Newspaper Page Text
THE
aSh\ \ \
ACKSON
m
H Wednesday, March 10, 2010
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 135 NO. 38 56 PACES 5 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75« COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Arcade gets state
reprimand for election
error
page 2A
•Work on Jefferson
streetscape to begin
page 2A
Op/Ed:
•'Slash pay before
paper'
page 4 A
Sports:
•Dragons headed to
Final Four
page 1B
•Pittman resigns as
Lady Panthers coach
page 1B
Features:
•A Dance with Dad
page 1C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 1-27D
•Church News
page 5B
•Obituaries
pages 6-7B
•School News
pages 8-12A
Q -R
School board continues to make severe cuts
Layoff plan to be announced in April
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
THERE’S NO money for new text
books. No cash for supplies at schools
and other programs. And there’ll be
no funds for students traveling to
some events.
That’s the budget crisis the Jackson
County School System is facing with
its proposed 2010-2011 budget.
For district employees, there’ll be
six furlough days next school year,
and the elimination of at least four
and a half teaching positions, along
with a central office position.
Meanwhile, the board of education
has directed superintendent Shannon
Adams to recommend another round
of layoffs in April with a Reduction
in Force (RIF) plan.
The first — announced in March
2009 — included the elimination of
38 teaching and non-teaching posi
tions.
“We can’t be all things to all peo
ple anymore,” said board chairperson
Kathy Wilbanks on Thursday. “We
really are going to have to really think
about what it is we want to focus on
— and then that has to become our
priority, and then everything else has
to go.”
The Jackson County Board
of Education is considering a
2010-2011 budget of $85.9
million — compared to the
current budget of $89.2 mil
lion. There is no proposal to
increase property taxes.
The board got its first
glimpse of the proposed bud
get during its annual two-day
retreat on Thursday and Friday at the
district’s central office. After get
ting the proposed budget, the board
spent a total of two hours in two
closed-doors meetings on Thursday
and Monday to discuss personnel.
In recent months, the board has had
to submit a deficit reduc
tion plan to the state to trim
a $908,600 shortfall in the
current budget. That defi
cit has been eliminated and
district officials anticipate
a $154,891 surplus at the
end of the current fiscal on
June 30.
But with state revenue
still dropping dramatically
and one local legislator warning of
more bad financial news coming from
the Gold Dome for school systems,
the district is slashing away at its
proposed budget.
continued on page 7A
WILBANKS
Restaurant sign burns
WENDY’S SIGN DESTROYED IN FIRE
The sign at Wendy’s Restaurant at 1-85 in Jefferson was destroyed in a fire Tuesday
night. An officer from the Jefferson Police Department called to the scene found the
sign, and the bushes around it, fully engulfed in flames. The officer used his vehicle
fire extinguisher to stop the fire from spreading. The Jefferson Fire Department
responded to the scene and put the fire out. The incident is under investigation.
Photo by Blair Buffington
New report cards coming for seventh graders
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
STARTING NEXT school
year, seventh graders in
the Jackson County School
System will be given stan-
dards-based report cards.
Unlike traditional report
cards that give students a let
ter grade — such as A, B, C or
F — to designate their success
in the classroom, standards-
based report cards outline
students’ academic progress
on the state’s curriculum,
the Georgia Performance
Standards.
For each grading period, the
newer report card uses a dif
ferent system — such as “E”
for “exceeds the standard”
— to designate if students
are mastering the state’s stan
dards. Students are expected
to make continued progress
on the standards throughout
the school year.
The Jackson County School
System started using stan-
dards-based report cards in
its elementary schools last
school year and expanded it
to sixth grade this year.
For the 2010-2011 school
year, the district plans to roll
out standards-based report
cards to seventh grade. At
some point, the program will
be expanded to eighth grade.
But extending standards-
based report cards to more
middle school students ini
tially raised concerned from
some teachers, according to
Kathy Miller, director of cur
riculum and accountability for
the school system.
The concerns centered on
how standards-based report
cards would affect students
when they get to high school,
she said. After listening to
those concerns from teachers,
some aspects of the program
were revamped.
“There was no, ‘Why are
we doing this?’,” Miller said
during the board of educa
tion’s annual retreat last week.
“It was like everyone was just
on board. We understand now.
You’ve listened to us. We’re
going to tweak what needs to
be tweaked. And we’re going
to move forward with it.”
One of the changes next
year for middle school stu
dents will be the occasional
return of numerical grades to
prepare students for the tran
sition to high school.
Georgia uses numerical
grades to determine a Grade
Point Average (GPA), which
is then used to determine a
student’s eligibility for the
HOPE Scholarship to earn
continued on page 2A
Arcade City Council looks at SPLOST 5
BY BRANDON REED
THE UPCOMING SPLOST 5 vote was
a topic of discussion Monday night for the
Arcade City Council at the regular monthly
meeting.
Council member Cindy Bone attended the
recent SPLOST meeting, and gave an update
on the current and proposed Special Purpose
Local Option Sales Tax.
