Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
r ',y
MW.
H Wednesday, January 26, 2011
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 136 NO. 33 48 PACES 4 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75<t COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Kidd to serve as
mayor pro tem
page 2A
•Area woman helps
Deal get ready for inau
guration .... page 3A
Op/Ed:
•'Jackson County
doesn't bow to
Athens-Clark's efforts
at hegemony'
page 4 A
Sports:
•Lady Dragons knock
off no. 8 North Oconee
page 1B
Features:
•Photographer cap
tures the disappearing
rural South
page 1C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-7A
•Legals
pages 9-24C
•Church News
page 6C
•Obituaries
pages 8-9B
•School News
pages 7 & 1 OB
O -S
Snow makeup days set for schools
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
ANDBENMUNRO
THE JACKSON County and Jefferson
City school systems have selected their
inclement weather days — after both dis
tricts cancelled classes for five days two
weeks ago due to a winter storm.
The Jackson County School System
will not touch its Spring Break vacation
days in April, when the district had ini
tially earmarked those days as potential
inclement weather make-up days on the
2010-2011 school year calendar.
Instead, students will make-up four
days from the winter storm and teachers
will get a fifth day added as a post-plan
ning day at the end of the school year.
The Georgia Department of Education
allows school systems to have four
inclement weather days without requiring
them to make them up later in the school
year.
For the Jackson County School
System, students will be in class on
Friday, Feb. 18 and Monday, Feb. 21;
and Monday and Tuesday, March 14-15.
All of the days had initially been planned
as vacation days. Students will not have
to make-up the fifth day that was taken
because of the winter storm.
Teachers in the Jackson County School
System will have an additional day of
post-planning in May.
Also, the board of education announced
on Thursday that it will post its two pro
posals for the 2011-2012 school year
calendar on its website — www.jackson.
kl2.ga.us — for public comments.
The two proposals are largely the
same, except for some minor variations
— including the exact timing of vacation
days in October, February and April.
One of the calendars drafted by the
district's Teacher’s Advisory Council
calls for an additional vacation day
— Monday, April 9 — after Spring
Break, which will be April 2-6, 2012.
Potential inclement weather make-up
days for the Jackson County School
System would be Monday, Feb. 20;
Friday, March 9; and April 2-6 (Spring
Break), according to the calendar pro
posed by the Teacher’s Advisory Council.
The other proposed calendar only calls
for Spring Break to be weather make-up
days in 2012.
Both calendars would have students
in the Jackson County School System
start class on Wednesday, Aug. 4, and
end classes on Friday, May 18. They
also call for three teacher pre-planning
days in August and two post-planning
days in May.
The BOE will decide on a 2011-2012
school year calendar in February.
JEFFERSON MAKE-UP DAYS
The Jefferson City School System
has also picked its snow make-up days
— which will be spread through a com
bination of vacation days and furlough
days.
Those snow make-up days will be
Thursday and Friday, Feb. 17-18 (once
planned as vacation days); Friday, April
1 (a formerly scheduled furlough day);
and Thursday and Friday. May 5-6
(once scheduled furlough or weather
make-up days).
continued on page 8A
DRIVING TO THE BASKET
Jackson County’s Alex Crawford drives to the basket in the Panthers’ 43-41 loss
to East Jackson Saturday.
Photo by Blair Buffington
Jefferson schools to administer
assessment locally in place of CRCT
BYBENMUNRO
JEFFERSON CITY Schools
will administer a benchmark
assessment test to first and sec
ond graders during the week of
April 25 since the state doesn’t
administer the CRCT for those
grade levels anymore.
The test will be derived from
the state’s online assessment
system, which Jefferson Schools
traditionally use for the bench
mark process.
“So they are going to release
a test form for us to have control
over,” assistant superintendent
Donna McMullan said.
The state will also provide
local schools with score tables as
well as help with data analysis
and disaggregation of scores.
Jefferson can be either a paper-
pencil test or online.
“We feel like a paper-pencil
test might be best for first and
second grade,” McMullan said.
McMullan has also talked
with a representative at the
Georgia Center for Assessment,
which scores the Jefferson sys
tem’s writing test. The center
can provide scoring reports that
Jefferson usually receives from
the state, such as class rosters
and grade summaries, at around
$2 per student.
“We feel like that would be
something that, looking at the
funds at the elementary school,
that’s something we feel like
we can easily cover,” McMullan
said. “And we feel like it would
be beneficial for our students to
have this test opportunity; ’
Jefferson originally wanted
to administer the actual CRCT
locally to first and second grad
ers, but the state DOE “has not
been successful in working
with the vendor,” according to
McMullan, to get that in place.
