BREAKING NEWS
LOCAL NEWS
Powerball Frenzy in NWGA
Sunday, May 19, 2013 -- 1:00 pm EDT
By: Laura-Jane Hatcher (WRGA News)
Many Georgians awoke this morning to a profound sense of loss---none of us won the Power Ball.
Unfortunately, the winning $590 million ticket was sold in Florida, with CNN reporting the golden numbers purchased at a Publix in a suburb of Tampa.
If it’s any consolation to the Northwest Georgians who thought they’d be sipping champagne in the back of a limousine today, several local businesses are reporting a profound economic impact from Powerball ticket sales.
Razoan Chezara, owner of Cigarette and Cigar off of Shorter Ave. in Rome, says his store was covered up both Friday and Saturday with people buying tickets.
“So many, we are selling so many Powerball tickets. It’s a hard day today here,” he said on Saturday. “Everyone is just asking for the Powerball.”
Saturday’s jackpot, though falling short of its $600 Million projection, still broke records, and sits as the second largest lottery grand prize ever.
Rome Braves Postpone Sunday Game
Sunday, May 19, 2013 -- 12:33 pm EDT
By: Rome Braves Press Release
Rome, GA – The Rome Braves have postponed today’s game against the Asheville Tourists due to inclement weather. The game will be rescheduled for a later date.
The Bark at the Park event has been rescheduled for Sunday, June 2nd.
Fans holding tickets for today’s game may exchange them for any future regular season home game in 2013 based on availability. The Braves take on the Augusta Greenjackets tomorrow at 7 pm.
... Read more
In Light of RIF Controversy, Floyd Schools Assigned 'Charter' Consultant
Sunday, May 19, 2013 -- 11:54 am EDT
By: Laura-Jane Hatcher (WRGA News)
The decision on whether or not the Floyd County Schools’ RIF Plan violated their charter has been postponed. In the meantime, the state board of education has assigned a charter “consultant” to the ailing school system.
The verdict came Friday in a letter to Superintendent McDaniel, following their May 8th meeting in Atlanta. In that letter, the State’s Charter Committee Chair Brian Burdette praises McDaniel’s commitment to upholding the charter, while at the same time condemning the board’s decision to enact the 120 employee layoff without school governance input.
“While we were disappointed that you did not follow the past practice of charter system budget development in the Floyd County Schools and that your Board of Education did not hold you accountable for doing so, we are confident that the personal commitment you emphatically shared with us last week, along with the support of your Board of Education, to fully implement your charter system contract, restore the culture of your charter system,” Burdettee states.
The committee has assigned the schools a charter consultant, who will aid the system in restoring its “charter culture”. This administrator will assist in charter-related issues the county faces, including the still unsettled budget, the College and Career Academy, and Block scheduling, which the state committee has claimed is integral to maintaining charter status.
Burdette questioned whether or not Floyd even wanted to pursue a charter contract with the state, citing the estimated $2.5 million in savings the schools anticipate from chopping the Block. Floyd only receives an extra $881,000 in per-pupil revenue from the state for their charter status.
Floyd County School officials have been invited to the Charter Committee’s July 18th meeting for a follow-up discussion on Block Scheduling.
A full copy of the letter may be viewed below:
Floyd County Schools
To: Jeff McDaniel, Superintendent
Floyd County Schools
cc: Members, Floyd County Board of Education
Members, Charter Advisory Committee
From: Brian Burdette, Chair
Members, State Board of Education Charter Committee
Date: May 17, 2013
Re: Restoring the Charter System Culture in Floyd County Schools
Thank you for joining the State Board of Education Charter Committee discussion on May 8, 2013. We appreciated you making the trip in and fielding all of our questions. We also appreciated the presence of your Board of Education’s Vice Chair at the meeting.
