Lanier Elementary School's fifth-grade students recently celebrated their reading goals with certificates and free meal tokens to Texas Roadhouse. The students are working to read 1 million words by the end of the school year.

Elizabeth JinSeon Smith, an early childhood education and special education major at North Georgia College & State University in Dahlonega, is a recipient of the Student Professional Association of Georgia Educators' S. Marvin Griffin Memorial Foundation Scholarship. These scholarships are given annually through the Professional Association of Georgia Educators Foundation to students who aspire to become teachers. Smith is from Gainesville.