — there’s just a ton of groups that put influ ence into this.” Gibbs said that the 2022-23 school year calendar is very similar to past years, with a few small tweaks and changes as requested and discussed with school administrators, teachers and parents. “We’ve got positive feed back from all the groups involved that they wanted to make some small changes to the calendar in the next two years but nothing that seemed like a tremendous change; at the end of the day we go to school 180 days and our staff work 190 days,” Gibbs said. “The more breaks you put in, the earlier you have to start and the later you have to get out, so to start in August and end before Memorial Day there’s limits on what you can do.” According to Gibbs, the changes included on the 2022-23 calendar from previ ous years will include the addition of a flex planning day, two early release days in October to allow for parent conferences, and moving the school system’s fall break all to the same week. The first day of school in 2022 will be on Friday Aug. 5. To view the full 2022-23 school calendar, go to https:// dawsoncountyschools.org/ events/2022-2023_school_ calendar. Board members also approved the board meeting schedule for 2022. The sched ule will be similar to previous years, with a work session on the first Tuesday of each month and a board meeting on the second Tuesday. The months of April, June, July and December will each only have one meeting. Gibbs noted that, unlike previous board meeting schedules, both the work ses sions and the board meetings will be held at 5 p.m. starting in February, rather than the work sessions at 5 p.m. and the board meetings at 6 p.m. as they have been in the past. The January meetings will remain at the times previously approved as part of the board’s current meeting schedule. The board unanimously approved the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school calendars and the 2022 meeting calendar, with board members Barry Slaton and Karen Armstrong absent. “Shop with a Cop” gets generous boost from community partners by Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com Several community groups recently worked together to bless the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office’s “Shop with a Cop” pro gram with a bountiful donation. The sheriff’s office received a $10,000 check from members of the Chestatee community last Thursday, Dec. 9. The gift came from the com bined generosity of the Chestatee Golf Association Members, Chestatee Homeowners Association Members, Chestatee Men’s Bible Study Members, Bamboo Car Wash and “several other individuals with a heart for children,” according to Dawson County Sheriff Jeff Johnson. DCSO’s “Shop with a Cop” program lets children who other wise would not be able to pur chase Christmas presents for themselves and/or family mem bers have that chance. When chil dren go to stores to purchase gifts, officers go with them to help budget. Sheriff Johnson praised locals’ care and desire to serve others. “We deeply appreciate each and everyone who so selflessly supports our sheriff’s office pro grams, year in and year out,” he said. “Whenever there is a need, our community rises to the chal lenge and ensures that those needs are met and in most cases, exceeded.” On Dec. 9, mul tiple Chestatee community groups and individuals pre sented a $10,000 check to the Dawson County Sheriff's Office for its annual"Shop with a Cop" program. Photo submitted toDCN FROM 1A Fun Night benefit from a special needs program. “We had a conversation with our pastor, Father Brian Higgins, who grew up in a large family with a special needs sister so he’s really got a heart for special needs programs,” Anne Mancini said. “In the meantime Tony and I started doing a lot of research and talking to about a dozen other Catholic Churches throughout Greater Atlanta.” Tony Mancini said that they learned a lot about other churches and how they handle having groups for those with special needs, and they were even invited to go over to Saint Catherine of Siena in Kennesaw to celebrate their twentieth year of having their special needs program. They then met with their pastor to present him with all of their research, and he was all in on the idea. “He made a number of introductions, pulpit announcements, put it in our newsletter, our commu nity flyers, things like that,” Tony Mancini said. “We had a fair where people could sign up for aposto- lates, so we put ours togeth er and the response was overwhelming.” The newly formed group, named the Special Needs Apostolate or SNA, saw about 20 people signed up initially and now consists of a core group of about 16 people, all of whom have a deep interest in seeing the program succeed. Anne Mancini said that one of the things that came out of researching other churches was the discovery that many other groups hold family fun nights, so they decided to hold their own. “Family fun night is done in different increments; some do it quarterly and do it with themes, others do it less frequently, but the idea is that families of special needs can come together and