We were pleased with the commitment you made – personally and on behalf of your Board of Education – to return to the past practices of the Floyd County Schools in which local school governing teams were included in all aspects of the budget development and decision making process. This commitment was critical for us to hear. Based on your verbal commitment, the Charter Committee will temporarily set aside the issue of whether or not your initial failure to include your LSGTs and the LSCC constituted a breach of your charter system contract. However, we will be focused now on your leadership in restoring the charter system culture in the Floyd County Schools in the months ahead.
Several things were discussed in the Charter Committee meeting that are described in this memo. We will be watching closely as you and your Board of Education follow up on the RIF policy and LSGT participation in the District’s budget development process, the block scheduling issue, and your charter renewal process. We go into some detail on each of these issues below so that you will understand clearly the type of expectations we have.
In addition, the Department of Education will support your efforts by assigning its charter system consultant, Dr. Sherrie Gibney-Sherman, to begin working with you in June 2013 on your efforts to reengage your school communities on these issues, including the development of a potential charter amendment regarding block scheduling. Dr. Gibney-Sherman will also assist you in preparing for the initiation of the Floyd County Schools charter system renewal process that will yield a board-approved application to be submitted to the State Board of Education by November 2014. Dr. Gibney-Sherman’s successful work with other school districts in developing both initial charter system applications and charter system renewal applications will provide a solid basis for helping you, your team, your school community, and your Board of Education develop a successful charter system renewal application. Sherrie will reach out to you shortly to set up her first meeting with you.
Finally, we understand that after reviewing our expectations for restoring the charter system culture in the Floyd County Schools, you and your Board may reconsider your commitment to being a charter system. For example, as you indicated, the additional $881,00 in per-pupil revenue Floyd County Schools receives for being a charter system is significantly less than the $2.5 million in savings you project for the elimination of block scheduling. We understand that your Board has a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of Floyd County.
However, as I mentioned in my opening remarks at last week’s Charter Committee meeting, if a local board signs a charter system contract, the State Board has a responsibility to hold them accountable for their Superintendent sharing his responsibility with the local school governance teams since such shared decision making is the essence of a charter system. For us, holding them responsible means determining whether they have authentic local governance occurring or not and, if necessary, asking them to change things quickly so they do have real local governance. If that local board decides it does not want to make needed changes to involve their school governance teams in decision making with their superintendent, it is obvious to us that they are asking to be let out of their charter system contract.
Thus, if you and your board choose to go in a different direction, you would then be responsible for seeking a termination of the Floyd County Schools charter contract. If the State Board of Education granted that request, your next steps as a district under current law would be to choose between becoming an Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2) school system or a Status Quo school system by June 30, 2015 (see attached PowerPoint for details on this choice). In the interests of transparency, we want to be clear now that, should you seek to terminate your charter system contract and pursue an IE2 contract instead of Status Quo, we would have to look long and hard at the potential of you and your Board honoring your IE2 contractual obligations.
RIF Policy and LSGT Participation in the District’s Budget Development Process
We see the proposed changes to your RIF policy as significant evidence of your renewed commitment to restoring the charter system culture. In the spirit of that renewed commitment, we urge you to engage your local school governance teams in the review of this proposed policy before a final version is adopted by your Board.
While we were disappointed that you did not follow the past practice of charter system budget development in the Floyd County Schools and that your Board of Education did not hold you accountable for doing so, we are confident that the personal commitment you emphatically shared with us last week, along with the support of your Board of Education, to fully implement your charter system contract, restore the culture of your charter system, and take the initial steps now to begin planning for the renewal of Floyd County’s charter system status in early 2015 will ensure a return to the earlier practices that properly engage your school community in both system-level as well as school decision-making. It is important to emphasize that a healthy charter system culture involves community engagement at both levels.
To that end, we strongly suggest that you adopt as policy a commitment to the budget development practices formerly followed in the Floyd County Schools. It is our understanding that those practices included the following steps:
· Initial meetings with the budget steering committee (including parent LSGT representatives) as early as November to present detailed information on budget preparation, assumptions for revenue and expenditures, and information about funding discussions at the state.
