About Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2017)
Your official newspaper serving Greene, Morgan and Putnam counties in Georgia’s Lake Country | ivww.LakeOconeeNews.us VOL. 19 NO. 15 G FRIDAY APRIL 14 2017 75 CENTS Mark Engel/Staff The Georgia Department of Education says that improvements at Greensboro Elementary School merit its removal from the state's Focus list for underperforming schools. Two schools taken off BOE drills down in key areas low performance list Mark Engel engel@lakeoconeenews.us Parents of students at Greene County High School and Greens boro Elementary School got some good news last week. The Georgia Department of Education removed GCHS and GES from lists of the state’s lowest performing schools. Seventy-two other schools in the state also improved enough to be taken off the lists. “Today is a day to celebrate,” said Greene County School Superin tendent Dr. Chris Houston. “Our schools have worked hard over the past few years to make the im provements needed in order to be removed from both the Focus and Priority Schools lists.” Greensboro Elementary School was on the Focus list which rep- SEE SCHOOLS » A3 Mark Engel engel@lakeoconeenews.us Greene County School Su perintendent Chris Houston presented 21 “Areas of Opportu nity” for improving the county school system at the Board of Education work session on April 6. It’s a daunting list that ranges from achievement expectations and improvements to atten dance, teacher-led volunteer programs and climate and culture at the schools. Of those 21, Houston iden tified nine key areas where programs are already in place and added a few comments about each of them. Board chairman Mike Lynch requested that Houston set a schedule where at each of the remaining meetings this year, the board could closely examine one of the issues to learn more about what is being done. “We have a policy” in each of those areas, Lynch said, “and we SEEBOE»A3 LAKE COUNTRY Quake rattles nearby Lynn Hobbs lynn@lakeoconeenews.us In addition to hearing wind, thunder and rain, a few people living in Putnam County also felt the tremor of one or two earthquakes Wednesday, April 5. According to U.S. Geo logical Survey, two quakes measuring 2.5 and 2.7 on the Richter scale happened at 9:38 p.m. and 9:49 p.m. that evening in Hancock County. “It shook our whole house and woke up my wife,” said Corey Long, who lives in Putnam, just before the Hancock County line. Watching Netflix in his living room when it happened, Long said he thought a tornado had touched down nearby. “But when I looked outside, there was no wind, so I just thought it must have been loud thunder,” he said. “The next day, when I saw (on social media) it was an earth quake, I couldn’t believe it.” SEE QUAKE » A10 index Calendar B5 Churches B8 Classifieds D3 Community B1 Obituaries A8 Opinions A4 Recipes D1 Sports C1 Sports C1 FRIDAY 82/58 Mostly Sunny WEATHER »D6 0 94922 87855 7 Published by Smith Communications Inc. MORGAN COUNTY T. Michael Stone/Staff Morgan County school board chairman Nelson Hale and Superintendent Dr. James Woodard along with the rest of the board recognized Morgan County High School's outstanding wrestling team, including (l-r) Coach Dusty Sidwell, Jody McAlister, Antonio Robinson, Sean McElligot, Ladarius Andrews, Michael Rhodes, Robert Gibbs and head wrestling coach John Robbins.. Morgan BOE hears some good news T. Michael Stone michael@lakeoconeenews.us The Morgan County Board of Ed ucation got a chance to recognize the efforts of some special people during last Monday night’s board meeting. First the board heard from Kelly Freyer of the Episopal Church of the Advent. Freyer and volunteers from several other churches have a suc cessful program that helps students with meals as part of the Panda Packs and Saturday Sacks initiative. ‘We’re grateful to be able to do this and have the support of the school system,” Freyer said. The program has attracted more than 40 volunteers and delivers more than 130 bags each week. Next, the board recognized the Morgan County High School Junior Air Force ROTC members who continue to set new records for com munity service, including Jayson SEE MORGAN » A2 MORGAN COUNTY Disgruntled Madison citizen voices grievances at city council meeting Katherine Klimt katherine@lakeoconeenew.us During Monday evening’s city council meeting, Madison resident and a former state senator from DeKalb County, George Warren, took to the floor to express his dis satisfaction with recent decisions made by the local government re garding his efforts to redraw one of his property lines. In particular, he critiqued city planning director Monica Callahan, and what he sees as her undue influence in zoning or dinance decisions. 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