Newspaper Page Text
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.
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