The Cherokee County School District is at the top of its class in technology, according to a national educational advisory institute.

The district won sixth place among school systems of its size in the ninth annual Digital School Districts survey, awarded by The Center for Digital Education, the National School Boards Association and Converge Online magazine. Cherokee placed in the large school system category, which covers all school systems nationwide with more than 12,000 students.

In both 2007 and 2010, the district placed fourth; in 2008, the district won first overall in the Digital School Boards Survey.

Bobby Blount, assistant superintendent of technology, said continuous support from the community through Ed-SPLOST funding and dedicated adminis-trators, teachers and staff has helped the district become a technology leader.

“We have a very, very good technology vision and mission for the future,” Blount said. “Our teachers and administrators have (made) a commitment to continually learn about technology. We have very strong leadership through our superintendent, an incredibly supportive Board of Education and we just have amazing students … that effectively utilize these technologies.”

The winners showcase exemplary school boards’ and districts’ use of technology to govern the district, communicate with students, parents and the community and to improve district operations through answers to the survey questions, according to the center’s website.

Overall, districts are judged on their online presence, technology applications that allow the public to interact with school board members, administrators and teachers as well as their access to information such as school board meetings, districts policies, and technology use in the classrooms.

“New and emerging technologies challenge the process of teaching, learning and the way education is managed,” said LeiLani Cauthen, vice president of the Center for Digital Education. “Survey responses reflect innovation in action, and how boards and districts are adapting curriculum, communication and collaboration by embracing digital technologies.”

Blount said he thinks the district fares well in the survey because they perform extensive research and often collaborate with other school districts on technological matters.

He said a major initiative within the district is the Bring Your Own Learning Device program, which will be implemented in all district schools in the fall.

“It’s just a growing trend in education where parents are able to use tools they’ve already bought for their student,” Blount said. “Our teachers are capturing ways to engage our children in this type of instruction.”

Blount said the district continues to look at the affordability of new technologies and the impact they could have on learning.

“Times are tough and the money’s not always following,” Blount said.

“We put a lot of effort into being (financially) responsible.”

The top 10 districts in each student population category were recognized during an awards reception Saturday at the National School Board Association’s conference in Boston.

‘Our teachers and administrators have (made) a commitment to continually learn about technology. We have very strong leadership through our superintendent, (and) an incredibly supportive Board of Education.’

— Bobby Blount,

assistant superintendent of technology

From its origins in 1970 in response to a growing threat of environmental crisis and pollution, Earth Day has blossomed into a grassroots effort to keep the planet green and encourage environmental protection.

Pam Carnes, president of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce, says this Earth Day is a great time for everyone to get in on the act.

The Chamber is hosting an Earth Day Recycling Event today from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Chamber at 3605 Marietta Highway in the upper parking lot.

Sponsored by the Chamber’s Going Green Committee, the event offers residents and businesses a chance to recycle electronics, aluminum cans and shred documents.

“Our Going Green efforts were launched in 2009, and since then, we have been educating businesses on how to be more environmentally friendly,” Carnes said.

“They don’t even have to get out of the car.

They can just drive up, and we will help them shred, recycle their electronics and their cans.

We at the Chamber have been hoarding our recyclables to take out to the event.”

Carnes said the organization is conducting the event to call attention to the need to protect the environment.

“We are encouraging businesses to be more environmentally friendly, and Earth Day is a time people are already familiar with. They want to give back, through roadway cleanups, lake cleanups, and other efforts.”

The Chamber’s event is free and open to the public. Most papers and documents will be accepted for on-site shredding. No phone books, newspapers or magazines will be accepted.

Electronics that will be accepted for recycling include mainframes, typewriters, monitors, televisions, cellphones, toner cartridges, networking equipment, fax machines, copiers, lab and medical equipment and more. There is a $10 fee for televisions.

North Metro Waste is helping Holly Springs Elementary School as it earns money by turning aluminum beverage cans into cash through the Great American Can Roundup.

