Newspaper Page Text
TUESDAY
January 13,2004
Volume 135, Number 8
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2003
Better Newspaper
Contest
Inside TODAY
A productive
Perry weekend
Both of Perry’s basket
ball teams enjoyed suc
cessful weekends. After
sweeping Region 4-AAA
opponent West Laurens
Friday on the road, the
Panthers and Lady
Panthers duplicat
ed the feat Saturday at
home against Mary
Persons.
Sports, page 11A
Later THIS WEEK
Horse listener'
visits Perry
It isn’t magic. It isn’t
trickery. There is no
clearer way to see the
power of kindness than to
see Monty
Roberts,
acclaimed
“horse
whisper
er,” at
work.
Coming
this week in
The HHJ
I
ROBERTS
Area DEATHS
Emma Grace Crane
Richard M. Lashley
Florence C. Linehan
Betty Jean O’Hearn
Obits, page 2A
INDEX
BUSINESS 8A
CLASSIFIED 14A
COMICS 10A
CROSSWORD ...10A
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS .. ,7A
TV LISTINGS ... .10A
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
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9
Photographic Services
200 D W BROOKS DR
ATHENS GA 30602-5016
3-DIGIT 306
Serving Houston County Since 1870
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LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
Houston loaders share goals for 2004
From staff reports
Holding onto Robins Air
Force Base, improving traf
fic flow and communications
within the community rank
high on the “wish lists” of
Houston County’s leaders as
2004 gets under way.
Ned Sanders, Houston
County Commission
Chairman, said that he con
siders the goal of keeping
Robins Air Force Base was
“overarching,” and listed
three other priorities for the
year ahead.
“I want to improve orderly
growth and development
Carpenter to push one zoning plan
Superintendent
will present
three plans to
board today
By Luci Joullian
HHJ Staff Writer
PERRY - Houston County
Schools Superintendent
Danny Carpenter
announced Monday that he
will recommend a zoning
plan for the county’s middle
and high schools to the
Board of Education at its
meeting today.
The school system’s zon
ing committee, made up of
school and parent represen
tatives, originally came up
with three plans, which
were presented at four pub
lic forums last year.
“We received a tremen
dous amount of public
input, and the board, my
staff and I listened careful
ly,” said the superintendent.
“Every effort has been made
to accommodate people’s
concerns whenever possible.
It is impossible, however, to
not move people and still
accomplish alleviating over
crowding.”
Today, Carpenter will
present three plans to the
board for a final vote, but
only one of them, known as
“Plan One,” is one of the
original three plans.
Another plan, known as
“Feeder System,” allows for
students from all of the
county’s middle schools to
attend the same high school
with the same group of
peers.
The plan Carpenter will
recommend, known as
“Forum Changes” or
“Superintendent’s Plan,” is
based on input from the
public forums and consider
ation of proximity and traf
fic flows. Carpenter said he
supports the plan because it
moves only 938 students, as
opposed to up to 2,264 who
would be affected under
other plans and, Carpenter
noted, most of those stu
dents being moved are from
over-capacity schools
including Bonaire Middle,
Feagin Mill Middle and
Houston County High
schools. Under this plan, all
students who currently
attend Northside and
Warner Robins High schools
will continue to attend those
schools. All three zoning
plans are available for
See PLANS, page 8A
See for yourself
All three plans can be
examined on the school
board's Web site,
www.hcbe.net
www.hhjnews.com
and the
relationship
between the
urban, sub
urban and
rural areas
in Houston
County,” he
said. “I
think that’s
crucial, and
SANDERS
would include zoning com
patibility, meeting the infra
structure needs, and work
ing on roads, water, and
storm drainage, as well as
beautification and develop
ment, and the removal of
derelict and abandoned
HIGH
SCHOOLS
FORUM CHANGES
LEGEND
HOUSTON COUNTY HS
NORTHSIDE HS
PERRY HS
r ~\\ WARNER ROBINS HS
MIDDLE
SCHOOLS
FORUM CHANGES
LEGEND
BONAIRE
( ' | 'EAGIN MILL
NORTHSIDE
EgSl PERRY
HUNTINGTON
THOMSON
WARNER ROBINS
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structures.
“Secondly, I want to make
Houston County govern
ment more effective and effi
cient,” he said, “and meet
the needs of our citizens
while staying well below the
tax cap.”
He gave better communi
cations as his third goal, say
ing that he wanted to see “a
more informative and
responsive” government.
Danny Carpenter,
superintendent of the
Houston County School
System said, “During 2004,
our system will continue to
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strive to
deliver
quality edu
cation. We
will work to
maintain or
exceed our
students’
excellent
achieve
ments and
CARPENTER
test scores. The hiring and
retention of quality profes
sionals will be a priority,
with our goal being to hire
the best people to fill
teacher and leadership
vacancies to prepare for the
2004-05 school year. One of
an Evans Family Newspaper
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Will
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the most critical and press
ing needs that will be
addressed in 2004 is to
secure property for future
growth to benefit the system
for many years to come. On
Jan. 13,1 will have a recom
mendation for the board on
zoning which would become
effective for the new school
year in August. I will contin
ue to promote honest and
open dialogue and communi
cation and will focus on pro
viding good customer serv
ice at all of our schools and
the central office. As a sys
tem, we will be committed to
See WISH, page SA