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About Jackson herald. (Jefferson, Jackson County, Ga.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 2023)
o o 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS The Commerce News JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 $1.00 COPY Elections Hoschton qualifying now set for Aug. 23-25 The City of Hoschton will not hold qualifying this week for its regular and special elections set for Nov. 7. After an error in the city’s public notice listed qualifying dates as Aug. 7-9, Hoschton has now announced Aug. 23-25 as its qualifying dates. Qualifying will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m. daily at Hoschton City Hall, located at 61 City Square. Hoschton will have five open seats be tween its regular and special elections. The city is holding regular elections for three council seats whose terms expire in 2024. Up for grabs in those races are the seats of Tracy Car- swell, who said he won’t seek re-elec tion; Debbie Martin, who won a council seat in 2022 to fill the unexpired term of Shantwon Astin; and the former seat of Adam Ledbetter, who stepped down in Feb ruary. Meanwhile, the town’s special elec tions will fill the seats of former may or Lauren O’Leary, who resigned on July 5, along with former councilman Scott Mims, who stepped down in March. Those terms don’t expire un til 2026. The qualifying fees are $360 for may or and $180 for the council seats. Education Photo by Jackson County School System West Jackson Elementary School principal walks a youngster to class on the first day of the school year, Thursday, Aug. 3. See more on page 10A. First day enrollment increases across Jackson County School System All schools in the Jackson County School System saw an increase in first day enroll ment numbers this year. District-wide, enrollment totaled 10,628 students on the first day of the 2023-24 school year, up from 10,003 last year. While on paper, it looks like West Jackson Middle School saw a dip in enrollment, that’s only due to the opening of a new west side middle school, Legacy Knoll Middle School. The total between those two schools was 1,549 students on the first day of the 2023-24 school year, an increase over the 2022-23 first day enrollment at WJMS, when enrollment totaled 1,540. First day enrollment numbers by school include: • East Jackson Elementary — 670 (up from 579) • Gum Springs Elementary — 1,196 (up from 1,125) • Maysville Elementary — 474 (up from 456) • North Jackson Elementary — 727 (up from 667) • South Jackson Elementary — 719 (up from 669) • West Jackson Elementary — 1,255 (up from 1,207) • East Jackson Middle (6th-7th) — 557 (up from 542) • Legacy Knoll Middle — 691 • West Jackson Middle — 858 (down from 1,540 due to the opening of Legacy Knoll) • East Jackson Comp. High (8th-12th) — 1,394 (up from 1,379) • Jackson County High — 2,044 (up from 1,814) • Pre-K at Empower — 43 Public safety Intraders who entered JCHS arrested Two of three intruders who entered both Jackson County and Winder-Barrow high schools Thursday (Aug. 3) have been appre hended. According to a press release from the Gwin nett County Sheriff’s Office, Christian Lebron Williams, 20, and Lamonte Dianell Smith, 21, were arrested in Gwinnett County on Aug. 4. The third suspect, Jaywan Edwards, remains at large, according to a Facebook post by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office. Williams and Smith, both of Gwinnett County, have been charged with disruption of public schools and loitering on school proper ty- The investigation of the incident revealed that Williams had outstanding warrants related to firearms charges in May. The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office, Jack- son County Sheriff’s Office, Gwinnett County Two male intruders reported ly entered Jackson County High School on Thursday (Aug. 3). They were arrested by Gwinnett Coun ty authorities on Friday (Aug. 4). Police Department and Barrow County Sher iff’s Office have worked in conjunction during the investigation. On Thursday, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office investigated a report of two young male See Intruders, page 2A Happy birthday, Mrs. Betty Betty Small who processes public notices for Mainstreet Newspapers celebrated her 90th birthday this week. ‘Mrs. Betty’ still workin: at 90, and going strong It wasn’t too many years ago that Betty Small loved to roller-skate, es pecially with her kids at all-night skating parties. These days, “Mrs. Bet ty,” as she is affectionally called, has given up roll er-skating, but she contin ues to move around a lot, working part-time and staying very active with her family and commu nity. Oh, did we mention she turned 90-years-old this week? In an era when many people seek to retire from their jobs as early as possible, Betty Small of Jefferson has no plans to retire from her job at Mainstreet Newspa pers where she handles a voluminous number of public notices for the firm’s newspapers. Pub lic notices are required publications from local governments and courts that deal with everything from home foreclosures to rezoning notices and much, much more. They are tedious and require a deep attention to details, along with working with attorneys and court offi cials on a weekly basis. “I’d like to work as long as my health will let See Birthday, page 2A Public safety VICTIM’S VEHICLE JCSO called for Pendergrass shooting Jackson County author ities were recently called for a shooting in Pender grass. Jackson County Sher iffs Office deputies were called for the Aug. 3 shooting around 3:30 p.m. near Allen Bridge Road in Pendergrass. An altercation occurred between two individuals, at which time a shot was fired into a vehicle. Nei ther the victim nor the shooter were on the scene when deputies arrived. “A short time later, the shooter was located in the subdivision and taken into custody,” Sheriff Janis Mangum said. “He was See Shooting, page 2A MAILING LABEL Education Clarification: Jefferson’s first day enrollment not down as much as reported Jefferson’s first day enroll ment didn’t drop as much as originally reported. In last week’s issue of The Jackson Herald, the enroll ment story indicated that the Jefferson City School System had 3,968 students on the first day of the 2023- 24 school year, down from 4,198 students on the first day of last year. That 4,198 number was what was re ported by the district last year, but was incorrect and may have been based on pro- jected enrollment instead of actual enrollment. Actual enrollment on the first day of last year (2022- 23 school year) was 4,003 students, still above what it was this year, but not nearly as large of a difference. As of the 7 th day of school, Jefferson had a total enroll ment of 4,138 students. The breakdown includes: •Jefferson Elementary: 964 •Jefferson Academy: 930 •Jefferson Middle: 974 •Jefferson High: 1,270 The Jackson Herald will report 10th day enrollment numbers for all three school systems in an upcoming issue. The 10th day enroll ment is traditionally consid ered a more accurate picture of enrollment, given the number of new registrations and withdrawals that occur during the first days of the school year. piggly wiggly 14 14 0