have a great time with crafts, socializing, music, dancing and a nice meal,” Anne Mancini said. “The thing that we really loved about it is that it isn’t just about Catholic families; it’s about including the com munity wherever this church is located, so it doesn’t matter whether you have a faith foundation or not, it’s reaching out into the community and inviting others — and we loved that idea of inclusivity.” Over several months, a committee met to organize the family fun night, which officially took place on Saturday Dec. 4. Tony Mancini said that about 50 people were present, out of which about 12 or 13 had special needs themselves. Attendees made crafts, danced and ate together, and because the family fun night was Christmas themed Santa even made a special appearance. According to Tony Mancini, the happiness on the attendees’ faces made all of the work put into the evening more than worth it. “When you put those kids out there on the dance floor, the smiles you could see were just unbelievable,” Tony Mancini said. ‘We had kids with disabilities dancing together and just having a great time; we’ve gotten notes back from all of the parents that were there that they all just had a great time.” Some of the members of the church’s Fife Teen group were there to help with the craft tables, and several of the church’s Knights of Columbus helped with food, so putting on the event was a true team effort by those who go to the church. “We have a saying in our church that we are family,” Tony Mancini said. “We’ve lived in a number of states throughout our careers and attended a number of Catholic churches, and this one really does have that feeling of family because people really work together very well.” Included among the attendees were four families who aren’t members of Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church, but rather came from other parishes. Tony Mancini said that the goal isn’t just to provide a program and family fun nights for those within the church, but those outside of its walls too. “This is not going to be a Catholic event, this is going to be open to the communi ty,” Tony Mancini said. “This is for anyone who has a disabled child or loved one; while most of the peo ple there were children we did have a few young adults in their 20s too and that age group is welcome to come too.” Anne Mancini said that, as the parents of a special needs child, she and her hus band understand first-hand how important the commu nity is. After Saturday’s event, she said that a sign of success was seeing the attendees form friendships and exchange contact infor mation to allow them to reach out to one another out side of the SNA events. “We’re all trying to find other families that are like us that understand the challeng es, and really building a sup port network, and that’s important in every commu nity,” Anne Mancini said. “We’re a small community up here in Dawson County, so the kids are out there but the families don’t know that this is here, so to see those playdates being formed and exchange of phone num bers, that signals success for us for that evening.” Moving forward, the SNA is planning to install a senso ry room in the church and hopes to hold family fun night events quarterly to begin with. Events are free EARLY DEADLINES FOR CHRISTMAS/ NEW YEAR’S DAY Because of the upcoming holidays, Dawson County News will alter its advertising and legals deadline as follows: Retail Display Ads Publication Date Deadline Weekday Edition 12/29 Wednesday, 12/22,3:00pm Weekday Edition 1/05 Wednesday, 12/29,3:00pm Classified Line Ads and Legals Publication Date Deadline Weekday Edition 12/29 Wednesday, 12/22, Noon Weekday Edition 1/05 Wednesday, 12/29, Noon Obituaries Publication Date Deadline Weekday Edition 12/29 Monday, 12/27, Noon Weekday Edition 1/05 Monday, 1/03, Noon DawsonCountyNews DawsonNews ■com Will be CLOSED Friday, December 24 & 31 in observance of the holidays. and open to any community member to attend. “Anybody with disabili ties has trouble making friends, so this is an environ ment where they can be with people like them,” Tony Mancini said. “There’s no judgements — it’s just a good fun night, nice food and friendship.” Tony and Anne Mancini said that they will announce future family fun nights as they are created, and that anyone who is interested in coming is more than wel come. For more information or further questions, contact Tony Mancini at 770-403- 4580 or by emailing sna@ ctrcc.net. Photos courtesy of Tony Mancini Local families attended Family Fun Night held by the new Special Needs Apostolate at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Dawson County. DRESSES TOPS B g^rWEATERS ACCESSORIES CL T W '' *Plf t i* SKIRTS LACE BOXERS - THONGS MATCHING SETS LACE CAMISOLES CROPPED TANKS RACERBACK TANKS LOUNGE PANTS LOUNGE SHIRTS T CHEMISES CHECK OUT OUR SELECTION OF MEN’S UNDERWEAR FOXERS Happy Holidays from Your Friends at FOXERS.COM COME VISIT US AT OUR RETAIL STORE 124 STORAGE WAY, SUITE 100 DAWSONVILLE (Behind Racetrack On GA 400) 757.214.9225 STORE HOURS WED - SAT 11AM - 5PM SALES CODE: FOXERS 15
