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THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
Erwin gives school technology update
ERWIN SPEAKS TO CHAMBER MEMBERS
Banks County School Superintendent Chris Erwin presented the pro
gram at the monthly breakfast meeting of the Banks County Chamber
of Commerce on Thursday. Erwin said it is the goal of the Banks County
School System to lead the way in student achievement.
Photo by Sharon Hogan
BY SHARON HOGAN
Banks County School Superintendent
Chris Erwin said it is the goal of the Banks
County School System to lead the way in
student achievement. This is one item Erwin
discussed at the August breakfast meeting of
the Banks County Chamber of Commerce.
“Technology will light the way in educa
tion,” he said. “Seventy-five percent of the
homes in the community have the internet.
Every Banks County school has at least two
complete computer labs for the students to
use.”
Erwin gave a power point presentation on
how technology is used in the classroom.
Erwin said the school system is putting
cell phones to use as a teaching mechanism
for the students, also.
“When you walk down the halls of the
schools you will find most students have a
cell phone,” Erwin said. “We are trying to uti
lize them as a teaching mechanism.”
The county currently has 2,900 students
enrolled.
“Enrollment will continue to grow until the
end of October,” Erwin said.
Erwin said for every 100 students enrolled,
that means another five teachers and five
classrooms.
Erwin said in the Banks County School
System 57 percent of the kids receive free or
reduced lunches.
“For a lot of kids, the best place they go is
to school,” Erwin said.
Erwin said this year 87 high school stu
dents and 100 middle school students re
ceived credit at summer school. Eighty per
cent of Banks County eighth graders passed
the CRCT this year, Erwin said.
Chamber member Bill Jackson asked Er
win if he had any thoughts on year-round
school. Erwin said the financials would be a
problem for Banks County.
“I don’t foresee it happening in the near
future,” Erwin said.
Chamber director Tara Fulcher asked Er
win about the use of alternative fuel for the
buses to cut down on the cost. Erwin said
the school system is taking measures to re
duce the use of the buses to cut down on fuel
costs.
“We have cut out some field trips,” Erwin
said.
Erwin was recently selected by his peers
as one three superintendents in the state to
be nominated for a national honor, chamber
member Jim McLendon told the group.
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business at the breakfast:
•Fulcher said Tommy Fowler has been
named as manager of Randstadt.
•Michaela McKenzie, Atlanta Land
Group Real Estate Brokerage, was also rec
ognized as a guest. McKenzie said her com
pany is handling the fisting for The Pottery
property.
•Annette Raymond said the next class for
CASA volunteers is scheduled to begin on
September 9.
The next regularly scheduled breakfast
meeting of the Banks County Chamber of
Commerce is set for 8 a.m. on Thursday,
Sept. 11, in the meeting room at First Geor
gia Bank.
Send us your
vacation news
The Banks County News oc
casionally features travel news,
with first-person accounts sub
mitted by locals, along with
photographs from the trip.
Articles and photographs
may be dropped off at The
News office in Homer or
mailed to: Angela Gary, The
Banks County News, P.O. Box
920, Homer, Ga., 30547.
No reason required for absentee voting
Voters will no longer have to give a rea
son for voting early when they go the reg
istrar’s office during the 45-day absentee
voting period.
In the past, absentee voting was only al
lowed for several specific reasons. A new
law now makes absentee voting open to ev
eryone regardless of the reason they want
to vote early.
This is also the case with mail-in absentee
voting. Voters may go to the State of Geor
gia election site and request that an absen
tee ballot be mailed to them. No reason has
to be given. This ballot is then mailed to the
county voter registrar’s office.
In Banks County, the voter registrar of
fice is located in the new county annex lo
cated in Homer.
Early voting for the November election
will begin on Sept. 22.
Advanced voting will still be offered the
week prior to an election. Advance vot
ing for the November election will be Oct.
27-31.
Maysville DDA discusses
legality of its directors
BY JUSTIN POOLE
The big topic of discussion
at last week’s Maysville Down
town Development Authority
meeting was whether members
of the group are legally allowed
to serve on the board.
According to the regulations
set forth by the state, DDAs
have to have seven directors to
compose the voting body. The
question arose if any, or all, those
members have to have some kind
of interest in the downtown area.
During the discussion, Melody
Stancil, chairperson of the DDA,
said that during training, she was
told that four of the seven direc
tors had to own, operate or be a
managing person of a business
inside of the downtown area.
Due to the confusing nature of
the wording at that training ses
sion, Stancil asked Maysville’s
city attorney Gary Freeman to
check on the requirements for
board members.
Another issue discussed was
how separate the DDA should be
from the city council and if the
council or mayor have a say in
DDA business.
In other business, the DDA
discussed bylaws for the group.
Stancil presented copies of Jef
ferson’s DDA bylaws as an ex
ample.
Maysville previously had a set
enacted sometime around 2002,
when the previous DDA was
formed. The bylaws would ad
dress attendance rules for mem
bers, nominations for directors
and the voting procedure, among
other things.
Matters that were voted on
at the meeting included the ap
proval of a travel reimbursement
form for Stancil similar to forms
currently used by other boards
and businesses. The reimburse
ment to be used will follow IRS
guidelines and be retroactive to
July 1 of this year.
Maysville DDA monthly
meetings were also voted to be set
on the same night as city council
meetings so they would be more
convenient for residents.
But Mary Hart said she did
not like having the meeting on
the same night because she felt it
would limit how much the DDA
could discuss since the council
uses the same location for its
meeting as the city council.
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