About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 2020)
8A Weekend Edition - September 12-13, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCAL All Gainesville students now back to school BY THOMAS HARTWELL thartwell@gainesvilletimes.com Thursday marked the first day of full attendance in Gaines ville City Schools, and besides a slower-than-normal afternoon student pickup, it was smooth sailing, according to parents and staff. Pre-K through second graders, sixth graders and ninth and 10th graders returned to in-person class on Tuesday, Sept. 8, after three weeks of virtual school. The remainder of the students returned on Thursday, Sept. 10. Phased-in return a success,teachers and staff say After a successful and seem ingly incident-free first day back on Tuesday, the introduction of the second half of the student body at school buildings across the district hasn’t seemed to phase school staff, according to interviews with teachers and administrators. “We did not have any added challenges. Third through fifth graders came in this morning with their masks already on,” said Gwenell Brown, principal of Fair Street International Acad emy. “I had to give out one mask this morning.” Brown said it seemed stu dents were excited to be back and see their friends and teach ers or join their siblings who had returned in days prior, but it also seemed that the educa tion they’d received from both parents and school staff lead ing up to their return to school buildings paid off. She said she’d even wandered outside during a recess period and glanced at the sectioned-off areas where stu dents were supposed to remain only with their own class to find students obeying those guide lines without much need for enforcement. Gainesville Superintendent Jeremy Williams said Thursday that increased traffic during afternoon student pickup was to be expected, given the larger number of parents who are driv ing their children to school dur ing the pandemic. Otherwise, Williams said, reports from other schools have sounded much like Brown’s — smooth sailing. “Tuesday and Wednesday went extremely well. Being able to see our students and employ ees interacting in a much needed in-person environment is good for everyone,” he said. “Today was more of the same.” Overall, Brown said it was “refreshing” to have students back, and the phased-in approach allowed staff to properly intro duce students to buildings that might be new to them. At Gainesville Exploration Academy, Principal Renee Boatright and first grade teacher Alexis Koch reported much of the same. Koch said some of the younger children struggle to remember to wear their masks over their nose and mouth or properly social dis tance, but they seem to be adjust ing well. She said keeping classes together in one classroom to cut down on class transitions has helped reduce exposure. Thursday’s addition of grades third through fifth was smooth at Gainesville Exploration, as K-2 and 3-5 are in two separate wings of the building, according to Boatright. The principal also said she noticed a slightly delayed afternoon pickup period, but she said she believed that once the students get used to the proce dure, the process would return to a normal pace. The school system is reporting COVID-19 cases on its website weekly, with two as of Sept. 7. Checking back in with parents Matt Parrish, a father of two who The Times spoke with on Tuesday, gave a similar response on Thursday. He said while he’d been nervous to send his sixth grader, Violet, to school on Tues day, after hearing her reports of the school and students being cautious and following health and safety precautions, he felt “much better.” “(Violet) came back saying it went pretty darn well,” Parrish said Thursday, adding that his younger daughter, Elle, had been excited to start her first in-person day of fifth grade at Enota Mul tiple Intelligences Academy that morning. “They haven’t had any complaints, especially in regard to being too close or pandemic- type concerns.” Parrish said it seems the schools are trying their best to keep students and staff as safe as possible. He said he was happy with the phased-in approach, saying it was “really smart” to introduce new school buildings to upcoming kindergartners, sixth graders and high school freshmen. “After the way the first couple days went .. it totally made us not as worried this morning with Elle. We were a lot less nervous this morning than we were Tues day,” Parrish said. When 6-year-old Skylar Dailey returned home from school at Mundy Mill Academy on Tues day, her first day back, she had few complaints about the COVID- 19 precautions in place and was ready to let her older sister know what to expect come Thursday morning, according to Shaqua- nus Woods, the two girls’ mother. Woods