Residents can bring rinsed out aluminum beverage cans by the Chamber today to add to the school’s collection effort, Carnes said.

The Great American Can Roundup is sponsored by the Can Manufacturers Institute, which represents beverage can makers and suppliers to the industry and is committed to ensuring that all aluminum beverage cans are recycled.

The Great American Can Roundup initiative celebrates the 75th anniversary of the beverage can and to help schools like Holly Springs Elementary in their efforts to recycle cans for cash.

The city of Woodstock is sponsoring an Earth Day Celebration starting today with a Brown Bag Concert in the Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring the music of guitarist John Amoroso. Children’s crafts and Going Green vendors will be on hand as well.

On Saturday the city is sponsoring a Great American Stream Clean Up at Olde Rope Mill Park at 9 a.m. and volunteers are urged to come out for the event.

A citywide yard sale is also planned at neighborhoods throughout the city on Saturday, with one site planned at the William G. Long Senior Center with 25 participants.

The first Lake Arrowhead Springfest is planned for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Great Festival Park. The event will feature 30plus artisan exhibitors, food vendors, entertainment venue and a separate children’s section with crafts, fishing and duck pond games, storytelling, cake walks and other activities. Cherokee Animal Services have pets for adoption at the event.

The city of Canton has launched a new alert system to notify residents of weather and other emergencies more efficiently, and officials are urging residents to sign up for Code Red.

The new system replaces Blackboard, a system the city utilized last year for emergency notifications.

The system drew some criticism from city residents who complained they received too many calls.

Code Red was put in place six weeks ago, just in time for the volatile spring weather season. The old system was automatic, but under the new system, residents and businesses must sign on to get the emergency notifications from the city.

Already about 200 businesses and residents have signed up, and City Manager Scott Wood said the city would like to see more people opt into the system.

The city has 9,341 homes and 1,480 businesses that could participate in the system.

Earlier this year, the City Council approved the contract with the company, which costs about $16,000 per year.

Wood said he “wants to be sure folks are encouraged” to sign up for the system. “It better suits the purposes and needs of our community,” Wood said.

Residents can visit www.canton-georgia.com or call Canton City Hall at (770) 704-1500 to sign up for Code Red.

Under the system, residents will receive calls from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concerning severe weather events, such as flash flooding, severe thunderstorms or tornadoes.

In other events, the city can directly notify residents of events such boil water advisories and water main breaks.

Canton Fire Chief Dean Floyd said he could use the system to alert residents to missing children or adults in the area.

With the old system, there was no way in which the city could tailor alerts and warnings to neighborhoods, Wood said.

Wood said the city can decide when to “pull the trigger” with Code Red.

Wood said Code Red allows the city to avoid being “trigger happy,” which he said would compromise the perception of the system’s emergency notification capabilities.

Canton City Council member John Beresford, who advocated Code Red’s use, said he’s satisfied with the program.

He said the system can “drill down” to notify only a specific area of the city, as opposed to notifying all residents and businesses and getting everyone up in arms. Canton Mayor Gene Hobgood agreed.

“You can narrow down more closely pin-point areas you want to notify,” he said. “There may not be any need to notify Towne Mill if there’s a problem down in Prominence Point.”

If it seems that more people have a job these days, that perception just might be right.

Though Cherokee County’s unemployment rate saw a slight rise in January over the adjusted rate for December, it was considerably down from last year at the same time, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

Cherokee also continues to maintain the lowest unemployment rate in the metro Atlanta area, with Gwinnett County coming in second at 8 percent.

The Department of Labor said Georgia gained 83,700 jobs within the past 12 months, the biggest growth in the state since 2006.

January saw a jobless rate of 7.6 percent for Cherokee County, according to preliminary figures released Thursday. This is an increase from an adjusted rate of 7.4 percent in December, but a decrease from 8.7 percent in January 2011.