· Encouraging principals, teachers, central office personnel, and board members to disseminate all information to their respective groups so that your LSGTs, teachers, staff, and board members all have the same information during the process.
· Regular meetings with the LSCC to discuss that same information with them, and inviting LSCC members to be on and/or to attend the budget steering committee meetings.
· Request feedback via email from the LSGTs and LSCC to be used during the budget process.
· Publicize all LSGT, LSCC and budget steering committee meeting dates on your website.
· Send emails frequently to all principals, staff, LSGTs and the LSCC to update them on the budget preparation and ask for input, including possible budget reduction scenarios, and their concerns, questions, and suggestions.
· Invite the media to attend all meetings.
Please keep us updated on the progress you make on these important changes to your recent practices.
Block Scheduling
Block scheduling is integral to the systemic nature of the charter system innovations that are included in your current charter contract, and we agree with you that Floyd County Schools would be in breach of its charter system contract it you eliminated it in August 2013 without first gaining State Board approval of an amendment to your charter system contract.
Given the critical nature of block scheduling as a backbone of the other innovations included in your charter system contract, we see your next steps in dealing with the proposed elimination of block scheduling from the innovations section of your charter as an important opportunity for you to engage your school community. We urge you to begin the restoration of your charter system culture by engaging your school communities, including the independent governing board of the Floyd County Schools Charter and Career Academy, in coming up with an appropriate replacement innovation in exchange for eliminating block scheduling from your charter or, in the alternative, to identify other savings that could replace the projected savings from its elimination.
Because of your comment at the Charter Committee that you didn’t know why block scheduling was even included in the charter system contract, we share with you below our understanding of why it is included and how it ended up being there along with the other innovations to which Floyd County Schools is contractually committed.
Block scheduling is in your charter system contract because it is fundamental to most of the other innovations included in your contract, because your students benefit from it, and because your parents, teachers, principals, and community leaders were in strong support of this critical innovation. Ensuring that the integrity of the other innovations promised in your charter system contract is protected, as well as providing for an alternative of equal value to replace block scheduling in your contract, will be critical in winning State Board of Education approval of any charter amendment that seeks to eliminate block scheduling.
As we understand it, the Floyd County Schools established a flexibility steering committee that studied flexibility options, recommended the charter system option, and then developed recommendations for the educational innovations included in the Floyd County Schools charter system application and subsequent charter contract. This steering committee felt very strongly that a hybrid schedule at the high school and middle school levels was most conducive to the kinds of instructional improvements that Floyd County Schools wanted to achieve in its conversion to becoming a charter system.
Our understanding of the background on this issue is as follows:
· Although the Floyd County Schools had used a block schedule for a number of years prior to becoming a charter system, it was not used to meet the needs of the students' schedules.
· Rather, student schedules and course opportunities were driven by how they could be scheduled.
· Since many parents were not happy about this and had voiced their concerns for a number of years, work was done with your principals to modify the schedule and make it more flexible.
As the steering committee began to develop the innovations list for Floyd County’s charter system application, it became very clear to them that the flexibility for scheduling for instruction at all levels but especially at the high school would be a key element in making the other innovations successful because of its positive impact on such things as:
· Participation in work based learning.
· Enrollment at the College and Career Academy.
· Dual enrollment.
· Inter-disciplinary teaching.
· Vertical and horizontal common planning for teachers/staff.
· Involvement of the community in experiential learning for students.
· Middle school students' enrollment in high school courses at the high school.
The flexibility steering committee then asked for and received information on the effects of scheduling models on instructional improvement and student achievement. They also asked for input from high school staff on what kinds of scheduling models would be most beneficial.
As a result of teacher feedback and an analysis of EOCT scores, the steering committee’s recommendation was to enhance the student experience via the flexibility of the scheduling model by requiring additional graduation requirements, e.g., additional social studies credit, and economics as a full-unit course instead of a half unit-course.
