The respective boards of education for Gainesville City and Hall County schools have adopted a resolution to recognize Performance-Enhancing Drug Awareness Week, Dec. 8-14.
“It’s often true that what we begin to see in the adult culture, certainly it’s no surprise that we start to see it in our schools,” said Hall Superintendent Will Schofield at the Monday meeting of the county board of education. “We’re up to somewhere in the neighborhood of schools, private schools and school districts (representing) 600,000 students in Georgia in support of Performance-Enhancing Drug Awareness Week.”
A presentation was held in September by Hall and Gainesville schools, along with Riverside Military Academy and Lakeview Academy, for student-athletes and their coaches about the dangers of synthetic steroids, growth hormones and other illegal substances. That presentation will soon be available for online viewing.
Gainesville school representatives to participate in dropout prevention conference
The Gainesville school system will participate in the 25th annual National Dropout Prevention Network Conference next Sunday through Thursday in Atlanta.
Superintendent Merrianne Dyer, along with other school representatives, will present in the session “Unified System of Learning Supports to Address Barriers to Learning,” a strategic planning and action framework for which the Gainesville school system has led the way in modeling for schools around the country.
Board of Education Vice Chairwoman Delores Diaz will be attending.
“It’s something that I’m interested in,” Diaz said. “I know that we already do a lot of things to help to reduce our dropout rate, and we’ve had some success. I’m just hoping to learn everything I can that might help us to reduce (the dropout rate further); it’s always a good thing to know as much as you can. I hope to learn what other systems are doing (and) what the latest research is.”
University of North Georgia program wins poultry grant
The USPOULTRY Foundation recently awarded a $3,100 grant to the poultry science program at the University of North Georgia.
“(The poultry science program) equips students with trade knowledge and shows them the opportunities the poultry industry provides,” said Linda Purvis, biology and poultry science instructor, in a news release. “Many students are unaware of the vast job options in the poultry industry that can be available to them.”
The $3,100 will go toward recruiting students into the poultry program. The funds will also enable five high school students to attend Avian Adventures, a summer program held in conjunction with the University of Georgia.
Carly Sharec covers education issues for The Times. Share your thoughts, news tips and questions with her: