Jesse Fortson Just Took Over Jesse Fortson Just T Boys...
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Tribune The Leader JANUARY 13, 2010 50¢ Vol. 126 Issue No. 2 Legal Organ For Peach County, City of Fort Valley and City Of Byron An Evans Family Newspaper Look What's Inside This Week's Tribune! • www.fvleadertribune.com Serving Peach County For Over 100 Years Peach County's Newspaper Check Out Photographs of Peach County / Perry Basketball Game and The Miss Peach County High School Pageant Online at www.fvl eadertribune.com Seasons Very Different for Boys & Girls Hoops Teams Lady Wildcats Saddle Thorobrettes on Their Way to 10th Win ( SPORTS ( LOCAL Jesse Fortson Just Took Over the Pulpit at Byron Baptist Byron Mayor and Council Sets up Committees for the New Year Miss PCHS 2010 Crowned Saturday Night Austyn Brooke Holly, newly crowned Miss Peach County High School for 2010, receives a hug and roses from Principal Bruce Mackey Saturday night. At right, Glyn Turner and Donna Wade share the Miss Congeniality Award. Glyn was chosen First Runner Up and Donna was Second Runner Up from the field of six contestants. See more photos and read the story on Page B2. Photos by Danny Gilleland Geyser Erupts On Fort Valley's Main Street Fort Valley Utility Commission workers repair a broken fire plug on the east end of Main Street near the railroad tracks Monday afternoon. A tractor trailer rig reportedly backed over the fire plug, causing the eruption of water. Photo by Danny Gilleland 2009 and 2010: Mayor Stumbo’s Review and Preview The calendar causes us to look in the rear view mirror at the year just past and in the windshield for the year coming. This past year has certainly been a challenge for the American people as we have found ourselves in a serious recession. In fact, all the nations of the world have been affect- ed. Economic tremors circle the globe and no longer are isolated occurrences. Certainly this economic struggle testi- fies to the fact that “the world is flat,” the title of a popular book written by Tom Friedman. Our city government has strained and struggled to maintain necessary services on a lower budget. Through the mandatory five-percent budget reduction in midyear and a hiring freeze, we were able to finish the fiscal year in fairly good shape. All of our departments finished the year under budget. Health care costs far in excess of budget caused us to finish the year in the red. However, we had adequate reserves to cover the excess. See Mayor Page A4 From Football to the Lunch Room, Peach Schools Score High By Victor Kulkosky News Editor With not much to vote on in their first regular meeting of 2010, the Peach County Board of Education had the chance to sit back and applaud a bevy of high achievers from around the school system. A couple of them lead off with the inspiration, a recently introduced item on the monthly agenda. Kara English from Hunt Elementary School recited an acrostic poem, a form in which the first letters of each line combine to spell a word. Reginald Gray, also from HES, recited a chain poem, in which the last word of one sentence is also the first word of the next sen- tence. The HES students were among 39 students from the county’s elemen- tary and middle schools selected for the annual Young Writers of America poetry contest. The winners will be published in a book to be released later this month. Mary Jean Banter, Gifted Coordinator for the schools district, told the board that only 20 percent of YWA entrants get chosen for publication, so it was an extraordinary achievement for so many Peach County students to win. All the winners received framed certificates of achievement. The winners present last week got theirs from BOE Chairman Jody Usry. Sara Mason, Parent/Community Liaison introduced Joe Ann Denning, Special Education/Student Services Director, and announced that the Peach County School system has been rec- ognized by the Georgia Council for Administrators of Special Education (G-CASE) for meeting the state target for educating students in the least restrictive environment, and for reduc- ing the number of drop-outs. Mason also announced that Hunt Primary School won fiscal year 2010 Title I Distinguished School status for making Adequate Yearly Progress for eight straight years. HPS has earned Title I Distinguished School status for six years. (Title I schools have high percentages of low-income students.) Mason also introduced Darlene Swihart, Director of School Nutrition, who told the board about the system’s recognition for achieving high student participation in school and lunch pro- grams during the 2007-2008 school year. Swihart offered some numbers to highlight the achievement. For instance, the School Nutrition Program of the Georgia Department of Education set 57 percent participation in break- fast as the level for state recognition for elementary schools. The state average is 44 percent. Hunt primary served breakfast to 77 percent of students each day. The middleschool recogni- tion level for middl school breakfast is 40 percent, with average participation of 31 percent. Fort Valley Middle hit 51 percent. For lunch, the bar is set a lot higher. Swihart noted the state recognition level for elementary school lunch participation is 89 percent, with the state