Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY. JANUARY 22. 2015 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 13A
Continued from Page 1A
Benefits
burial expenses. Brannon had al
ready paid Cagle Funeral Home
for her husband’s service so the
funeral home would reimburse
her when the check from the VA
came through. But it never ar
rived.
After investigating the matter,
Mrs. Brannon discovered the
check was stolen in the mail.
Brannon found that the check
had been cashed and deposited
into a bank on July 2nd last year.
There was no signature on the
check. It only said it was elec
tronically endorsed and de
posited into a Regions Bank
account, Brannon said.
After months of phone calls to
various departments - including
calling in the assistance of Con
gressman Doug Collins - Bran
non was finally rewarded for her
efforts.
“I was so surprised when
Luke Wigington (of Cagle Fu
neral Home) called to tell me the
check came. I just want to thank
everybody for all their help. It
was almost as bad as losing him
- to realize that somebody was so
desperate or so sorry to steal a
VA burial benefits check.”
Brannon said without the help
of Congressman Collins, Luke
Wigington of Cagle Funeral
Home, and the article in the
Progress - she doesn’t think the
matter would have been re
solved.
Brannon said she absolutely
advises anyone who gets a check
from the government to do it via
direct deposit.
Continued from Page 1A
OSHA
him at the plant at 200 Ga. Mar
ble Lane in Tate.
Pickens sheriff reports noted
Voyles was under an awning out
side a building when the acci
dent happened.
An employee told sheriff in
vestigators the night of the acci
dent that he had seen Voyles
before the break and when he re
turned they found him under the
large marble pieces.
Funds have been established
to help the Voyles family (online
a link is available with this story)
or at any branch of United Com
munity Bank. Voyles obituary
appears on page 8A.
OSHA (Occupational Safety
& Health Administration)
spokesman Michael D'Aquino
confirmed Tuesday that the fed
eral agency had opened an inves
tigation of conditions
surrounding the death as part of
standard procedure any time
there is a fatal accident. The
spokesman, based in OSHA’s
Atlanta office, said the investiga
tion is in the early stages.
Under their department regula
tions, the investigation must be
wrapped up within six months
but could be done earlier,
D’Aquino said. He said the time
to complete an investigation
varies greatly depending on the
complexity of the situation.
Employers are required to re
port workplace accidents that re
sult in fatalities or serious
injuries quickly. OSHA investi
gators then conduct fact-finding
to determine if there were any vi
olations of OSHA standards.
Investigations include physi
cal evidence, eye witness ac
counts and past history at the
site, D’Aquino said.
If violations are found, com
panies are subject to financial
penalties.
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Pickens Co.
Progress
706-253-2457
“I’m old school and I like to
have that check in my hand but
if we stop doing so much of that
through the mail it could save
someone else some heartache,”
she said. “I know it’s hard to let
go -1 like handling a book or a
newspaper in my hand but there
are some things you’ve just got
to do,” she said advocating direct
deposit.
“It’s just too easy for some
body to take something like that.
I still don’t know who took the
check but I am going to file an
open records request with the
FBI and find out.”
Before her husband entered
the army in 1968 and went to
Vietnam, Brannon said in 1967
the two of them were among just
three married couples attending
Pickens Tech (now Chatta
hoochee Tech).
“He took accounting classes
during the day and worked at
Pickens Footwear at night and I
worked in the office at Pickens
Footwear during the day and
took accounting classes at night.”
Continued from Page 1A
Donation
our church wasn’t destroyed.
Church is not about the building.
It’s about the people.”
The day after the fire Stewart
was exhausted and didn’t know
what to tell his congregation.
“But God gave me the words
that day. I told them this was a
set up for a step up. That’s what
God told me.”
Strong support from the con
gregation and community - in
cluding the anonymous donation
of over $30,000 - has put them in
a position to make a down pay
ment on a building in Ball
Ground.
“I opened the mailbox and
there was a box with a note on
top that said they hoped it would
help the gospel,” he said. “I
opened it up and there were all
these envelopes with cash in it. It
was unbelievable. It shows that
we are part of something bigger.”
That was this past November.
A few weeks later a second box
showed up in the mailbox. There
was a similar note on top, but
this time the box was heavy.
“It had 200 silver coins in
mint condition, still sealed,”
Stewart said. “I couldn’t believe
it. What an amazing blessing
from God.”
Stewart said instead of selling
the coins for the value of the sil
ver, Gospel Outreach Church
leaders chose to offer them in ex
change for donations from any
one willing to support the
ministry.
One coin, he said, brought in
$1,000.
“Those coins have generated
several thousands of dollars for
the ministry,” he said. “It’s been
such a huge help.”
Fast-forward to January 15 of
this year and Stewart and other
members of church leadership
were making arrangements to se
cure funding to buy the Ball
Ground warehouse, which was
used by a different church that
has since disbanded.
Stewart said the anonymous
donations, tithing and other
funding have set the church up to
make a 25-percent down pay
ment on the building, which has
plenty of room for expansion of
church services.