Last year was a better year for county employment than initially projected, as the preliminary rate for December was 7.9 percent, bringing the revised December figure down a half-point. Bland Odell, owner of Express Employment Professionals in Woodstock, said he believes local businesses are feeling encouraged, but are still extremely leery of committing new employees to their payroll.

“I think employers are much more willing to look at part-time, temporary (employment) to bring people on board,” Odell said.

He added that he has heard many business owners say they feel business is turning around and are willing to hire more people.
The January job data was not released until this week because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the state agency recently completed an annual benchmarking to ensure more accurate reporting.

Other area unemployment rates include Bartow at 9.9 percent, Clayton at 11.6 percent, Cobb at 8.4 percent, DeKalb at 9.6 percent, Douglas at 9.6 percent, Fayette at 8.1 percent, Fulton at 9.9 percent, Henry at 9.1 percent, Paulding at 8.6 percent and Rockdale at 10.3 percent.

The labor force in Cherokee slightly decreased to 113,223 from 113,454 in December, a marked increase from 111,439 in January a year ago. Employed individuals in the county also went down slightly to 104,599 from 105,011 last month, an increase from 101,712 in January 2011. The number of unemployed people in the county went up slightly to 8,624 from 8,443 last month, a marked decrease from 9,727 a year ago.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for metro Atlanta rose from a revised 8.9 percent in December to 9.2 percent in January. The rate is a decrease from 10.3 percent a year ago.

The metro rate increased because of layoffs in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, transportation, warehousing, and administrative and support services, according to the state agency.

Statewide, the unemployment rate decreased for the six months in a row from 9.4 percent in December to 9.2 percent in January, down from 10.1 percent in January a year ago. From December to January, about 13,000 more Georgians were employed.

The largest increases were seen in professional and business services with 37,000 new jobs, followed by retail trade with 15,100 new jobs, health care and social assistance with 11,100, and manufacturing with 7,300.

Odell said he has also seen a lot of growth recently in manufacturing and administrative fields in the Cherokee area.

Georgia’s rate was also above the national rate of 8.3 percent in January, down from 8.5 percent in December and 9.1 percent in January 2011.

Small businesses can receive rental subsidies for first year of operation

 CANTON — Canton’s Main Street Program has announced a new initiative to fill empty spaces in the city’s central business district. The Business Development Rental Assistance Program will allow Main Street to provide rental subsidies to assist small businesses in the first year of operating. The amount of assistance would be determined by the Main Street Program, and they will use criteria, such as the need of that business in downtown, location, term of lease, job creation and anticipated cash flow presented in a business plan as merits for awarding subsidies.

Ginger Garrard, the city’s Main Street Program director, presented the plan to the Canton City Council on Thursday.

“As a local government, we know that downtown commercial districts are essential to a community’s economic health,” she told the council. “More than shopping destinations, they are employment centers, visitor’s attractions, tax generators and historic cores.”

To fund the program, Garrard proposed the idea for the city to impose a 3 percent rental car excise tax, which she said cities are given the authority to do under Georgia law.

Garrard said surrounding cities have a rental car excise tax in place, including Woodstock, Cartersville, Johns Creek, Atlanta, Kennesaw, Milton and Marietta.

Georgia law requires those funds be used in areas such as promoting industry, commerce, trade and tourism, similar to hotel/motel taxes. Canton has three businesses — Enterprise RentA-Car, Canton Auto Exchange & Rent-A-Car and Toyota Rental-Cherokee County Scion — it could tax if the proposal were to go into effect.

Garrard said Enterprise, the largest of the three, has roughly $1.6 million in gross sales. If that tax were to go into place, she said it could generate roughly $46,000 in revenue from the program.

“It’s a win-win for the city,” she said.

Mayor Gene Hobgood said any incentive to bring businesses in the city has a “lot of value.”

Councilman Bob Rush agreed, adding that incentive will increase the traffic coming into the city.

