The school system has received the official e (SACS) Quality Assurance Review Report resulting from its 5-year accreditation visit in November. The visit and report are part of on-going SACS accreditation and the school system improvement process.

The report commends the school system for:

1. Developing a continuous improvement process that is showing significant increases in student performance.

2. Aligning leadership and communication protocols internally and externally to support the district’s initiatives.

3. Demonstrating commitment to the success of each student.

4. Supporting instruction through the systemic use of a variety of data analysis tools.

In addition to commendations, the SACS Quality Assurance Review Team identified the following actions for improvement:

1. Align and connect curriculum, student support services, and assessment systems from Pre-K through high school.

(The school system has begun addressing this requirement by the redefining of three positions and their work descriptions. The Director of Elementary School Curriculum will become Director of K-12 Curriculum and Instruction. The Director of Middle School Curriculum will become the Director of Data Analysis and Program Evaluation. The position of Director of High School Curriculum will become the Director of School/System Improvement.)

2. Research systemic frameworks for developing human capital to ensure the capacity of each staff member to engage each student.

3. Fully engage the community in addressing the budgetary challenges.

The Advanced Quality Assurance Review Report also elaborated on the ratings of each of the 7 SACS standards. The report describes what the SACS Quality Assurance Review Team found as it investigated each standard and the school system’s strengths and weaknesses in each standard.

The school system received the highest rating of “Highly Functional” for two standards and the second highest rating of “Operational” for the remaining 5 standards.

SACS Accreditation Standard Received Rating

Standard 1: Vision and Purpose – Highly Functional

Standard 2: Governance and Leadership – Operational

Standard 3: Teaching and Learning – Operational

Standard 4: Documenting and Using Results – Highly Functional

Standard 5: Resource and Support System – Operational

Standard 6: Stakeholder Communication and Relationships – Operational

Standard 7: Commitment to Continuous Improvement – Operational

Superintendent Dr. Curtis Jones, said, “We agree with the areas that the SACS Quality Assurance Team identified as strong. The SACS team also helped us identify and clearly define areas that need improvement. We appreciate the team’s work. We will be working on the

required actions in the months to come. We thank everyone who participated in the accreditation process.”

Quimby Melton Jr.

An ICON in news media celebrated his birthday Sunday.  Well known and respected Griffin Resident Quimby Melton Jr. celebrated his 90th birthday attending First United Methodist Church in Griffin where he has been a member for 88 years and missed very few Sundays. He received and acknowledged an ovation in the sanctuary. He was there as the First Methodist Moved from Downtown at the now City all building to South Maple Drive. His dedication to Griffin and each resident was well known.  Before he retired he built the Griffin Daily News into one of the most read daily news papers in this area of Georgia.  We of WKEU wish for him the very best to a great Griffinite, that for years has supported area youth and their future education.  To those young Journalists, we say “Here is a great beacon for others to follow.”

State Representative John Yates

                                  This weeks Report from State Representative John Yates.  

Although I worked at the capitol every day this week; we were only in Session three days. 

On February 14 I came up for the Annual Farm Bureau lunch at the capitol. I enjoyed sitting at the Spalding County table and having delightful conversation with a good lunch. 

On February 15 I presented a bill to the Ways & Means Committee which proposed an exemption of Federal Income Tax on military pensions received from totally disabled veterans. 

On February 16 we enjoyed our annual visit from the Corp of Cadets from North Georgia College & State University. It always makes us proud to see these fine young students in their sharp uniforms with their dedicated leaders. 

We are busy in committee preparing the budget for FY2013 which is effective on July 1, 2012. 

We will be in session Tuesday through Friday next week which will complete our 25^th Legislative Day. 

I can be reached at 217 State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia, 30334 and my numbers are (404) 656-5126 or at home at night and weekends (770) 227-1474.

Funeral services held at Haisten Funeral Home In McDonough for Hailey Power, and Anna Hamrick.

Funeral services for Hailey Power age 14 and her sister Anna Hamrick age 10 were conducted Monday at Hasten Funeral Home in McDonough. Internment was at Westwood Gardens on Everee Inn Road in Griffin. Both young girls died as a result of injuries from a fire that destroyed their home on February 12th. Donations of Clothing and House hold items can be donated to the family at The Church of The Nazarene in Barnesville. Donations to the Funeral Fund for the two girls can be made at any United Bank office.