Stewart applauded members
of his congregation for banding
together through the challenging
year, and said he has faith in their
ability to grow the church in the
future.
“People have really stepped
up and kept us moving through
all of this,” he said. “We want to
be a place where people of faith
can come, grow and serve. We
also want to be a place where
those struggling with faith or no
faith at all can come and feel
comfortable exploring the poten
tials of faith.”
For more information about
Gospel Outreach Church visit
them online at
www.gochurch.us. They cur
rently meet at the Pickens
County Community Center at
9:30 a.m. on Sunday and 7 p.m.
on Wednesday.
Continued from Page 1A
Business
the Jasper Crossing shopping
center. Flibbett Sports is expected
to open this spring.
• Chief Tax Appraiser Roy
Dobbs reported to the BOA that
the final loose ends in pre-plan
ning stages of the Hardee’s off
Highway 515 near QuikTrip
should be tied up in the coming
weeks.
•Grading is underway at a par
cel of land on West Church Street
across from Crenshaw Automo
tive. A sign on the property says
it will be the future site of a retail
pavillion and medical office.
Small ads
big results
Progress classifieds
706-253-2457
Schools donate to CARES
Food Ministry-Financial Assistance
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The Christmas season always brings with it the
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nations CARES received from our local schools.
Students at Jasper Elementary School, Jasper Mid
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Continued from Page 1A
Standards
year, students and parents will
see only “subtle” changes in the
classroom, but teachers and sys
tems should see some long-sim
mering concerns addressed,
Greene said. The same textbooks
will be used; gone will be some
of the testing.
Though there will be Georgia
Milestone tests to replace the for
mer high-pressure CRCT,
Greene said educators will now
look at a whole “portfolio” of a
student’s work including class
room grades and other factors in
determining how to best address
that student.
“The state makes it look com
plicated,” she said. “But this is a
way to look at how we are doing
across a wide range of criteria in
stead of just from one high pres
sure test.”
Tied to the change in stan
dards will be more emphasis on
the College and Career Readi
ness Performance Index
(CCRPI) - which on the surface
looks as confusing and cumber
some as its name. A graph pre
sented at the January school
board meeting was a mind-
numbing collection of numbers
and acronyms. This system has
actually been in place since 2012
and offers a broad range of crite
ria to judge students, schools and
systems.
The forthcoming change from
the state will have a key effect of
giving teachers more flexibility
in addressing student needs and
at the same time keep the state
department of education satisfied
with what the local system is
doing, Greene said.
The change should address
the concerns of many teachers
who had become very frustrated
with so much dictated classroom
policy under Common Core.
“I think teachers would really
like to be left alone to teach in
their classrooms,” Greene said.
“But I think some will celebrate
this. If we had to make a change,
this was the one to make. They
are already familiar with this.”
Under the CCRPI, scores for
schools and systems take a wide
range of factors into account.
High schools have 27 “perfor
mance flags.” Elementary and
middle schools have 15 flags -
areas that are considered for their
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final score.
Schools and systems are
graded on a 100-point scale with
60 percent of the score coming
from Ga. Milestone test scores
(at the high school levels these
include end of course testing and
end of year testing). The other 40
percent are from “progress” and
“achievement gap.” Simply de
fined, progress and achievement
gap deal with sub-groups inside
the student body, ranging from
students with disability to gifted
program students and students
classified and economically dis
advantages.
In the CCRPI scores released
for 2014, Greene said Pickens
did very well compared to other
systems around the state. When
asked for a general characteriza
tion of where Pickens County
scored, Greene said, “Upper
middle. We weren’t the very top,
but we met state standards except
for a few bits and pieces.”
She told school board mem
bers at their most recent meeting
that scores have been revised and
updated to calculate for the pre
vious years and “it’s not apple to
oranges, it’s probably apples to
green apples.”
Greene said the scores are
fairly low across the state at this
time as administrators aren’t
clear on how to document or in
clude information on some of the
performance flags.
Pickens’ score overall would
show a decrease from 2013 to
2014, but Greene said this has to
do with the shifting parameters
of scoring and testing require
ments.
She particularly wanted par
ents to realize that the 69 scored
at the high school is not bad
when compared to other high
schools in the state. She said this
is not a scale where an A would
be 90 to 100. “The score at the
high school went down because
of changes in Math (curriculum)
but it’s really a pretty good
score,” she said.
A look at the state’s website
showed that Fannin County’s
high school also posted a
69,while Gilmer was 70.6.
District wide Pickens posted
a 74 score on the CCRPI; Gilmer
a 72 and Fannin a 76.5.
When asked the political
question of how long this new set
of standards will remain, Greene
said that would be tough to an
swer. “What I hope is they will
leave it alone long enough, 4-5
years, and then look at changes if
we need to make them,” she said.
Greene said regardless of
which system has been used,
standards are set by the state with
the curriculum determined at the
local level. And she stressed that
Pickens County public schools
have provided consistently great
education under all standards.
She said the schools and teachers
here exceed state standards on
most every criteria.
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