4A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, December 28,2022
Ventura named Teacher of the
Year at Robinson Elementary
Photo courtesy of Shelby Ventura
Shelby Ventura, right, has been selected as
Robinson Elementary School's 2022-23 teacher
of the year.
Law would clarify
future for charter
school based in Ga
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
During her senior year of
high school, Shelby
Ventura decided to take a
teaching pathway class as a
way to get off campus and
spend some time with the
children in her district’s
elementary schools instead
of in the classroom. Little
did she know that this deci
sion would completely
change her life and lead her
to realize her calling to
become a teacher.
Now the special educa
tion lead teacher at
Robinson Elementary
School, Ventura is in her
second year teaching at the
school and has been select
ed as Robinson’s 2022-23
teacher of the year.
Upon graduating high
school, Ventura went to the
University of North
Georgia and participated in
a dual program offered by
the college to earn her
bachelor’s degree in both
general education and spe
cial education. During a
spring break trip to Florida
in her senior year of col
lege, she fell in love with
the area and realized the
need for teachers, so after
receiving her degree she
moved down to teach in
Pinellas County.
Though she loved teach
ing in Florida, Ventura said
that she always felt called
to come back to Georgia,
so she moved back to teach
in Gwinnett County for
about three years. But in
the back of her mind, she
said, she always longed to
return to Robinson, where
she had student taught sev
eral years before.
“I always just had
Robinson in my heart —
I’m from up here, so after
about three years of teach
ing in Gwinnett I moved
back here and interviewed
here,” Ventura said. “I was
really nervous but everyone
was still here and they
remembered me. I think
Florida and Gwinnett gave
me a lot of perspective but
coming back here is like
coming back home.”
This year, Ventura is
serving as the lead teacher
of Robinson’s special edu
cation team, teaching pre
school, first and second
graders, and loving every
thing about it.
“Every day is different,
and every day those kids
have a different need,”
Ventura said. “I just love it;
I love giving anybody what
they need, making people
feel good about them
selves, proving people
wrong about how they feel
Bowen Center
announces
2022 Raffle
Quilt winner
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
The Bowen Center for
the Arts has officially
announced this year’s
winner of the center’s
annual quilt raffle.
This year’s winner is
Carin Ittner, the art center
announced in a press
release. Ittner won the raf
fle quilt, which was hand
made by over 45 quilters
from the Heart in Hand
about themselves and mak
ing them realize what
they’re capable of.”
Ventura said that some of
her favorite things about
teaching are creating a safe,
family space for her stu
dents to learn and grow in
and seeing the children’s
faces when they accom
plish a goal, especially a
goal they may not have
thought they’d reach.
“When kids start to grow
their confidence it makes
me feel good; I love teach
ing when you have any kid
get better at something
they’re struggling with,
whether that’s behavior,
reading, anything,” Ventura
said. “My favorite thing to
tell kids every year is ‘if
you have a good attitude
and you work hard you will
be fine and you’re going to
get better at anything that
you’re struggling with’.”
In her classroom,
Ventura teaches by two
mottos: “be nice and work
hard” and “make it a great
day or not — the choice is
yours”.
“Especially being a kid,
not a lot of things are in
your control, but your per
spective and how you see
things is in your control,”
Ventura said. “I went to
school in Hall County and
our principal used to say
that every day; when I was
a teenager I didn’t think it
was true but now I see how
true it is.”
Ventura was announced
as the 2022-23 teacher of
the year for Robinson dur
ing a yearbook assembly in
May, and she said that she
could not have been more
surprised to learn that she
Quilt Guild.
“Carin Ittner of
Dawsonville is now the
proud owner of a beauti
ful queen/king size quilt
with a unique hand-sewn
border applique and
designer Kaffe Fausett
fabric titled Shoo Fly
Garden,” the release said.
Ittnner is also a mem
ber of the Quilt Guild.
Each year, members of
the guild produce a quilt
to raffle off, and proceeds
from the raffle benefit the
Bowen. They are current
ly hard at work creating
the 2023 raffle quilt,
which should be
announced sometime in
the late spring, as well as
had been selected for the
honor.