The grandmother of the children, was airlifted to Grady hospital, by Emory Air Flight based at the Griffin Spalding airport, She remains at Grady Hospital in serious condition. WKEU offers our prayers to the family. We also appreciate the assistance of the Barnesville Herald Gazette and Walter Geiger in this news story.

When the Griffin-Spalding County School System accepted the invitation from Bright from the Start, Georgia’s pre-K lottery –funded program, to house two more pre-K classes, it traveled another step setting the stage of early learning and success for 40 more four year-olds.

Responding to the opportunity, the school system placed one class at Beaverbrook Elementary and the other at Jordan Hill Elementary for the remainder of the school year. The pre-k classes will be moved to these locations to begin February 28. These schools were chosen because of classroom space since both lost pre-K classes in 2011-2012.

Denise Burrell, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, said, “We are following another recommendation from the Vision for Public Education in Georgia to create public –private partnerships that address healthy child and family development. We were asked to house these additional classes because our current pre-k classes are showing so much success.”

The class at Jordan Hill will include the current teacher and the current teacher assistant. The teacher for the Beaverbrook Elementary class will be an internal move from the Griffin-Spalding County School System but the teacher’ s assistant will transfer from the current setting. All teachers and teachers’ assistants hold appropriate certification.

Parents of students currently attending these two classes will work with our schools in the registration process for their children.

This is a great story about a great woman. This was received by a reporter in California who recenlty found buried history about a Great American. 

“I was unaware of her credentials or where she is buried.  Somehow I just can’t see Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton, or Jessica Simpson doing what this woman (and the other USO women, including Ann Margaret & Joey Heatherton) did for our troops in past wars. Most of the old time entertainers were made out of a lot sterner stuff than today’s crop of activists and whiners.

The following is from an Army Aviator who takes a trip down memory lane:

It was just before Thanksgiving 1967 and we were ferrying dead and wounded from a large GRF west of Pleiku. We had run out of body bags by noon, so the Hook, as it was called our CH-47 CHINOOK, was pretty rough in the back.  All of a sudden, we heard a ‘take-charge’ woman’s voice in the rear.  There was the singer and actress, Martha Raye, with a SF (Special Forces) beret and jungle fatigues, with subdued markings, helping the wounded into the Chinook, and carrying the dead aboard.  ‘Maggie’ had been visiting her SF ‘heroes’ out ‘west’ of our location. We took off, short of fuel, and headed to the USAF hospital pad at Pleiku. As we all started unloading our sad pax’s, a ‘Smart Ass’  USAF Captain said to Martha…. Ms Ray, with all these dead and wounded to process, there would not be time for your show!  To all of our surprise, she pulled on her right collar and said…..Captain, see this eagle? I am a full ‘Bird’ in the US Army Reserve, and on this is a ‘Caduceus’ which means I am a Nurse, with a surgical specialty….now, take me to your wounded.  He said, ‘yes mam….Follow me.’ Several times at the Army Field Hospital in Pleiku, she would ‘cover’ a surgical shift, giving a nurse a well-deserved break.

Martha is the only woman buried in the SF (Special Forces) cemetery at Ft Bragg.

Photo of then Lieutenat Colonel Martha Raye USAR

On Tuesday Morning Anna Hamrick succumb to her injuries from a house fire in Barnesville on Sunday Morning. Anna’s sister Hailey and their Grandmother remain in the hospital. WKEU AM-FM is asking the community to help out the family with expenses with Anna’s Funeral. An account has been set up at United Bank for the family. You may go by any United Bank location to make a donation the Anna Hamrick Benefit Account. Our thoughts and prayers at
WKEU are with Anna’s family and we thank the community for their support.

The Griffin Police Department has announced that an outstanding Failure to Appear in Court (FTA) warrant amnesty program will take place beginning February 16^th until March 31, 2012. This program will allow the payment of a fine and waive the $350.00 outstanding Failure to Appear in Court warrant fee. This program is only for outstanding failure to appear warrants and not any Violation of Probation (VOP) fees or charges. This program only applies to City of Griffin Municipal Court charges.

Payments will be accepted Monday-Friday from 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. at the police department located at 868 West Poplar Street until March 31, 2012.

Further information can be obtained by contacting Sgt. Larry Martin at 770-229-6450 extension 512 or lmartin@cityofgriffin.com or Cpl. Jackie Strickland at 770-229-6450 extension 376 or jstrickland@cityofgriffin.com