Newspaper Page Text
THE
ACKSON
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H Wednesday, July 27, 2011
ERALD
www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com
VOL. 137 NO. 7 42 PACES 3 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS A PUBLICATION OF MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 75« COPY
— Inside
Area news:
Students return to class next week
•Meet the newJCCHS
principal.... page 2A
Op/Ed:
•'Yates has planning
to plan obsession'
page 4 A
Sports:
•Jackson Co. team
takes second in World
Series page 1B
Features:
•Jefferson Farmer's
Market offers local
wares page 1C
•Local Scout treks in
New Mexico .. page 7 C
Other News:
•Public Safety
pages 6-8A
•Legals
pages 6-16C
•Church News
page 8B
•Obituaries
page 9B
•School News
pages ?????????
o -S
Jefferson starts Mon.; Jackson County schools begin Thurs.
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
FOR STUDENTS, this is the last week
of summer freedom — as they'll return to
school next week.
Students in the Jefferson City School
System will return to class on Monday.
Aug. 1, followed by Jackson County
School System students on Thursday,
Aug. 4.
Meanwhile, teachers in Jefferson
started their pre-planning days on
Tuesday and will continue through this
Friday. Jackson County teachers will
hold their pre-planning days Monday
and Tuesday. Aug. 1-2.
A furlough day for Jefferson City
School System employees was held
Monday, while Jackson County School
System workers will take a furlough day
the day before class starts on Wednesday,
Aug. 3.
For the 2011-2012 school year, the
superintendents for both school systems
foresee a minimal increase in their student
populations.
“We don't anticipate any great growth,
obviously, because practically nobody
is moving into the community,” said
Shannon Adams, superintendent of the
Jackson County School System. “We
might grow a little bit, but we don't antici
pate it being much.”
The Jackson County School System is
slated to start the new school year with
an estimated 7,200 students — about the
same number of children enrolled in the
district at the end of last school year,
according to Adams.
“It's really hard to tell (the final enroll
ment number ) until Labor Day,” Adams
continued on page 3A
Four local
schools fail
to make AYP
PUZZLE TIME AT SENIOR CENTER
Kathlene Stricklin, left, and Daisy Porter, right, do a puzzle together at the Jackson County Senior
Citizens Center. The two sat together in the quilting room, which was full of seniors quilting, doing puz
zles and conversing. See story on the senior center and more photos on 8A. Photo by Monica Flamini
Nicholson looks at preserving old school
Crossroads School was once used by African American community
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
BEFORE IT spends $47,000 to
begin the preservation and restoration
of the old Crossroads School build
ing, the Nicholson City Council will
decide whether to hire a consultant to
guide its historic preservation effort.
Mayor Ronnie Maxwell announced
at the council's work session last
Thursday that the property— a dilap
idated former school building at the
comer of Cedar Drive and U.S. 441
northbound — will be deeded to
the city via an act of the General
Assembly. Step two. he said, will
be to figure out what to do with the
property.
Toward that end. Maxwell told the
council, he contacted the Department
of Transportation, which provided
him the name of a consultant in
historic preservation. The mayor
broached the subject of hiring the
woman at $30 per hour plus 40 cents
a mile for travel, but the council
appeared hesitant.
Member Howard Wilbanks sug
gested getting “somebody from
around here” to provide an initial
assessment, and councilman Chuck
Wheeler indicated he’d like to know
the consultant’s total cost before
entering a contract.
“She doesn’t know, Chuck,”
Maxwell replied.
Wheeler and Wilbanks both sug
gested that Jackson County's engi
neer might be able to help with
the project, and member Bobby
Crawford proposed that before any
one is retained the city should “first
get it cleaned out and get it where
you can see it.”
In the end, the council agreed to let
Maxwell pay the consultant to attend
an upcoming council meeting, after
which the council could make a deci
sion regarding whether to retain her.
The school site is on land owned
by the DOT, which at one time had
considered allowing it to be used for
a natural gas substation, according
to Margaret Ward, who served on a
city committee looking at the site.
The pipeline company re-engineered
the project. Maxwell explained later,
moving the substation away from
both the building and the highway.
The school was used into the 1940s
by African Americans from south of
Commerce to Center, at which time
those students were transported to the
J.L. Williams School in Commerce.
Across the Norfolk-Southern rail
road tracks from the school is the
Crossroads Cemetery, final resting
place for a number of early black
residents. A woman from Commerce
who lives in Chicago holds the deed
to the cemetery, according to Ward,
who would like to see the cemetery
deeded to the city and maintained.
Ward told the council in regard to
the school, “When you start the proj
ect, you will certainly need someone
who is an expert in historic preserva
tion,” but she also noted, “We're not
there yet — but it's a good idea to
have her (the consultant) come.”
