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JANUARY 25, 2013
Forsyth County \ews
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Volunteers sought for homeless count
Training on Saturday; effort starts Jan. 29
By Crystal Ledford
cledford@forsythnews.com
There’s still time to volunteer
for Forsyth County’s first
homeless count.
The effort will be conducted
Jan. 29 to Feb. 4 as part of a
statewide project to get a more
Active season has
supplies dwindling
By Crystal Ledford
cledford@forsythnews.com
If you haven't gotten a flu shot yet, you may
want to soon.
According to leaders of local health organi
zations, flu vaccine is starting to run low after a
busier than normal season.
“There is some [vaccine] left,” said Alison
Ward, nurse manager with the Forsyth County
Health Department. “But I think just about
everywhere is starting to run low on their sup
ply because we’'ve had a pretty good demand
this year.”
Ward said about 1,900 adult doses and about
650 children’s doses have been administered
through the department. Those numbers don’t
account for vaccines given through private doc
tors’ offices and pharmacies.
“It was a little bit more this year, especially
with the kids because we did a school-based
flu clinic in the fall,” Ward said. “We were able
to target the kids and open it up [to all the pub
lic schools] so we definitely did more kid [vac
cines] than usual, but adult is pretty much the
same as most years.”
Dave Palmer, public information officer with
District 2 Public Health, which includes
Forsyth and 12 other northeast Georgia coun
ties, said there have been more cases of flu
this season than in the past.
The season typically runs from about
September to May, he said.
“Going by the information from the
[Centers for Disease Control] and our state
public health office, there are increased cases
of flu activity this year over what we’ve seen
the past few years, probably since 2009, he
said.
Palmer said it’s difficult to know what
causes some flu seasons to be worse than oth
ers, but it’s typically a cumulative effect.
“Flu’s kind of unpredictable ... there’s been
some research, but it’s not conclusive about
the spread of the germ and how it stays in the
air,” he said. “It’s just from year to year, |
guess, as more people get sick, more people
spread it.
“It’s one of those kind of a snowball effects.
Somebody gets sick and they spread it, more
people get sick and it spreads because it is
fairly easily caught, and the germ spreads.”
Palmer said among the best ways to avoid
the flu are common-sense practices such as
frequent hand washing, using hand sanitizer
after you’ve touched something that many
others have, such as a shopping cart, and
avoiding those who are sick.
And if you or your child becomes sick,
Palmer said, it’s best to stay home from work
and school to avoid spreading the germs.
Of course one of the surest ways to prevent
See FLU|3A
Volume 104, Number 15
© 2013, Forsyth County News
Cumming, Georgia
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Region’s top soccer coach named | 1B
accurate idea of how many peo
ple are homeless. It also will
help the county with state and
federal funding for various ser
vice programs.
Melissa Corliss, director of
community impact with United
Way of Forsyth County, said
nonprofit leaders decided to
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Photos by Autumn Vetter Forsyth County News
Forsyth Academy students Emily Walden, left, and Katie Nichols take a lunch break Wednesday.
Officials are considering a switch that would open up many different career pathways at the
school.
Switch would
open OpthllS
for students
at academy
By Jennifer Sami
jsami@forsythnews.com
New opportunities could be
heading to the Forsyth Academy
if the local school district decides
to convert it from a charter format
to a program.
The non-traditional charter high
school opened in 2005 to provide
an alternative option for at-risk
students. Officials used the char
ter approach because it was the
only option at the time.
The school has evolved to offer
night classes, credit recovery
courses and allows students to
work at their own pace, often to
graduate early.
None of those aspects would
change, said Forsyth County
Schools Chief Accountability
Officer Cindy Salloum, who first
made the recommendation to the
system leadership during a recent
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participate for the first time
after “community conversa
tions” about the issue.
“We have sort of a core group
of concerned volunteers and
members of nonprofits who
have been working and discuss
ing the issues of homelessness
for quite a while now,” she said.
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Adrianne Jekot works on a homework assignment Wednesday
at Forsyth Academy.
retreat.
According to Salloum, with the
state requirement that high school
students follow a career pathway,
there’s evidence that “a continued
operation of the charter school
4 Preparations
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under way.
“We're moving forward.
We're training some volunteers
this week.”
Corliss said a training session
will be held from 10 am. to 11
a.m. Saturday for anyone inter
ested in volunteering with the
count. It will be offered at three
locations: St. Brendan’s
Catholic Community, 4633
Shiloh Road; Church of the
Good Shepherd, 3740
would be contrary to the best
interest of the students.”
“We don’t have those career
pathways at Forsyth Academy,”
See PATHS | 4A
7\ Malkin:
"~ Obama’s war
on academic
standards.
Holtzclaw Road; and First
Christian Church of Cumming,
1270 Sawnee Drive.
“We tried to locate training
sites in the north, central and
south portions of the county to
make them more accessible,”
Corliss said.
She said organizers will use
information from nonprofits
that serve those in need to
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