In other academic matters,
Jefferson High School received
recognition by the Georgia
Single Statewide Accountability
System from the Governor’s
Office of Student Achievement,
earning silver status in “great
est gain” and bronze honors
in “highest performing.” The
awards are based on improve
ment and achievement on state
curriculum exams during the
2009-2010 school year. JHS was
one of 17 schools in the state rec
ognized in both categories.
Jefferson Academy earned
gold status in the “highest
performing” category, while
Jefferson Elementary School
earned silver recognition in that
area.
“So we’re very proud of our
teachers and our administration
and of our schools,” McMullan
said.
Jefferson Schools were also
honored by the Georgia Council
for Administrators of Special
Education for meeting and
exceeding state targets for stu
dents with disabilities. The sys
tem met five of the seven state
targets.
Charges against Jefferson
police officer dropped
BATTERY CHARGES filed
against former Jefferson police
officer Stephen Taylor have been
dropped. State court solicitor
Don Moore decided not to pur
sue the charges after conducting
an investigation of the incident.
“We reviewed the case and the
five witness statements,” Moore
said. “There is a video without
volume which shows two grown
men in a bar fight after midnight
for three minutes. They stand
face to face and talk. The victim
then placed his hand on Stephen
Taylor’s shoulder and a brief
fight ensued. The victim came
to my office and we interviewed
the victim. Based on all of the
evidence, it is my determination
not to prosecute the case. There
is insufficient evidence to go for
ward with a battery charge.”
Taylor, who reportedly got
into a fight at Mike’s Down
Under Bar while off duty, was
charged with one count of
misdemeanor battery. He was
fired from the Jefferson Police
Department after his arrest.
Taylor and James Tyler Beck,
22, reportedly got into a shoving
contest at the bar around mid
night on Aug. 24 over comments
about the color of Taylor’s shirt.
In Beck’s version of events
to JPD officers who responded
to the incident, he said he had
made a comment to a third party
in the bar about Taylor’s pink
shirt. The comment was not
made in Taylor’s presence, he
said, but someone told Taylor
about it.
Beck said he stood up to leave
the bar when Taylor confronted
him about the pink shirt com
ments. Beck said he put his hand
on Taylor’s shoulder and told
him he didn’t want any prob
lems. but that Taylor responded
by pushing him in the chest and
then hitting him with a closed
fist on the left side of the face.
A blood alcohol test of both
men taken by the JPD reported
ly showed Taylor at .183 while
Beck was .00.
Wheeler named new
county BOE chairman
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
FOR THE first
time in 12 years, the
Jackson County Board
of Education will have
a new chairperson and
vice chairperson.
Fynn Wheeler was
named chairperson of
the board on Thursday
and Tim Brooks was selected
as vice chairperson. The board
didn’t nominate other members
for the positions and the rec
ommendations were quickly
approved.
Wheeler replaces Kathy
Wilbanks, who served as chair
person for 12 years, but didn’t
seek an additional term. Jill
Elliott, who was also on the
school board for 12 years, had
served as vice chairperson and
didn’t seek re-election.
Wheeler has been
serving on the Jackson
County Board of
Education for six years
and is a retired educator
with 29 years of experi
ence — most of which
was in the Jackson
County School System.
Her husband, Tim
Wheeler, is a former superin
tendent for the Jackson County
School System.
Wheeler, who lives in
Nicholson, is active on the local
and conference levels for the
United Methodist Women, and is
a member of the Jackson County
Retired Educators Association
and Delta Kappa Gamma. She
has three grown children and one
grandchild, and attends Antioch
United Methodist Church.
WHEELER
Process to start over for State
Court judge appointment
GOV. NATHAN DEAL has decided to start the process over for
appointing a new State Court judge for Jackson County. Applications
are now being taken.
Former Gov. Sonny Perdue had asked a Judicial Nominating
Commission to review the four applicants. That committee recom
mended Nick Primm and Jeff Perry as the top two applicants. Perdue
didn’t have time to interview those two candidates before going out
of office and didn’t make an appointment.
“We couldn’t get interviews scheduled in time, and didn’t feel it
was right to name someone without going through the interview pro
cess,” said Bert Brantley, who served as director of communications
for Gov. Perdue.
Four attorneys originally applied for the judgeship — Perry,
Primm, Donna Sikes and Scott Tolbert.
The State Court duties have been handled by visiting judges since
the fall when Judge Jerry Gray died.