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PAGE 8A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 23. 2023
New school start times proposed
Public Q&A meeting Tuesday, Feb. 28
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Greetings!
This month, I’m really excited to announce that Piedmont hospitals, including Pied
mont Mountainside, have completed our respective Community Health Needs Assess
ments (CHNAs), which is part of our regulatory responsibility as part of a not-for-profit
health system. We will begin implementation on Nov. 15 of new strategies to improve
the overall health of the communities we serve.
Piedmont’s Community Benefit team performed interviews throughout Georgia with
more than 200 stakeholders, who provided insight into the particular health needs in
their respective communities. We appreciate everyone who contributed to these inter
views.
I think it’s important to be transparent with our communities about our priorities and
how we plan to accomplish our goals. Among the priorities that Piedmont Mountainside’s
board of directors have ratified are:
Graph/Pickens County School District
Proposed start, end, and opening times for Pickens County schools.
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff Writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Pickens County school
system leaders have pro
posed new start times for the
2023-2024 year, which has
elementary students starting
earlier and junior high and
high school students starting
later in the morning.
The community is invited
to a Q&A session on Tues
day, Feb. 28 from 4:30-5:30
p.m. to discuss the issue.
Under the proposal, all el
ementary schools would start
their day at 7:45 a.m. with
school to let out at 2:15 p.m..
Jasper Middle School would
start at 8:15 a.m. and end at
2:45 p.m. Pickens Junior
High and Pickens High
would begin at 8:30 a.m. and
end at 3 p.m.
A FAQ sheet released by
the school system goes into
some detail about why the
changes are being consid
ered. It states that elementary
students would benefit be
cause the earlier start times
allow them to begin their
school day when they are
more alert, adding that re
search shows that elementary
students perform better ear
lier in the day.
For middle schoolers, the
change would align middle
school students’ schedules
with junior high and high
school students.
For high schoolers, sys
tem leaders say research
shows older students per
form better with later start
times. The change would not
impact extracurricular activ
ities or students’ ability to
work after school.
There is a community sur
vey about the proposed
changes on the Pickens
County School District web
site and also on their Face-
book page.
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•. Ensure access to affordable and appropriate health and dental care
We will work to ensure that all community members have access to affordable
health, mental and dental care, regardless of income. This includes partnerships
with community-based organizations, as well as internal programming to increase
access to services.
•. Promote healthy behaviors to reduce preventable instances of chronic conditions
We will actively promote healthy behaviors and encourage community members
to stop risky behaviors, such as smoking. This includes widespread health educa
tion and programming.
•. Promote mental well-being
We will work with the community to decrease substance abuse and addiction, as
well as promote mental wellbeing for all community members, with a particular
focus on children and youth.
As a member of the Pickens/Gilmer counties area for 18 years, Piedmont Mountain
side’s goal is to protect the health of our community members, whether or not they visit
us inside the walls of our hospital. We will engage with the community to promote early
prevention, detection, treatment and risk-reduction in these key areas with the goal of
improving our community’s overall health.
Piedmont Vice President of External Affairs Thomas Worthy recently said, “Piedmont
exists to serve its communities and the Community Health Needs Assessment helps us
to see the areas in which our resources can make a positive difference in the lives of
community members who are most in need”. I believe this is especially true in small,
rural communities like Pickens and Gilmer counties. Thomas continued by saying, “Pied
mont empowers Georgians by helping them to reach their full potential and by being
more responsive to the needs of our communities we are helping the citizens of Georgia
to live healthier, fuller lives.”
A CHNA is a measurement of the relative health or well-being of a given community.
It's both the activity and the end-product of identifying and prioritizing unmet community
health needs, which is performed by:
•. Gathering and analyzing data;
•. Soliciting the feedback of the community and key stakeholders; and,
•. Evaluating Piedmont’s past work and future opportunities.
Through this assessment, Piedmont is better informed to understand local health
challenges, identify health trends in our communities, determine gaps in the current
health delivery system and craft a plan to address those gaps and the identified health
needs.
I look forward to working on our implementation strategies for addressing each of the
priorities identified in our CHNA and positively impacting the health of our communities.
In Good Health,
Denise Ray, President & CEO
Piedmont Mountainside Hospital
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