average being 85 percent. Hunt Elementary and Hunt Primary both achieved 97 percent participation. See BOE Page A3 2009 YEAR IN REVIEW: PEACH COUNTY SCHOOLS By Victor Kulkosky News Editor The year just past brought new con- troversy to a school system that had just gotten back on an even keel. In January, the schools introduced the public to the new school zones that would operate with the opening of the new Kay Road and Hunt Elementary schools. Senior administrators had to answer the complaints of parents who were confused and sometimes angered over the shapes of the new zones and longer bus rides for their children. The culprit, according to administrators, was the U.S. Department of Justice, still using guidelines from a 40-year- old desegregation order. Activity and controversy sped up in the summer. In July, the annual Adequate Yearly Progress report from the Georgia Department of Education showed the Peach County schools had failed to meet AYP again. Around the same time, the Board of Education announced its intent to raise the mill rate to 17 from 15.462. Then came the surprise announcement that the schools would switch to a four-day week, the result of a continuing series of deep cuts in state funding. When the time came to officially vote on the mill-rate increase on July 30, not enough BOE members were physically present to vote. That let the public criticism continue for a couple of more weeks. An argument arose about whether the millage increase was really greater than announced, because the recent property revaluation actu- ally dictated a rollback rather than an increase. When the dust settled, the BOE went ahead and voted 3-2 to raise the mill rate to 17. In August, Superintendent of Schools Susan Clark introduced a school improvement plan. Highlights of the plan included increasing the number of higher-level learning tasks and gather- ing better data in order to determine the needs of each student. At the heart of the plan was a determination to stop “teaching to the test.” The year drew to a close with the annual acknowledgement of the best of the best: the Peach County Schools Teachers of the Year. Those teachers are: Gina Clark, Peach County High and System-wide; Vanessa Crafter, Fort Valley Middle; Nita Keys, Byron Elementary; Denise Williams, Kay Road Elementary; and Charlandria Glover, Hunt Elementary. The year closed with news of a setback. Although the new school buildings are ready to occupy, months of unusually wet weather had pre- vented paving driveways and parking lots, pushing back the opening to late January. More rain has fallen since then. We’ll see if it keeps raining on the parade.
Transcript of Jesse Fortson Just Took Over Jesse Fortson Just T Boys...
The Leader TribuneThe Leader TribuneThe Leader TribuneThe Leader TribuneThe Leader TribuneJANUARY 13, 2010 50¢ Vol. 126 Issue No. Issue No. 2 2
Legal Organ For Peach County, City of Fort Valley and City Of Byron
An Evans Family Newspaper
Look What's Inside This Week's Tribune! • www.fvleadertribune.com
Serving Peach County For Over 100 Years
Peach County's NewspaperPeach County's NewspaperPeach County's Newspaper
Check Out Check Out Photographs of Peach County / Perry Basketball Game and
The Miss Peach County High School Pageant Online at www.fvleadertribune.com
Seasons Very Different for Boys & Girls Hoops Teams
Lady Wildcats Saddle Thorobrettes on Their
Way to 10th Win
( SPORTS ( LOCALJesse Fortson Just Took Over Jesse Fortson Just Took Over
the Pulpit at Byron Baptist
Byron Mayor and Council Sets up Committees for the
New Year
Seasons Very Different for
( SPORTS
Miss PCHS 2010 Crowned Saturday NightAustyn Brooke Holly, newly crowned Miss Peach County High School for 2010, receives a hug and roses from Principal Bruce Mackey Saturday night. At right, Glyn Turner and Donna Wade share the Miss Congeniality Award. Glyn was chosen First Runner Up and Donna was Second Runner Up from the field of six contestants. See more photos and read the story on Page B2.
Photos by Danny Gilleland
Geyser Erupts On Fort Valley's Main Street
Fort Valley Utility Commission workers repair a broken fire plug on the east end of Main Street near the railroad tracks Monday afternoon. A tractor trailer rig reportedly backed over the fire plug, causing the eruption of water. Photo by Danny Gilleland
2009 and 2010: Mayor Stumbo’s Review and Preview
The calendar causes us to look in the rear view mirror at the year just past and in the windshield for the year coming. This past year has certainly been a challenge for the American people as we have found ourselves in a serious recession. In fact, all the nations of the world have been affect-ed. Economic tremors circle the globe and no longer are isolated occurrences. Certainly this economic struggle testi-fies to the fact that “the world is flat,” the title of a popular book written by Tom Friedman.
Our city government has strained and struggled to maintain necessary services on a lower budget. Through the mandatory five-percent budget reduction in midyear and a hiring freeze, we were able to finish the fiscal year in fairly good shape. All of our departments finished the year under budget. Health care costs far in excess of budget caused us to finish the year in the red. However, we had adequate reserves to cover the excess.