told The Times on Tues day that though she felt it was important to send Skylar back to school for social and educational reasons, she was nervous, given the ongoing pandemic and the inability to control the actions of other children in school build ings. But on Thursday, she told The Times she felt much more at ease sending 8-year-old Sasha Dailey to Mundy Mill, having been given an update from Sky lar in the days prior. “She seemed like she enjoyed being back at school. She enjoyed seeing her teacher and talking to friends,” Woods said. “The only complaint she had was not hav ing contact with her friends that are in other classes.” Woods said her daughter told her about having to stay in one classroom all day to keep iso lated from other students as much as possible and having to stay in a particular “zone” at recess. She said Skylar shared that she and those in her class had to play “air tag,” instead of actu ally touching each other and that she wished she could move out of her chair and classroom dur ing the day. But, Woods added, her 6-year-old knows the impor tance of social distancing. She said Skylar told her she’d warned another student against hugging her to stick to the needed COVID- 19 precautions and has adopted mask wearing as a sort of fashion statement. When Sasha left for school Thursday morning, Woods said she hoped the more outgoing of her two children would be able to refrain from hugging her friends and others out of a need for social interaction. Woods said she’s still nervous about certain aspects of the daily routines at school, but less so now, having heard that the schools are taking the precautions seriously. “Sasha said she enjoyed being back in person,” Woods said. “She feels even though she has new guidelines, she would prefer to be able to see friends and teachers over staying at home all day.” And while she said she noticed a delay in afternoon pickups, Thursday’s process was shorter. Overall, it seems the schools have started adjusting to educat ing during a pandemic, Woods said. Two new dining choices are on the way in South Hall Artist's rendering A rendering of what Rosati’s sports pub, planned in Flowery Branch, is expected to look like. BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com More dining choices are coming to the Braselton end of Spout Springs Road in South Hall. A Huey Magoo’s Chicken Tenders and a Rosati’s restaurant are among the tenants that will be part of a new, two-building devel opment at the site north of Friendship Springs Boule vard, said Joanne Liu, who is developing the site. Also planned is a Burn Boot Camp, a national fit ness chain, Liu said. “We think that’s an extremely powerful inter section,” Huey Magoo’s franchisee Dean Thomp son said Friday, Sept. 11, of Spout Springs Road at nearby Friendship Road. “It’s definitely a destination for grocery stores, but we also feel that the amount of food options in that area is to our benefit. We’re going to be a very good fit there. ” Other company officials couldn’t be reached for comment. Florida-based Huey Magoo’s announced in 2018 it was looking to move into the Atlanta market with up to 46 stores and was scouting out locations in Hall County, including Braselton. “We’re not the big free standing drive-thrus like Zaxby’s or Chick-fil-A,” said Andy Howard, Huey Magoo’s president and CEO, at the time. “Neighborhood strip center locations — about 2,000 square feet — is what we look for. We like to be near suburban or urban (areas), colleges and high schools. Those are great demographics for us.” Rosati’s, which serves Italian food and specializes in Chicago-style pizza, has locations in Cumming and Hoschton, according to its website. Burn Boot Camp says on its website that by the end of 2016, it had more than 300 locations nationally and was “relentlessly on their way to awarding 1,000 locations domestically in their first six years.” Grading is underway on the site, which is also next to a medical office building. Building permits haven’t been issued yet for the proj ect, said Kevin D. Keller, Braselton’s planning and development director. Liu said she hopes the project will be completed in 2021. Initially, Liu had planned for a miniature golf course on the site, but those plans fell through. Liu also has developed a nearby Circle K gas station. Brought to you only by ^\li% I^igkt Choice" HOMES Energy Efficient Homes. Guaranteed. jacksonemc.com/rightchoice " Jackson EMC is a company we trust... so the fact that the Right Choice program is Jackson EMC's, meant our home would be designed and built to very high standards. I tell anyone buying a home, if you have a choice, get a Right Choice home. We have been extremely pleased with everything." - Dan Xiong ► Watch our video series at jacksonemc.com/rightchoice.
