Monday, May 14, 2012
Carol Chester, a Holly Springs Elementary fifth-grade teacher will be honored by Barnes and Noble.
Barnes and Noble will recognize Carol Chester along with two other Cherokee County teachers as part of its “My Favorite Teacher” contest on May 14, at its Cobb County location. The competition, where students wrote a letter, essay or poem about their favorite teacher, was open to teachers in school districts in Cobb, Cherokee, Pickens, Gilmer, and Bartow counties. The elementary, middle and high school winners selected this year are all from Cherokee County Schools, according to a news release. Winners were selected by Barnes and Noble employees. Chester won the elementary school competition, Cindy Cooper, the assistant principal at Etowah won middle school for her work at Chapman and Jennifer Jackson from Etowah won in the high school …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
He said he will eliminate all teacher furloughs, cut the county dropout rate and never vote for a tax increase.
Pledging to eliminate all teacher furloughs by reducing a "bloated" central office, Cherokee Charter Academy governing board member Danny Dukes said late Tuesday night that he will run for county school board chair. “We all deserve a school board with positive, collaborative energy and an effective leader who works for solutions based on conservative principles,” he said in a statement. “We can have the highest performing school system in Georgia if we put students first and pledge to work with other elected leaders to solve problems. And we can do all this without raising taxes.” Dukes' decision came a little more than a month after he announced the formation of an exploratory committee to weigh the pros and cons of a campaign for the …
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
No other Cherokee County public high school is among the top 2,008 in America, U.S. News & World Report says.
U.S. News & World Report released its list of top public high schools today, and Woodstock High was the only school in Cherokee County to earn a national ranking. Of the 2,008 ranked schools, Woodstock came in at No. 1,372, which was enough for the magazine's silver medalist designation for top-performing schools. U.S. News first examined how well students at nearly 22,000 schools performed on state assessments, comparing them with other schools in the same state based on demographic factors. Within Georgia, Woodstock is the 24th best high school, according to the magazine. Eligible schools were then considered for national designations based on student success in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs. The AP …
Friday, May 4, 2012
The motion to approve the renewal passed with one board member dissenting and one abstaining.
Frank Petruzielo will continue to lead the Cherokee County School System. The Board of Education voted 5-1-1 Thursday night to extend Petruzielo’s contract after the board left the open meeting to go into executive session to discuss the item. Board member Michael Geist cast the dissenting vote, and Rob Usher abstained, citing the fact that he hadn’t seen the contract prior to the meeting. Usher, who raised concerns about not seeing the contract during the meeting, said that the contract wasn’t available during executive session and that he couldn’t in good conscience vote for something he hadn’t read. “They wanted to move forward with it, and that’s fine with me,” Usher said. “It’s nothing against the superintendent. I think he’s done a …
The easements were necessary to bring sewer service to the schools in the Holly Spring and Hickory Flat area.
The Cherokee County Board of Education on Thursday night voted to pay a total of $21,060 to four separate property owners for easements needed to bring sewer service to the three schools in the Holly Springs and Hickory Flat area. The board voted to pay $90 for 3,335 square feet to Bradshaw Farm Homeowner’s Association for property appraised at $107; $1,420 for 41,136 – which is the appraised amount of the property – to the estate of Harriett Grant; and nothing to the Sequoyah Regional Library System, which waived the cost of the 17,464 square feet of property they own that is valued at $21,650. The school board also voted to pay $19,550 to ALSF Capital, LLC for 27,451 square feet appraised at $9,660. The extra $10,000 will be used to …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
President of UGA says he's stepping down next year.
For a few seconds, it looked as though Michael Adams wasn't going to make it through a speech about his leaving the President's Office at the University of Georgia. He had said that when he accepted the job in June 1997, with him were his parents, both of whom have since died, and his wife Mary. His face collapsed a little, but he recovered. Many of those in the audience may not recover. The University Community remains in shock over Adams' sudden announcement that he will step down from his job at the end of June 2013. Only a few of the inner staff and upper level administrators learned late Wednesday that he would be leaving. After his brief, formal speech, in which he thanked those who have helped jettison the University into the …
Michael Adams has been the school's president for 16 years now.
The longtime UGA President Michael Adams is expected to step down Thursday and relinquish responsibilities in June, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Don’t miss any of the local news you care about. Subscribe to Holly Springs-Hickory Flat Patch’s free newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The governor's office made the announcement today.
Gov. Nathan Deal will be in Cherokee on Thursday morning to sign House Bill 797, which will restore the state charter schools commission if voters approve a corresponding constitutional amendment in November. Deal's office announced this afternoon that the signing would take place at 10 a.m. at Cherokee Charter Academy, which has been ground zero in the county's school choice debate. In a 4-3 decision last May, the state Supreme Court struck down the Georgia Charter Schools Commission as unconstitutional, which nullified its authority to grant charters to schools rejected by local school boards. The court said the state commission could not force school districts to pay for charter schools the local school board had rejected, such as …
Kyla Cromer will face Kelly Marlow in the race for Cherokee Board of Education Post 1.
Kelly Marlow has drawn her first challenger in the race for Cherokee County Board of Education Post 1. Kyla Cromer, the co-president of the Freedom Middle PTA, announced today that she plans to run for the seat, which takes in BridgeMill, Liberty Elementary, Sixes Elementary, and parts of the Holly Springs, Toonigh and Univeter areas. Cromer, the mother of two daughters, a Freedom Middle student and Woodstock High student, said "her vast education experience and long-standing involvement in the county’s education community make her uniquely qualified to serve all of the children in Cherokee County." She received her bachelor's degree in elementary education from Miami University in Oxford, OH, taught for a number of years, worked as …
The school board is slated to vote on a policy that would change Polaris from a school to a program.
The graduation rates of students at Polaris Evening Academy would be rolled into those at their home schools should the Cherokee County Board of Education decide to change the status of the school. The board is expected to vote at its meeting on Thursday night to delete a board policy regarding Polaris, changing it from a school to a program, which means the school system won’t be required to report its graduates separately from their home schools. Under the new “cohort” graduation rate, the graduation rate at Polaris will drop from 32.8 percent to 18.46 percent. Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said during a first reading on the item that with an 18 percent graduation rate, Polaris could be viewed by the public as a failure. But, that’s …
Chris Knowles
11:19 am on Friday, May 18, 2012
So, anyone who runs for public office will certainly end up being scrutinized. Danny would expect no different. Clearly, no one here knows the details of why he had these liens or why there were released. How do we know there wasn't some sort of dispute in which Danny was ultimately successful? Instead of seeking truth, you seek to discredit with cowardly innuendo. Regardless, he has done what … more ›