See Mayor Page A4
From Football to the Lunch Room, Peach Schools Score HighBy Victor Kulkosky
News Editor
With not much to vote on in their first regular meeting of 2010, the Peach County Board of Education had the chance to sit back and applaud a bevy of high achievers from around the school system.
A couple of them lead off with the inspiration, a recently introduced item on the monthly agenda. Kara English from Hunt Elementary School recited an acrostic poem, a form in which the first letters of each line combine to spell a word. Reginald Gray, also
from HES, recited a chain poem, in which the last word of one sentence is also the first word of the next sen-tence. The HES students were among 39 students from the county’s elemen-tary and middle schools selected for the annual Young Writers of America poetry contest. The winners will be published in a book to be released later this month.
Mary Jean Banter, Gifted Coordinator for the schools district, told the board that only 20 percent of YWA entrants get chosen for publication, so it was an extraordinary achievement for so many Peach County students to win. All the winners received framed certificates of
achievement. The winners present last week got theirs from BOE Chairman Jody Usry.
Sara Mason, Parent/Community Liaison introduced Joe Ann Denning, Special Education/Student Services Director, and announced that the Peach County School system has been rec-ognized by the Georgia Council for Administrators of Special Education (G-CASE) for meeting the state target for educating students in the least restrictive environment, and for reduc-ing the number of drop-outs.
Mason also announced that Hunt Primary School won fiscal year 2010 Title I Distinguished School status for
making Adequate Yearly Progress for eight straight years. HPS has earned Title I Distinguished School status for six years. (Title I schools have high percentages of low-income students.)
Mason also introduced Darlene Swihart, Director of School Nutrition, who told the board about the system’s recognition for achieving high student participation in school and lunch pro-grams during the 2007-2008 school year. Swihart offered some numbers to highlight the achievement. For instance, the School Nutrition Program of the Georgia Department of Education set 57 percent participation in break-fast as the level for state recognition for
elementary schools. The state average is 44 percent. Hunt primary served breakfast to 77 percent of students each day. The middleschool recogni-tion level for middl school breakfast is 40 percent, with average participation of 31 percent. Fort Valley Middle hit 51 percent.
For lunch, the bar is set a lot higher. Swihart noted the state recognition level for elementary school lunch participation is 89 percent, with the state average being 85 percent. Hunt Elementary and Hunt Primary both achieved 97 percent participation.
See BOE Page A3
2009 YEAR IN REVIEW: PEACH COUNTY SCHOOLSBy Victor Kulkosky
News Editor
The year just past brought new con-troversy to a school system that had just gotten back on an even keel.
In January, the schools introduced the public to the new school zones that would operate with the opening of the new Kay Road and Hunt Elementary schools. Senior administrators had to answer the complaints of parents who were confused and sometimes angered over the shapes of the new zones and
longer bus rides for their children. The culprit, according to administrators, was the U.S. Department of Justice, still using guidelines from a 40-year-old desegregation order.
Activity and controversy sped up in the summer. In July, the annual Adequate Yearly Progress report from the Georgia Department of Education showed the Peach County schools had failed to meet AYP again. Around the same time, the Board of Education announced its intent to raise the mill rate to 17 from 15.462. Then came the surprise announcement that the
schools would switch to a four-day week, the result of a continuing series of deep cuts in state funding.
When the time came to officially vote on the mill-rate increase on July 30, not enough BOE members were physically present to vote. That let the public criticism continue for a couple of more weeks. An argument arose about whether the millage increase was really greater than announced, because the recent property revaluation actu-ally dictated a rollback rather than an increase. When the dust settled, the BOE went ahead and voted 3-2 to raise
the mill rate to 17.In August, Superintendent of Schools
Susan Clark introduced a school improvement plan. Highlights of the plan included increasing the number of higher-level learning tasks and gather-ing better data in order to determine the needs of each student. At the heart of the plan was a determination to stop “teaching to the test.”
The year drew to a close with the annual acknowledgement of the best of the best: the Peach County Schools Teachers of the Year. Those teachers are: Gina Clark, Peach County High
and System-wide; Vanessa Crafter, Fort Valley Middle; Nita Keys, Byron Elementary; Denise Williams, Kay Road Elementary; and Charlandria Glover, Hunt Elementary.
The year closed with news of a setback. Although the new school buildings are ready to occupy, months of unusually wet weather had pre-vented paving driveways and parking lots, pushing back the opening to late January. More rain has fallen since then. We’ll see if it keeps raining on the parade.
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