“Ms. Arnette was the
principal then and she had
all the kids in the gym and
said ‘I’m going to start
describing the teacher of
the year’ and wanted all the
kids to point at who they
thought it was,” Ventura
said. “She announced the
staff member of the year
first and I was crying from
that and then she started
describing the teacher... I
thought I knew who it was
and was really excited for
them.”
But when Arnette started
talking about how the
teacher of the year has a
dog named Frank who she
loves to talk about with her
kids, Ventura realized that
her initial guess of who it
was might not be correct
after all. As Arnette fin
ished describing the teacher
of the year, Ventura’s entire
family walked out onto the
stage and she finally real
ized who Arnette was real
ly describing.
“I was so shocked and
very surprised,” Ventura
said. “That was really spe
cial to me that my peers
would think that highly of
me, and I liked that my par
ents got to see too because
I’m the first kid in my fam
ily who’s gone to college
and graduated; everything I
do I always say to my par
ents ‘it’s because you gave
me this opportunities’ so
having them there too was
so special.”
She said that, after years
teaching outside of
Dawson, she couldn’t be
happier to have come back
home and being selected as
planning workshops to
create projects for several
local outreaches they par
ticipate in.
For more information
Robinson’s teacher of the
year is just the icing on the
cake.
“I’m definitely here to
stay; I’ve loved everywhere
I ever worked but when I
thought about ‘I’m going to
start settling down soon;
where would I want my
kids to grow up’, this is
where I want my kids to
grow up,” Ventura said.
“It’s very family-oriented,
people here truly care
about each other, and
Dawson County truly pri
oritizes people; I feel so
respected and loved by my
admin, parents, other teach
ers and it’s just like a big
family.”
She added that she uses
herself and her own child
hood as an example for her
students often, so her stu
dents seeing her achieve
the title of teacher of the
year is an encouragement
for them too.
“I always talk to my kids
about how I struggled as a
kid with my behavior so it
kind of helped my whole
thing of ‘if you work really
hard and you have a good
attitude you’ll get where
you want to go’,” Ventura
said.
Using herself as an
example and being person
al with her students is just
one of the many ways
Ventura said she makes her
classroom feel like one big,
safe family environment
where her students can
thrive.
“All kids just want to be
heard and just want to be
loved, and if you truly love
them you can get them to
do anything — they want
to make their parents proud
and they want to make their
teachers proud,” Ventura
said. “You do so much all
day and you don’t realize
until later how that affected
them.”
Ventura said that she
believes that there are
many teachers who are
more deserving than her for
the honor, but that she
couldn’t be more grateful
to her fellow teachers who
selected her to represent
their school as the teacher
of the year.
“Nobody who teaches
does it for the recognition;
it’s definitely a calling and
it’s definitely something
that I believe the Ford calls
you to do,” Ventura said.
“All teachers pour their
heart and soul; it’s a very
time-consuming job but it’s
so worth it. There are so
many other teachers that
deserve to be the teacher of
the year so I don’t feel like
I deserve it, but I do appre
ciate it.”
about the Bowen and its
events, including updates
on when next year’s raffle
quilt will be announced,
go to www.bowenarts.org.
By Julia Hansen
jhansen@dawsonnews.com
Officials with north
Georgia-based Mountain
Education Charter High
School fear that a new
state education law requir
ing local authorization of
charter institutions could
come directly at the cost
of their students.
The regional institution
is currently facing dis-
solvement at the end of
June 2023 if new legisla
tion is not passed, said
MECHS Director of
Community Outreach
Roger Fitzpatrick.
State legislators are
working on a bill to reme
dy the situation and intend
to introduce it early next
year, said Ga. House
District 9 Rep. and educa
tion committee member
Will Wade.
“Because there are
schools that aren’t clear on
what that [local authoriza
tion] process looks like,
Rep. Erwin and myself are
working on legislation for
Mountain Ed. to continue
while working with the
state Department of
Education,” Wade said
during a Dec. 21 interview.
Essentially, the legisla
tion would allow for
MECHS to continue, the
state representative said.