“We need to fill some of those empty holes in downtown,” he said.

Councilman Bill Bryan expressed slight hesitation, namely where would the money come from if one of the three rental car businesses were to leave town.

Garrard noted the subsidy would remain in place as long as the city has the funds to provide it.

Garrard on Friday morning added she believed this initiative will help struggling small businesses get off the ground in their first year.

As someone who owned a business in Cartersville for five and a half years, Garrard said the first year is crucial to that business’s survival.

“This is an economic development tool we can use to increase (the number of) downtown businesses,” she said. “The more businesses we have, the more people will come downtown. Everybody wins on this.”

Continuing the growth of the university, Reinhardt broke ground on its new athletic field house last week, with the project 
slated for completion in early fall 2012.

“This is a very positive day for Reinhardt University; one of many to come,” Reinhardt President Dr. J. Thomas Isherwood said during the groundbreaking ceremony on Jan. 24. “The ield house will give us the opportunity for every sport in Reinhardt athletics to have a home; every student athlete will now have a place to call their own.

“We will also have the addition of a new turf field where we will play football, soccer andlacrosse,” he continued. “In my opinion, we are going to have the best athletic facilities to go along with the best athletic teams in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC).” The 22,000-square-foot facility will have locker rooms and coaches offices for baseball, football, softball, and men’s and women’s soccer, along with a 4,800-square-foot weight room, training and meeting rooms, and concessions. An athletic turf field will be located adjacent to the building—directly outside the weight room.

Energetic. Always smiling. Effective. And even, as Joan McFather said, “The vice president of everything that needs to happen.” Those were some of the words used to describe JoEllen Wilson, the most recent recipient of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce First Citizen of Cherokee County award.

The chamber surprised Wilson with the 37th annual award at the culmination of its 41st annual meeting on Jan. 26. On accepting the award in front of a room filled with community leaders and her family members, Wilson said, “I’m humbled because there are so many in this room who deserve this more than I, but thank you.” 

The chamber presented a video about Wilson, vice president for institutional advancement and external affairs at Reinhardt University and former Canton City Council member, in which her colleagues and husband, John Wilson, were asked to share their feelings about her. “She’s patient and kind and, most importantly, effective,” said Reinhardt President Dr. Thomas  Isherwood. “She is a vital member of the Reinhardt University family and of this community.”

Pam Carnes, president and CEO of the chamber, said a quote from Mahatma Gandhi best personified Wilson in her mind, “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Wilson is known for her extensive community involvement.

Dr. Floyd Falany, past president of Reinhardt, told the Ledger-News that Wilson deserved a great deal of the credit for the highly-rated public school system Cherokee County has today. Falany said that just as he retired, he was asked to chair a blue ribbon committee that would address the school district’s facility and technology needs in the face of rapid growth. “There was $235 million worth of buildings needed that no one could afford,” he said. “To do this, we had to have a SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) and a bond issue. Along with me, JoEllen co-chaired the committee. We hit every club, every PTA and every organization to help it pass.”

“She is evidence of what a true Christian professional should be,” he added. JoEllen Bell Wilson, 69, is a native of Bartow County. Wilson received an Associate of Arts degree from Reinhardt, where she met her husband. They have lived in the county for 44 years.
After the Wilsons’ twin sons, John and Jim, graduated from high school, JoEllen went back to school, earning her undergraduate degree from Oglethorpe University at age 50 and her master’s degree from Brenau University at age 56. From 1990 until the end of 2009, Wilson served as a member of the Canton City Council, during a time when the population of the city grew from 6,000 to roughly 24,000. During that time she served as mayor pro-tem, chair of the alcohol committee, chair of the water committee and chair of the parks & recreation committee. She was instrumental in the passage of a referendum to allow pouring in restaurants, the implementation of impact fees, the building of the Hickory Log Creek Reservoir, securing grant funds for the Etowah River corridor greenway and backing the downtown Canton streetscape
effort.

