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School board briefed on many issues
By Jennifer Sami
jsami@forsythnews.com
CHATTAHOOCHEE HILLS —
Also during its retreat Thursday, the
Forsyth County Board of Education
heard from the following school
system officials:
* Director of Public
Information and
Communications Jennifer
mation and a timetable for a second
draft of the 2013-16 strategic plan.
The plan includes the board’s
as well as a learner profile and plan
for improvement. Also featured are
individual approaches for instruc
es.
The plan, which will be posted
on the system’s website Monday, is
slated to be approved next month.
FROM 1A
Officials, Jacobs added,
want to ensure UNG
graduates get the jobs
they interview for and
“not those students from
the other institutions.”
Also during the cere
mony, the university’s
ReW mascot, a
Nighthawk, was unveiled
and Sherman Day, direc
tor of the Cumming cam
pus, spoke briefly about
the local campus’ accom
plishments in its brief his
tory.
The site, off Pilgrim
Mill Road near Ga. 400,
opened in August and
began offering classes
during the fall 2012
semester.
“We kind of hung out a
sign, the building was
not quite complete last
fall, and we had almost
500 students attend,”
Day said. “And we've
increased that to where
we're quite a bit over
500 right now and we're
excited about the stu
dents we have. The sky’s
the limit for what we’re
doing here.
“The merger is going
to offer many more
opportunities for degrees
and programs and educa
tional opportunities of a
professional nature.”
Local leaders also wel
comed the new universi
ty.
Cumming Mayor H.
Ford Gravitt and Forsyth
County Commission
Chairman Pete Amos
each read proclamations
welcoming the college.
“This is something
myself and the board and
citizens of Cumming and
Forsyth County worked
on ... for many years to
try and get a campus
here in Cumming,”
Gravitt said. “Today ...
we're very proud.”
Amos added that the
county wasn’t “quite as
involved as the city ...
but we hope to be more
involved in the future.”
“It’s a great institution
and we're glad to have
you here,” he said.
Adam Baker, who is
studying business after
recently finishing an
eight-year stint in the
U.S. Navy, was among
about 100 students from
the campus at the cere
mony.
“It will definitely bring
opportunities for me and
my classmates, but also
for the e¢ity of
Cumming,” he said.
“And being a Cumming
resident, I'm looking for
ward to having more
higher education oppor
tunities up here.”
Shelby Wood, a stu
dent at the college’s main
campus, agreed.
“I live in this area and
I commute all the way up
to Dahlonega, so I
thought it would be nice
to just come here and
check it out and have the
welcoming,” she said.
“I think [the consolida
tion] is awesome ... it’s
really good to put
schools around the area
so more people can go to
a convenient location.”
FROM 1A
*Anyone who’s interested in helping
with that effort is definitely encouraged to
come to the meeting.”
The gathering will include “a healthy
breakfast” and presentations by representa
tives of the University of North Carolina’s
Gillings School of Public Health, who will
address ways to enhance the health of resi
dents in different communities.
Those presentations will be followed by
“breakout sessions,” Palmer said, on ways
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* Chief Academic Officer
Fonda Harrison and Chief
Accountability Officer Cindy
Salloum, who offered an update
on how the academics and
accountability departments are
working together.
The departments, which were
recently divided into two separate
entities, are heavily relied on by
school staff.
They help provide direction for
the fast approaching common
core standards,
* Salloum, who talked about
the benefits from nearly three
years of conducting Georgia
Assessment of Performance
School Standards visits at vari
ous schools.
The visits involve a team of
local educators who travel to a
different school in the district
for three days. While there,
they evaluate, make recommen
FROM 1A
Session
“The hospitals have come out
overwhelmingly in favor of that
because they get federal funds for
Medicaid,” Murphy said. “They
don’t want to lose that, but if we're
going to lose S3OO million by
extending that, where are we going
to get that money to make it up?”
All seven members of Forsyth’s
state legislative delegation are
Republicans. Among the new faces
is Geoff Duncan, whose House
District 26 covers the eastern half of
the county.
Duncan, a former professional
baseball player and current business
owner, said supporting job and
small business growth will be his
top priority when he’s swomn in. :
He plans to “look for ways to
allow small businesses to succeed in
the state of Georgia and continue to
look for ways for government to
move out of the way and allow for
them to be in control of their future.”
According to Duncan, “A huge
part of what I want to accomplish is
to get us back to a mentality of
where we the people are in control
of our own destiny.”
Another part of creating jobs in
the state is taxes, said District 51
Sen. Steve Gooch of Dahlonega.
“Any kind of tax reforp or eco-"
nomic development incentives to try
to recruit jobs back to Georgia is
always one of our top goals and
objectives, so we’ll be looking for
ways to make Georgia a better
atmosphere and better environment
for job creation,” he said.
Transportation funding will
remain a big issue, according tc
Gooch, especially after most of the
state’s regions voted down a pro
posed sales tax to fund infrastruc
ture improvements.
He also anticipates some form of
to improve health at the community level.
Some of those topics include grant and
funding sources, environmental planning,
creating healthier businesses and building
resilient communities to lessen the impact
of disasters.
The event will close with awards to the
21 organizations, four of which are from
Forsyth.
“It’s a whole range of things that people
have done, that they’ve put in place,” he
said. “One company had a program that
they put in place for their employees to cut
down on their weight, to take clutter off
their desks. It was just focusing on not
being wasteful and used kind of a play on
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dations for specific areas of
improvement and take back
ideas to their own schools.