Ward also suggested that the city
government invite some of the black
families who had attended the school
or were involved with it.
“They are very interested in it,”
she noted. “It is very interesting to
work with someone who is so enthu
siastic.”
The building, which is on an over
grown lot, is in very poor condition.
Its bare-wood siding is easily visible
just a few feet off Cedar Drive.
“The site is probably a quarter
acre at the most,” Maxwell said.
“Probably less than that.”
The city has $10,000 set aside from
a previous budget and $37,000 in
SPLOST revenue to begin the work,
Maxwell said.
“That’s nowhere near going to fix
it,” he said, adding that the first prior
ity will be to stabilize the building.
The council will presumably
decide on Monday, Aug. 1, whether
to engage the DOT-recommended
consultant. Other items on the agenda
for that 7 p.m. meeting include:
•action on a proposed subdivision
and land development ordinance
about which Maxwell said, “The
more I read, the more I get con
fused.” The ordinance covers issues
from greenspace to sidewalks, and
Maxwell asked the council to read
it in preparation for a discussion and
vote on Aug. 1. “Basically, it brings
our ordinances up to where they need
to be.” he said.
•action on a mileage policy for
city personnel. Maxwell asked coun
cil members to read the City of
Commerce’s ordinance, “make notes
on it, and change what you want to
change to affect us.”
•a council vote on the recommen
dation of the city’s ethics panel on the
complaint by former council member
Faye Seagraves alleging that council
man Lamar Watkins received mileage
reimbursement from the city for a trip
to the Georgia Municipal Association
in Savannah even though he rode
with another councilman. The Ethics
Committee has recommended that
Watkins repay the money, but the
final decision will be up to the city
council.
•the re-election of city clerk Wendy
Carter as the city’s election superin
tendent. Maxwell said he will nomi
nate her at the Aug. 1 meeting.
•consideration of a request from
Benton Elementary School to help
the school come up with the $412
start-up fee for a new after-school
girls’ program, “Fit Girls,” that will
stress nutrition and health. “I think
it’d be good for us to help them,”
Wilbanks told the council.
Maxwell also announced that he is
about to begin work on the 2012 city
budget. He asked each of the council
members to talk to him about “things
you’d like to change in the budget.”
He said he hoped to have the budget
ready for council action by the first
of October.
FOUR SCHOOLS in Jackson County
are among those that initially failed to make
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), according
to the state department of education.
For three of those schools — Jackson
County Comprehensive High School, East
Jackson Comprehensive High School and
Commerce High School — the rising bar to
determine AYP using graduation rates led to
those schools being placed on the list.
To make AYP, Georgia requires that high
schools have a graduation rate of 85 percent
in 2011. Last year, that standard was 80
percent.
CHS’ graduation rate in 2011 was 84.3
percent — just below the requirement to
meet AYP. The school had the same gradua
tion rate in 2010 and made AYP.
Although JCCHS' graduation rate rose
from 83.5 percent in 2010 to 84.2 percent
in 2011, the school was also placed on the
initial list of schools failing to meet AYP.
However, EJCHS’ graduation rate dropped
from 85.2 percent last year to 81.2 percent
this year.
JCCHS also failed to meet AYP because
of its students’ performance on the Georgia
High School Graduation Test, according to
data on the state department of education’s
website.
On the English/Language Arts portion of
the test, the passing rate was too low to
meet AYP among all JCCHS students and
continued on page 3A
BY KERRI TESTEMENT
NEARLY 10 MONTHS after the Jackson
County Board of Education postponed build
ing a new gym at a high school, the money
still isn’t in the bank to reconsider the proj
ect.
Jackson County Comprehensive High
School is slated to get a second gym, and
a new chorus/drama building that will be
funded with sales tax revenue. The project is
expected to cost $10.6 million.
Last October, the board of education opted
to delay the project until all of the Special
Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST)
revenue was collected. That followed previ
ous decisions to layoff employees in a budget
shortfall that once included a general fund
deficit for the school system.
“We’re not quite there,” superintendent
Shannon Adams said Thursday about the
SPLOST revenue for the JCCHS project.
The SPLOST account for the JCCHS
project currently has $9.9 million. Adams
said there are no plans for the board of educa
tion to discuss the project again soon.
Meanwhile, the state has approved the
architectural plans for the project — but
those remain on the shelf. Adams said.
After East Jackson Comprehensive High
School opened in 2007 with two gyms, par
ents at JCCHS asked the board to consider
a new gym for the older school. The board
discussed a second gym, and a combined
continued on page 3A
Second gym
project still on
hold at JCCHS