SPLOST 5, if approved by the voters,
would begin collections in July of 2011, while
the current SPLOST will end June 30, 2011.
“Right now, we’re using SPLOST to ser
vice some of our debt, and we’ve made some
improvements...for our roads,” Bone said.
“What we want to do, if it’s approved, is con
tinue to retire debt. With the next SPLOST,
that would just about put us completely out of
debt as far as our facilities.”
Bone said the city would also like to use the
funds to surface some of the dirt roads in the
city, as well as to set up an alternating sched
ule for resurfacing other roads in the city.
Bone said the city also wants to put some of
the SPLOST funds towards the upkeep and
maintenance of the city park.
Bone pointed out that, as elected officials,
the council members cannot advocate for
SPLOST.
“All we really can do is show them what
SPLOST money has done for us and what
the new SPLOST would do for us and for the
continued on page 7A
Jackson unemployment rate jumps to 11.9%
UNEMPLOYMENT in
Jackson County jumped over
one percent in January to hit
11.9 percent. That is higher
than any previous monthly
report and was one of the
highest rates in Northeast
Georgia.
Jackson’s unemployment
rate was 10.5 percent in
December.
According to state num
bers released Tuesday,
Jackson County had 3,140
people unemployed in
January.
The rate is the highest
in Northeast Georgia except
for Rabun, Franklin, Hart
and Elbert counties, all of
which topped 13 percent.
Jefferson looks at
increasing fines
BYANGELA GARY
IF YOU GET pulled over for speeding in Jefferson, you will
likely be paying a higher fine.
The Jefferson City Council is looking at increasing the city
court fines. Police chief Joe Wirthman presented a proposal
at the council meeting Monday night with options for both
20 percent and 30 percent increases. The council will vote on
the proposal when it meets at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 22,
at the civic center.
At the meeting this week, Wirthman said that the fines have
not been increased in several years. He looked at the fines
charged in Braselton, Commerce, Winder and Gainesville in
coming up with the proposal for Jefferson.
The majority of fines in Jefferson, some 67 percent, are for
speeding, the police chief said. He added that most of these
are for people driving 14 miles per hour over the speed limit.
Budget crisis addressed
Gov. gets no support on one new tax
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
AFTER TWO weeks off,
the General Assembly got
back to business Monday still
facing a budget crisis.
But Rep. Tommy Benton
(R-Jefferson) says one pro
posal floated by
Gov. Sonny Perdue
to replace contro
versial cuts to the
Board of Regents is
dead on arrival.
“I think the hospi
tal tax is dead,” said
Benton of Perdue’s
proposed 1.6-per
cent tax for hospital
services.
The governor had suggest
ed such a tax earlier, got no
support, then retrieved it after
the outcry over the Board
of Regents’ plan for trim
ming $300 million from its
budget.
“I haven’t found any
body supporting that,” said
Benton, who speculated that
large hospitals would suffer
from such a levy.
“I don’t know about Athens
Regional and St. Mary’s, but
Northeast Georgia Regional
Medical Center wrote off $50
million last year in money
that could not be collected,”
Benton said. “Now we’re
asking them to do even more?
Large hospitals would be
hurt by tremendous amounts
too.”
Meanwhile, the February
revenue report, which showed
state income down nine per
cent from February 2009 -
which was down 34 percent
from 2008 - will likely force
Perdue to trim his revenue
estimates for the rest of this
fiscal year and for next as
well.
It may also force the legis
lature to raise taxes.
“We’re getting to the point
where we can’t cut any more.
We’re going to have to look at
raising more money,” Benton
acknowledged.
Benton said the February
numbers “surprised a lot of
people” who had expected a
small up-tick in state income.
He also said he’s heard early
talk about raising some fees,
and said the proposal to
increase the tobacco tax is
gaining traction - but
is opposed by David
Ralston, speaker of
the house.
“Whether or not
we can talk him into
going with that, I
don’t know,” Benton
commented.
As for the furor
over the Board of
Regents’ plan,
Benton said he thinks “pres
sure needs to be brought to
bear” on the regents.
“We asked them to look at
it (trimming $300 million)
without raising tuition,” he
said. “Every time there’s a
little tremor, their reaction is
to increase tuition. We can go
up on the HOPE amount, and
their reaction is to increase
tuition.
“They threw out all these
things that would get people
tore up, and it did. I got 350-
400 emails over the projected
cuts, not just 4-H and the
Extension Service, but also
the nursing program, dental
hygienist program and the
botanical gardens. They did
not offer to cut any liberal
arts programs, close any art
museums or close foreign
campuses. ... I found out
that last year the University
System gave more than 9,000
tuition waivers to out-of-state
and out-of-country students.
There’s no telling how many
millions that cost the state.
I also found out that out-
of-state and out-of-country
athletes get tuition waivers so
the booster club doesn’t have
to pay so much in scholar
ships.”
Benton proposes that
the House and Senate send
continued on page 2A
O
BENTON