The visits have been a great
tool for improvement, Slfl’:um
said, and especially helpful for
schools to get an outside per
spective on ideas for continued
development.
* Chief Human Resources
Officer Candy Norton high
lighted the state’s new teacher
evaluation system, which is
slated to take effect for the
2014-15 school year.
The system combines student
performance data, observation
and assessment surveys.
Providing a plan for
improvement to a teacher pre
viously meant something was
wrong. Under the new system,
however, all teachers will
receive information on how to
improve, regardless of their
ethics bill to come up, with more
than 80 percent of Georgians voting
to limit gifts from lobbyists.
Ethics reform will be a goal for
District 22 state Rep. Calvin Hill of
Canton, whose district includes
Forsyth’s southwestern corner. To
Hill, the measure will be less about
lobbyist money and focused more
on tax cheats.
“The price of a dinner has nothing
to do with ethics,” he said. “People
that are tax defaulters, I would like
to keep them from holding elected
office anywhere in the state.”
Hill, who previously represented
District 21, is not new to the House.
He was first elected in 2002 and
currently serves as vice chairman of
the House Appropriations
Committee.
In addition to the budget and eth
ics, Hill said he wants to “work very
_closely on gun control legislation to
allow the local school districts to set
their own policy on how they’re
going to handle gun control.”
With a background in public safe
ty, incoming District 9 Rep. Kevin
Tanner of Dawsonville said he’s
looking forward to an active role in
criminal justice legislation.
Tanner, Dawson County’s former
manager, succeeds Amos Amerson
of Dahlonega in the district, which
includes the tip of northwest
Forsyth.
“One piece of legislation that I'm
going to be introducing that F'm
drafting now is a legislation relating
to the sex offender board,” Tanner
said. “The juvenile justice code, it’s
also been in bad need of rewriting
for years and there will be major
legislation that will come forward
on that over the next few weeks ...
I'm looking forward to rolling up
my sleeves and getting started.”
District 25 state Rep. Mike
Dudgeon of south Forsyth will
devote much of his legislative activi
ty to education, something he’s pas
sionate about as a former member
the word ‘waist.””
Palmer said Thursday’s breakfast is
open to the public, but anyone interested
in attending should register in advance by
calling the District 2 Public Health Office
at (770) 535-5743 or going to www.cele
bratehealthynorthgeorgia.org. Cost is S2O.
“We're hoping that we have 100 to 200
[people], but we’re not sure since it’s a
first-time event,” Palmer said. “It’s target
ed toward people who want to do some
thing in their community to improve the
health of the residents. _
“That’s kind of who we’re trying to tar
get with it and it’s open to anyone who
would like to come.”
ratings.
Norton said the program will
provide challenges, especially
finding time for two 30-minute
and four 10-minute observa
tions of each teacher.
* Chief Technology and
Information Officer Bailey
Mitchell, who provided some
insight into the future of tech
nology for the school system.
The district boasts interac
tive whiteboards and its
Bring Your Own Technology
initiative, of which more than
53 percent of classes partici
pate.
Mitchell said tablet comput
ing could one day replace
whiteboards, much like the
“Learning” system will replace
the ANGEL learning manage
ment system and Edusoft, the
district’s assessment system in
the 2013-14 school year.
of the Forsyth County Board of
Education.
Dudgeon, who served his first
term in District 24, now represents
south Forsyth and a portion of north
Fulton.
Dudgeon said he’s working on
two bills. The first is to “increase
flexibility and accountability chang
es.”
“It is basically allowing really
good school systems to get flexibili
ty from the state mandates ... and
other schools that are not as good to
get flexibility as long as they're
working on a plan for improve
ment,” he said. “It’s really more
about lecal control.”
Dudgeon said the new plan would
replace the Investing in Education
Excellence, or IE2, contract that
Forsyth County holds, resulting in
fewer hoops for high-achieving sys
tems to jump through.
His other bill would renew the
angel investor tax credit, which he
said would continue to encourage
people to invest in high-technology
start-up companies to promote tech
nology growth in Georgia.
“It’s a very small tax credit, rela
tively speaking, with a huge return
for start-up companies in creating
jobs,” Dudgeon said.
Hamilton, who is shifting from
District 23 to 24, will continue serv
ing an area that includes Cumming
and the county’s center.
He’s got a couple of bills he
hopes will pass this session, includ
ing one to offer protection for park
rangers and another based on the
recent sheriff’s election in Forsyth.
“I plan on trying to fix that so the
sheriff has similar, if not the same
qualification requirements as all the
positions,” Hamilton said. “We’ve
got to clean that up.”
Other activity he’s expecting this
session include clean-up measures
on previous bills, including illegal
immigration and the change in the
ad valorem tax.
If you're going
District 2 Public Health will hold
its first Celebrate Healthy North
Georgia breakfast from 8:30 a.m.
to noon Thursday at the Lanier
Technical College Forsyth
Conference Center, 3410 Ronald
Reagan Blvd. Cost is S2O and par
ticipants are asked to register in
advance by calling (770) 535-
5743 or online at www.celebrate
healthynorthgeorgia.org.
7 '/ (
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FROM 1A
“We know the health
insurance is coming.
We've got to add trail
ers, we know that, and
we're probably going
to have to add teach
ers,” Jones said.
“Let's don’t panic
right now because this
is very, very prelimi
nary. This is just trying
to give you a 10,000-
foot look at what the
possibilities are.”
Getting the informa
tion early was a large
part of the reason the
system holds planning
retreats, Evans said.
“If you know where
you're at and you know
where you're going ...
you can move with
confidence into the
future,” he said.