The hybrid block schedule at the high school was so successful that Floyd County’s middle schools then adopted a similar schedule to allow more and varied opportunities for the middle schools students, including:
· 100-minute blocks for math and reading.
· Co-teaching with high school teachers.
· High school courses taught in middle school for high school credit with co-teaching involved.
· Career exploration opportunities via the College and Career Academy.
As your Performance Learning Center (PLC) began operation, Floyd County Schools also realized the benefit of block scheduling for students who attended the PLC being able to have a smoother transition to and from the feeder high school, as well as having opportunities for dual enrollment and participation in College and Career Academy courses. The subsequent significant success of your PLC made it a model for other such programs in Georgia.
Finally, business community and post-secondary community also weighed in on the advantages of the flexibility of the schedule and its relevance to work and college class schedules in the world outside of high school.
We are confident that the same school communities that came up with the innovations included in your charter system contract, including, perhaps, an engaged and reconstituted flexibility steering committee, can solve this problem in a way that protects the savings you anticipate from eliminating block scheduling.
Of course, another acceptable option would be to assign to the school governance teams the task of brainstorming alternative approaches to achieving the same level of savings as eliminating block scheduling would generate, thus eliminating the need to amend the charter contract at all. Given the time you have left before the new school year starts, we urge you to seriously consider this latter approach.
College and Career Academy
Your mention of the Floyd County College and Career Academy during the Charter Committee’s discussion last week engendered our discussion of additional concerns that we memorialize here.
You will have noted above that in urging you to begin the restoration of your charter system culture by engaging your school communities in coming up with an appropriate replacement innovation in exchange for eliminating block scheduling from your charter, we specifically mentioned including the independent governing board of the Floyd County Schools Charter and Career Academy (FCSCCA) in that process.
Most importantly, of course, is the impact of block scheduling on the academic opportunities of Floyd County’s students and the subsequent viability of the FCSCCA. Also significant is the support of both you and the Board of Education for the commitments made in the FCSCCA’s charter contract, including the obligation to respect the autonomy of the FCSCCA’s independent governing board, including the District’s technical college and business community partners and their representatives on that board. Both the FCSCCA’s governing board and the FCS Board of Education are parties to a separate charter contract with the State Board of Education that binds you to honor the school’s autonomy.
Thus, the restoration of the charter system culture in Floyd County Schools must also include a restoration of the charter culture as it relates to the Floyd County Schools Charter and Career Academy. The District has a responsibility to protect the integrity of the FCSCCA and its independent status as a locally-approved charter school that is required to fully honor its own charter contract.
The evidence we will be looking for that such a restoration is successful includes a commitment to including the FCSCCA’s governing board and its representatives in the engagement of your school communities as they grapple with the identification of an acceptable replacement innovation in exchange for eliminating block scheduling from your charter or, in the alternative, additional changes to yield the savings necessary to obviate the need for the elimination of block scheduling. We also expect that you will encourage and support the FCSCCA board in initiating and successfully completing the now-delayed strategic planning process to which they are committed.
Just as Floyd County Schools is now seeking to return to the top of the list of charter school systems where it once stood as a model for other Georgia schools districts, we are sure that the Floyd County Schools Charter and Career Academy board want to protect its place as a similar model for other college and career and academies in Georgia.
Conclusion
Given the short timeframe you are facing for resolving the block scheduling issue, we invite you and your Board of Education members for a follow-up discussion at the July 2013 Charter Committee meeting, currently scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on July 18 in the State Board Room, 2070 Twin Towers East, 205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE, Atlanta, Georgia 30334. At that meeting, we would like to continue our discussion and receive an update from you on your efforts to restore the charter system culture in the Floyd County Schools.