At Reinhardt, she began, in 1981, as alumni director before transferring to the president’s office to serve as special assistant to the president. In her current position, Wilson oversees development, alumni, marketing, public relations, fundraising and the Funk Heritage Center. She also is active in her church, Canton First United Methodist. Community organizations she has been affiliated, along with the chamber, include the Boy Scouts, Cherokee High School PTA, the board of directors of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Foundation, the Cherokee DUI/Drug Court, the Cherokee County Boys & Girls Club, the Service League of Cherokee County, the Cherokee County Arts Council, the Etowah Garden Club, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Canton Rotary Club, the United Way of Cherokee County, the Cherokee County Historical Society, the Cherokee County Republican Party, the Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital Ethics Committee and the Anna Crawford Child Advocacy Advisory Board, among others.

Former Waleska Mayor Marguerite Cline, a former First Citizen, said Wilson could “walk into  any into a tough situation and kind of lighten it up.” Another former First Citizen, Don Stevens, said he picked Wilson in 2000 to follow him as chairman of the chamber.
“She’s a dedicated, hard-working ball of energy,” he said. Wilson’s two sons are both now married and she has four grandchildren, Rachel, Matthew, Alec and Sam. Grandson Matthew, a student at Teasley Middle School, summed up what his grandmother likes to do for fun: playing tennis, camping and walking on the beach in the rain. “She’s such a great person and I’m glad she’s my grandma,” he said.

At its annual meeting, Tom Heard, general manager of the Cherokee County Water and Sewerage Association, took over the chairmanship from Ben Looper, president of Southeast Restoration Group.

The chamber recognized Chuck Flagg, of Cruise Holidays, as Volunteer of the Year and John Barker, of Delphi Global Technology, as Entrepreneur of the Year.

Cherokee County sets itself apart from the rest of the 19 other counties that make up the metro-Atlanta region due to its strong home ownership, home values and low percentage of unemployment.

Typically, a suburban county such as Cherokee would trend the opposite, but an Atlanta Regional Commission forecaster said the data puts the county in a unique category.

Forecaster Michael Carnathan revealed several pieces of information culled from the ARC and 2010 Census, presented at Snapshot 2012 on Jan. 19 at the Northside-Cherokee Conference Center in Canton. The event, which was co-sponsored by Cherokee Bank and The Cherokee Ledger-News, was designed to take a look at where the county has gone in the last decade and where it’s projected to go in the next 30 years, in what’s otherwise known as Plan 2040. Roughly 75 people attended the presentation, which honed in on demographics and economics, and also featured remarks from Cherokee County Commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens.

Carnathan told the audience that the Atlanta region was the third fastest-growing in the nation, only surpassed by Houston and Dallas, and that 90 percent of the growth in the past decade was from the non-white population.
“The growth in Cherokee has had a majority come from the white population and while the diversity trend hasn’t happened yet in Cherokee, it will,” Carnathan said.

In addition to a projected increase in diversity, Cherokee is getting older as the baby boom generation climbs into its 60s and 70s.

In a nod to the health care service sector jobs that will be required to care for the senior population, Carnathan said “ambulatory health care services” was and will remain one of the top five job sectors in Cherokee. At the beginning of the economic recession in December 2007, Carnathan said the top five job sectors included restaurants and bars at No. 1, administration and support at No. 2, professional/scientific/technology at No. 3, and general merchandise stores at No. 4, with ambulatory health care services at No. 5.

“These jobs pay well, and this sector grew 3.2 percent, and this was during a time of bad unemployment,” he said of ambulatory health care services.

Cherokee County is projected to have the largest employment gain from 2010-2040 in the 20-county region, an increase of 72,000 jobs, which is a change of 165.9 percent, he added. The top 20 growth sectors will include social assistance such as nursing homes and other in-home services, real estate, professional and technical services and ambulatory health care services.

