Development Authority gives nod to tax break for mixed-use project ► PAGE 3
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Legislators update residents on key drives they support Education, sports betting among topics discussed By JEFFREY ALBERTSON newsroom@appenmediagroup.com DUNWOODY, Ga. — Members of the legislative delegation in and around Dunwoody held a virtual town hall Feb. 18 to update constituents on a broad swath of issues from suburban bow hunting, criminal justice reform, Medicaid expansion and sexual assault kit tracking. Significant attention, as expected,
was directed at proposals seeking to change election law. While budget proceedings have dominated most of the session to date, several Republican-sponsored bills seek to change how absentee ballots are requested, returned and counted. About four dozen bills have been introduced that would change no-excuse absentee voting, early and Sunday voting and the location of ballot drop boxes. Legislation also calls for allowing the Secretary of State’s Office to take over an underperforming county elections board. One element common to most of the
proposals includes requiring a photo I.D. when requesting an absentee ballot. Hours before the town hall, Republicans released House Bill 531, the latest proposal to overhaul elections law. Sen. Sally Harrell (D-Atlanta) said the starting weeks of the session were unsettling because, though business continued as usual, 13 percent of the legislators in the Senate chamber were COVID-19 positive. Harrell said she wants to focus on people-oriented issues and not necessarily the bills that attracted the most attention.
“The voting bills that are being proposed really do not fix anything that is broken,” Harrell said. “They are addressed as stories (and) narratives that were created about voter fraud that were not real.” Harrell is focused on how to implement and fund a needs-based scholarship program to provide access to higher education for students who fail to maintain HOPE Scholarship’s GPA requirement. “There are always kids that maybe
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With virus infections down, parents anxious for classrooms to reopen By CATHY COBBS newsroom@appenmediagroup.com DUNWOODY, Ga. – The science is there. The benchmarks have been met. Declarations have been made. Yet, parents say DeKalb County schools have not announced a date for students to return to the classroom. Dunwoody-area parents are livid at the lack of movement. DeKalb County Schools have been closed since mid-March of last year, and while several benchmarks publicized by the system for a return to class have been met, still no word. One of the benchmarks was to register a countywide positivity rate of below 10 percent. According to the Georgia Department of Health statistics, the positivity rate has been falling steadily, and for the past two weeks, it has been 7.9 percent. The school system announced in January a three-step plan for a return of
CATHY COBBS/CRIER
The parking lot at Dunwoody High School is nearly full, but teachers are the only ones with access to buildings. Classrooms remain closed to students through late February. students to the classroom. The first step involved all personnel returning to the classroom, followed by a staggered return of certain grades in
quick succession. Teachers returned to their classrooms on Feb. 5. However, there have been no announcements about when the
first wave of students will return. In response to queries from the Crier, a school spokesman said, “No information has been released.” “The District will give parents a twoweek notice before moving to face-to-face instruction,” the spokesman said. Representatives from a Facebook group called DCSD Parents, which advocates resumption of in-person learning, said they are disappointed in the lack of action by the school system. “[Superintendent] Cheryl WatsonHarris and the DCSD Board have chosen to abandon an entire generation of students rather than offer them the option for face-to-face learning,” a statement released by the group said. “They repeatedly ignore the recommendations and guidance of scientists and physicians, opting instead for subpar virtual learning experiences across the district.”
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