Buford City Schools filed a lawsuit Friday against Hall County Schools, demanding $1.64 million in damages and alleging that the school system neglected to pay its fair share of money it received from an education sales tax, we learn from a story in The Times of Gainesville.
Buford City Schools accuses Hall School Schools of breaching an agreement signed by former Gov. Nathan Deal on March 15, 2016, which requires Hall County Schools, Gainesville City Schools and Buford City Schools to divide revenue from the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, calculated based on student enrollment. E-SPLOST is a penny sales tax on retail purchases allocated among the three school districts.
Phillip Beard, chairman of the Buford school board, said Hall County paid half of the money it owes in E-SPLOST revenues but is withholding the other half. Beard said Buford has about 1,000 students who live in Hall County.
“I don’t know why they don’t want to pay it,” Beard said. “Are they out of money?”
The board says Buford is demanding more money than it is owed under the terms of the intergovernmental agreement.
Students seek used musical instruments for schools
A North Gwinnett student is leading a drive to collect gently-used musical instruments to donate to under-served schools in Metro Atlanta.
Krishnan
Anand Krishnan of Suwanee and a group of students are working through the local nonprofit Fine Arts for All to collect the instruments. They hope to complete the drive for instruments by January 15, 2023. All donations are tax deductible.
People wanting to donate instruments may drop them off at Huthmaker Violins, 3949 Russell Street, in Suwanee. If necessary, Krishnan says his team will arrange to pick up instruments.
Krishnan is president of Fine Arts for All. Other students on the nonprofit board working with him include Jeanne Yoon, development director; Lucas Stancill, financial director; Eric Son, secretary; Krupa Patel, volunteer coordinator; Claire Park, communications director; and Yeseo Han and Eunice Kim, journalists. All are students at North Gwinnett High School.
Local nonprofits get $4.25 million in virus recovery funds
Gwinnett County Government and United Way of Greater Atlanta selected 50 local nonprofits that serve critical needs in the community to receive $4.25 million in Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery funds. These funds — provided to Gwinnett County by the U.S. Department of the Treasury through the American Rescue Plan Act — will be used to address needs identified or worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact.
Critical needs supported by the round of grant funding include childcare, food insecurity, housing, literacy, mental health and transportation. United Way of Greater Atlanta will manage and distribute $4.25 million in grant awards, providing the selected nonprofits with ongoing technical assistance and support to ensure compliance with grant administration and federal reporting requirements.
- Details about the awards and all related updates are available at GwinnettCounty.com/Grants.
PCOM’s Freed wins lifetime achievement award
PCOM’s Freed
Dr. Gary Freed, a member of the PCOM Georgia Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine clinical education department, received the Leila D. Denmark Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics recently. The award recognizes his lifetime of work and contributions to the pediatric profession and is the highest award the Georgia chapter bestows. The award is named after Leila Daughtry Denmark, MD, one of the first women pediatricians in Georgia who retired at the age of 103, after 73 years in practice.
Dr. Freed, who retired from Emory University School of Medicine in 2017 and began teaching at PCOM Georgia. He is the first Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine to receive this honor in the state. Dr. Freed served as a professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine for 26 years. Dr. Freed was considered one of the leading “experts” on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) because of his 30 years of work in this area. Dr. Freed earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, before earning a medical degree at the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Des Moines University. He completed a residency in pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and then a neonatology fellowship.
- To learn more about Dr. Freed’s work, listen to a PCOM Perspectives podcast as he discusses Sudden Infant Death Syndrome with Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine President Jay S. Feldstein.
McGee among 525 to graduate at GGC on Dec. 1
Jolene McGee said going to college was something she always wanted. But life got in the way. There were no permanent roadblocks, but enough obstacles delayed her education. She was 30 years old and the mother of four when she finally enrolled at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC).
She doesn’t view the extra years waiting as a burden. If anything, she says the joys and heartaches she lived through during that time forged her into a more prepared student.
Born in Queens, New York, McGee moved to Georgia with her mother, Joyce Murphy, a mail handler with the Post Office, and her father, Arthur Lee, a construction worker and security guard, when she was in elementary school. She graduated from Phoenix High School in Lawrenceville, in 2003. Her father passed away from kidney failure that same year, leaving her with a full plate and a heavy heart right out of the gate into adulthood.
She worked for 12 years, including at a postal distribution center, as a teaching assistant at daycare centers, as a retail worker, and as a certified nursing assistant. In 2015, she finally eked out enough breathing room to get accepted into the Georgia State University associate program.
She says: “My mother was so proud because she saw me working multiple full-time service jobs to make ends meet. She just wanted a better life for me.” But in November her mother was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer.
McGee put her college education on hold once more. McGee moved her mother into her home, where she could more easily be her caretaker. The cancer rapidly spread. Joyce Murphy passed away in January 2017, leaving a deep river of emotion in her wake.
“I felt like I died with her,” said McGee. “I suffered from anxiety and depression and still do. I lost faith in myself and the world. It took me a few years to find the courage to become a part of society again.”
Her mother had always wanted McGee to finish college. That wish and a last promise to her mother drove McGee to return to college.
McGee will join more than 525 of her classmates at GGC’s fall commencement ceremony, scheduled for 10 a.m., Dec. 1 at Gas South Arena in Duluth. She will receive a degree in human services with a concentration in social work, becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college. She says in addition to fulfilling her last promise to her mother, she sought a college degree to be a role model for her children.
McGee lives with her family in Grayson. After graduation, she hopes to become a social worker for the Department of Veteran Affairs.
EMC Foundation grants $101,200 to Gwinnett agencies
The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded a total of $106,200 in grants for organizations during its October meeting, including $101,200 to organizations serving Gwinnett County.
- $16,200 to Side by Side Brain Injury Clubhouse, Inc., to provide rehabilitation services for adults from Gwinnett County who are permanently disabled due to traumatic brain injury.
- $15,000 to Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation, Inc., to pay for eye surgeries for uninsured individuals in Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson and Lumpkin counties.
- $15,000 to Heirborn Servants, serving Barrow, Clarke, Gwinnett, Hall, and Jackson counties, to provide assistance with its Give Rides program, which partners with community groups, transitional housing organizations and rideshare companies to ensure survivors of human trafficking or domestic violence can get to therapy and employment.
- $15,000 to J.M. Tull-Gwinnett Family YMCA, in Lawrenceville, for its Afterschool Enrichment Program for at-risk youth from low-income families, to improve academic achievement and empower healthy living.
- $15,000 to Latin American Association, Inc., for its emergency rental assistance program for Gwinnett families in need.
- $15,000 to YMCA of Georgia’s Piedmont, Inc., in Winder, for its Pryme Tyme program providing homework help, sports, arts and crafts to children from economically disadvantaged families in Barrow, Gwinnett, Hall and Jackson counties.
- $10,000 to Buford First United Methodist Church, for its Sack Kids Hunger relief program that provides weekend food bags for children in need.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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