Should you wish for us to consider a charter amendment to deal with the block scheduling issue at the State Board’s July 2013 meeting, please be sure to submit your amendment petition to the Department’s Charter Schools Division by 12:00 p.m. noon on Friday, June 28.
Thank you again for participating in our discussion last week. We look forward to your success at restoring the charter system culture in Floyd County Schools and fully implementing your charter system. Please let us know if there is any additional information or support you need from us as you embark on this new phase of being a charter system.
UPDATE: Trees Down on Several Floyd County Roadways, FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR FLOYD COUNTY
Sunday, May 19, 2013 -- 11:00 am EDT
***Update: 11:48am***We have reports of downed trees obstructing traffic on these roadways:
Rockmart Hwy
Morrison Campground Rd.
Wax Rd.
If you're headed in or around these areas, you might need to find a detour.
County work crews are on the scene.
County work crews are on the scene.
Previously:
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PEACHTREE CITY HAS ISSUED A
* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
FLOYD COUNTY IN NORTHWEST GEORGIA
* UNTIL 445 PM EDT SUNDAY
* AT 1036 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR
INDICATED POTENTIAL FLASH FLOODING FROM THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY
RAIN PASSING OVER THE WARNED AREA. RAINFALL AMOUNTS AROUND 2
INCHES HAS OCCURRED NORTH OF ROME IN THE HEATH CREEK AND ARMUCHEE
CREEK BASINS SINCE 900 AM EDT THIS MORNING. ADDITIONAL HEAVY
RAINFALL AMOUNTS CAN BE EXPECTED TO SPREAD SOUTH OVER ROME AND
THE REMAINDER OF FLOYD COUNTY IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS.
* LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO ROME AND
SHANNON.
... Read more
Rome River Jam to Blast Ridge Ferry Park with Country Rock
Saturday, May 18, 2013 -- 9:59 am EDT
By: Laura-Jane Hatcher (WRGA News)
The biggest music event of Northwest Georgia is gearing up to blast Rome with some of the hottest names in country rock.
The biggest music event of Northwest Georgia is gearing up to blast Rome with some of the hottest names in country rock. After a long year of waiting, the Rome River Jam returns to Ridge Ferry Park today, bringing names like Craig Morgan, Ashley Monroe and Blackberry Smoke to the outdoor stage.
Jay Shell, the concert’s promoter, expects over 8 thousand people at the event which has put Rome on the country music map .
“We had the Academy of Country Music Awards a month ago, and the current Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan—--he played River Jam two years in a row. Brantley Gilbert is touring the nation now. I brought Scott Brown to town in 2006,” Shell says. “Rome has become a little spot, it’s kind of a cool place. We’re definitely known in Nashville. We’re very, very proud of it and Rome has been very good in supporting it.”
The tailgate parking lot opens at 1pm, with the concert gate opening at 2:30pm. Ashley Monroe heads up on the stage at 5:30, Blackberry Smoke at 7pm, and Craig Morgan headlines at 9:30.
Tickets are $35 at the gate.
South Rome Business Victim to Another Armed Robbery
Saturday, May 18, 2013 -- 2:36 am EDT
By: Laura-Jane Hatcher (WRGA News)
The Big H was again a victim of armed robbery Friday night, and police believe the two suspects responsible might be the same pair that held the convenience store up in March.
The Big H was again a victim of armed robbery Friday night, and police believe the two suspects responsible might be the same pair that held the convenience store up in March.Around 11pm, Rome Police Sgt. Trixie Morgan says two black males dressed all in black entered the store and cornered the clerk. One of the suspects wielded a knife and the other a large stick, both demanding money out of the store’s safe.
There was no safe, however, so the two took an undetermined amount of money from the register, along with beer and cigarettes, and then fled.
According to Morgan, the clerk believes it was the same two suspects that robbed the store with a knife on March 22nd.
Attempts to locate the assailants have been unsuccessful.