Ahrens took some time in his presentation to detail projects the county is working on, including an aquatic center and soccer complex, and said Cherokee is taking measures to plan for its growth.

Referencing the Transportation Investment Act of 2010, Ahrens said “if the region doesn’t fix (transportation), we will not be on the shortlist of businesses and companies looking to relocate here.”

The county will be asking voters to support a one-penny Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) renewal this year, and Ahrens said it will be money well spent: “$70 million will come to the county and cities without strings,” he said, adding the county will get a 95 percent return on its investment out of the $270 million that’s projected to be collected in revenue.

Cherokee Bank CEO Dennis Burnette, who with Ledger-News Publisher Dave Caughman concluded the presentation, said although he’s opposed to taxation, Georgia is ranked 49th, only the state of Tennessee is worse, in transportation spending.

“The governor has said, if it doesn’t pass, it’s the state’s only opportunity,” Burnette said.

CANTON — The following Cherokee County schools have been designated “2011 Title I Distinguished Schools”: Boston Elementary School, R.M. Moore Elementary School, Woodstock Elementary School and Teasley Middle School.

The federal Title I program provides additional assistance to schools which serve the most under-privileged children, including those who face multiple barriers to learning and are typically most at-risk for low performance. A Title I school that has made Adequate Yearly Progress, as determined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act for three or more consecutive years, may be selected as a “Title I Distinguished School.” These schools serve as state and national models for school improvement, and some may also qualify to win monetary awards.

“We are extremely proud of the students, teachers and parents at our Title I schools and the remarkable level of student success they have achieved,” said Dr. Frank Petruzielo, superintendent. “These children face significant economic disadvantages; yet, by working hard and making their education a priority, they truly have a bright future ahead of them.”

Boston marks 10 consecutive years of making AYP and eight years as a Distinguished School. R.M. Moore has made AYP for nine consecutive years, with seven years as a Distinguished School. Woodstock has eight consecutive years of AYP and six years as a Distinguished School. Teasley has made AYP for three consecutive years; this is its first year as a Title I school, and the school earned Distinguished status in its first year.

CANTON — While home sales tumbled in December, Cherokee County’s real estate market fared better in 2011 than it did in 2010, and local experts are optimistic about the future.

There were 210 home sales last month, according to First Multiple Listing Service, a data services provider for real estate professionals. The total might increase, because not all sales are immediately reported.

That’s down from 234 reported in November, but higher than 208 reported in December 2010.

More homes were sold last year when compared to 2010, with 2,799 sales coming through in 2011 and only 2,348 reported at the close of 2010.

For Camille Gard of Prudential Georgia Realty, those numbers reflect recent data she’s reviewed. Gard said last year was better than 2010 and 2012 is poised to be better for Cherokee County.

“Everyone is excited about what’s coming,” she said.

The average sales price in December was $175,973, down from $180,323 in November and $202,694 in December 2010. Cherokee County had 277 new listings last month, down from 326 in November and 372 in December 2010.

Gard said the housing industry is coming back strong because builders have returned to complete or are starting subdivisions. She said she recently learned there were close to a million new families formed last year and, if that trend continues, the country will soon face pent up demand.

As far as local trends, Rick Steiner with Keller Williams Realty said he’s seeing a lot of first-time homebuyers taking advantage of the foreclosures and short sales on the market. The abundance of foreclosed properties and short sales on the market is something many real estate agents have to adjust their businesses to in order to survive, Steiner added.

He said his office was bombarded after the new year with calls from people inquiring about pricing and possibly selling their homes, which he said could be indicative of what’s to come. Steiner said he’s beginning to see signs of life in the economy as the unemployment rate recently declined slightly and builders are beginning to creep back into the housing market.

He noted those trends need to continue in order to make the predictions of a positive 2012 become a reality.

“I’m hoping for a positive 2012 for the real estate business,” he said.