“I think that Mountain
Ed. will continue working
to serve families and stu
dents [who will] continue
to receive the same educa
tional outcomes that
they’ve received for 30
years,” Wade added.
School impact
Started in 1993,
MECHS is a non-tradi-
tional evening high school
that offers students mas
tery or work-at-your-own-
pace style classes. Over
2,700 students attend the
charter school’s campuses
across 18 northern
Georgia counties, includ
ing Dawson and its neigh
boring counties. In 2022,
479 students graduated
from MECHS.
During a Dec. 12 inter-
view, Fitzpatrick
explained that the charter
school has been able to
help students who may
struggle in the standard
high school setting gradu
ate and “be extremely suc
cessful.” Many of the stu
dents may have to work
during the day or tend to
kids of their own, he said.
High school diplomas
can make a big difference
when it comes to lifetime
salary earnings-like
$200,000 to $400,000 dif
ference.
“You think about a per
son who earns that much
more over a lifetime,”
Fitzpatrick said. “They’re
paying more into the sys
tem. And not only that, if
they’re earning more,
they’ll use less [financial]
assistance from the state.”
The outreach director
noted the higher percent
age of people that are
incarcerated without a
high school diploma.
“By getting them across
that stage and helping
them finish their high
school education, it’s a
way of keeping people out
of the judicial system,”
Fitzpatrick added. “And
isn’t that the whole goal
of Georgia’s education
system...helping people
to be productive citizens?”
A path forward
Wade explained that the
current legislation allows
for local schools to come
up with a plan for cam
puses to become locally
authorized through a city
or county school system
instead of being autho
rized through the state.
After the law was
passed last year,
Fitzpatrick said he and his
colleagues realized the
potential challenges of
implementing it. A con
sultant was later hired to
work with the charter
school system and the
state Department of
Education to address their
concerns.
With MECHS’s num
ber of campuses and stu-
dent population,
Fitzpatrick said that would
be “a lot for one local sys
tem to take in” in terms of
funding, accountability
and operations.
Currently, out of the 18
collaborative school sys
tems MECHS partners
with, there hasn’t been a
local school system who
has indicated they would
authorize Mountain
Education as a local-
authorized charter school,
Fitzpatrick added.
“It’ll be minor changes
that impact adults...like
bringing the funding for
mula in line with [public]
K-12 and changes to
accountability, gover
nance and structure,”
Wade said. “There won’t
be an impact on students’
opportunities to learn in a
non-traditional setting.”
Fitzpatrick reiterated
students’ need for more
options on acquiring their
high school education.
“If the traditional model
works for you, then abso
lutely go with that,” he
said. “We’re not in a com
petition with public high
schools.”
“But if you’re strug
gling in that kind of sys
tem,” he added, “we’d
love to be your safety net
and help you finish that
education instead of you
being a high school drop
out.”
Photo courtesy of the Bowen Center for the Arts
Carin Ittner is the winner of the Bowen Center
for the Arts and Heart in Hand Quilt Guild 2022
quilt raffle.
Dawson County Humane Society
a no kill shelter
Doggie Spotlight
Meet Peck! He is timid, sweet, playful boy who is looking
for a place to call his own. Peck loves playing outside with
his kennel mates. He came in from a hoarding situation
that brought in many unsocialized dogs. As a result of his
upbringing he is timid upon first meeting him but with the
right family and patience he will become a loyal companion.
Come schedule a meet and greet to see if Peck is the perfect
fit for your family!
706-265-9160
Peck
For more information contact the 706-265-9160 | 633 Martin Rd, Dawsonville
Dawson County Humane Society Adjacent to the Rock Creek Sports Complex
Visit our RESALE SHOP & BOUTIQUE
Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. | 54 S. Lumpkin Campground Rd.
All proceeds benefits
the Humane Society
Bradley M. Maple
CPA, PC
706-216-2362
2390 Thompson Rd • Ste 100
Dawsonville
ANH Collision
Specialists
706-216-0992
103 Industrial Park Road,
Dawsonville
Dawsonville
Veterinary
Hospital
706-265-8381