Rome Company Shuts Down in Face of Nation-Wide Complaints
Friday, May 17, 2013 -- 7:03 pm EDT
By: Laura-Jane Hatcher (WRGA News)
A local payroll service has temporarily shut-down in the face of complaints from all across the nation.
According to Rome Police, clients of Data Processing Services on East Seventh St. in Rome have been calling local law enforcement since Wednesday, claiming the company has failed to directly deposit checks into their clients’ accounts. Authorities say those calls have been coming since Wednesday from several states including Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Texas.
The company, which has been in business for over 30 years, has locked its doors, their voicemail stating they’re not processing files currently as their server is offline.
Though not a formal investigation, the Rome division of the FBI is looking into the allegations.
Georgia Unemployment Down to 8.2%
Friday, May 17, 2013 -- 1:54 pm EDT
By: Kevin Karel (WRGA News)
Another month of strong economic data has been released by the Georgia Department of Labor showing some of the best unemployment figures for the state since the early days of the recession.
From March to April the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 8.4% to 8.2%, considerably lower than the 9.1% in April last year and the best state-wide mark since December 2008. Georgia added more than 31,000 jobs last month, many in the construction industry which has experienced its best year-to-year job growth since 2007.
Labor Commissioner Mark Butler says Georgia’s economy would recover more quickly if not for regulations imposed by the federal government;
"I think if Georgia is left to our own designs I think we are well on our way to a really good recovery. Most of the complaints that I hear right now from Georgia businesses across the state have more to do with alot of the more heavier-handed regulation side from the federal government. I believe if we saw a little bit better cooperation out of the federal government along with the good atmosphere we provide for businesses here in Georgia from the state-side, I think we would really see the economy improve at a lot quicker rate."
On the negative side layoffs increased by nearly 5,700 from March to April, though Butler says it’s common for that to occur this time of year, possibly due to the end of income tax season.
County-by-county unemployment data will be released by the Georgia Labor Department next week.
Polk County authorities conduct underage sting
Thursday, May 16, 2013 -- 4:18 pm EDT
By: Andrew Carter (WRGA News)
A joint operation of local law enforcement in Polk County netted a dozen retail stores that were selling alcohol to minors.
Cedartown Assistant Police Chief James Newsome says a number of underage sworn jail officers from surrounding counties participated in the sting of all establishments in the county that has package alcohol sales. Businesses in Rockmart, Aragon, Cedartown, and unincorporated communities were all hit by the operation and of those, 12 were issued citations.
“It depends on which jurisdiction you're under because since this was a countywide cooperative effort, some were cited in the Cedartown Municipal Court, some to Rockmart Municipal Court, some to Aragon Municipal Court, and some to the Polk County Magistrate Court.”
Newsome advised that none of the sworn jailers were issued fake ID’s. They simply attempted to purchase packaged alcohol and if asked for their ID, they simply left the store. Sheriff’s offices in Floyd and Paulding counties all loaned several of their sworn jailers to participate in the coordinated sting.
... Read moreBerry Pitcher Back in the Major Leagues
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 -- 9:57 pm EDT
By: Kevin Karel & LJ Hatcher (WRGA News)
A Berry College pitcher is back in Major League Baseball.
Collin McHugh, who pitched for Berry from 2006-08, was called up from the New York Mets’ AAA affiliate in Las Vegas Tuesday and joined the Mets roster in St. Louis where the team was finishing up a series with the Cardinals.
McHugh was taken by the Mets out of Berry College in the 18th round of the 2008 amateur draft and made his major league debut in August of 2012 with a strong start against the Colorado Rockies.
Despite a positive debut, McHugh largely struggled in his brief call-up to the Mets last season, ending with an 0-4 record. The right-hander has continued to dominate AAA competition however, and the Mets brought him back to the big leagues after he turned in consecutive outings where he gave up only one run in 14 combined innings.
McHugh is the first Berry Alumni to pitch in the major leagues.
... Read more