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Shop Local • Buy Local • Advertise Local Vol. 1, No. 26 J Wednesday, September 14, 2022
What’s Inside ••• Have questions about the upcoming Kiwanis Coweta County Fair? This year’s Fair Chairman Scott Cortner has your answers in this week’s Interview on Page 4. ••• Pets can be tough on a perfectly manicured lawn. County Agent Stephanie Butcher has some tips to limit damage caused by pets on your lawn. ••• Columnist Kathy Bohannon writes about her grandLittles and their eagerness to grow up and get to “adulting.” ••• Both Heritage School and East Coweta are headlining the local prep football scene early in the 2022 season. ••• Senior living columnist Beth Dow has just the thing on how to be prepared for something you’ve never faced while aging. ••• In the mood for comfort food? Our Angela Webster McRae shares her latest recipe – Thalhimers Rice Pudding. ••• Consumer writer LaTina Emerson offers up ways to steer clear of Home Buying and Rental Scams. •••
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GEMA/Homeland Security Conducts Safety Site Assessments at All 32 Coweta Schools
All Coweta County schools received comprehensive on-site safety assessments from the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA/ HS) over a nine-day period at the end of August.
GEMA/HS Regional Coordinator Kevin Stanfield (GEMA region 6) conducted the site assessments as a part of an offer from the agency to school systems statewide. Coweta County’s school safety plans have been developed through the years with GEMA guidance. Stanfield made the offer to school systems throughout his 21-county district at the beginning of the year to conduct onsite inspections. Superintendent Evan Horton contacted him in March and invited him to survey Coweta’s schools. “It’s always good to have a new, and welltrained, perspective on our school safety and security measures,” said Horton. “I value our partnership with GEMA and local law enforcement, and their expertise as we seek to make our schools as safe as they can be.” “The purpose of the assessments is to provide schools with individualized guidance on things they can do to be safer environments,” said Coweta Schools Safety Director Ken Kesselring, who accompanied Stanfield on the site visits.
All 32 Coweta schools were visited over a week and a half period, from August 22 through 30. The visits from Stanfield and Kesselring were typically two-hour tours covering hundreds of elements in
At Elm Street Elementary School, following a safety assessment visit, are, left to right, Coweta Schools Safety Director Ken Kesselring, GEMA Regional Coordinator Kevin Stanfield, Principal Christy Hildebrand, and Newnan Police Officer Jimmy Price, School Resource Officer.
a comprehensive site assessment guide developed by GEMA. “School Safety is actually our bread and butter” at GEMA, said Stanfield, who also lives in Coweta County. “And in these sorts of assessment visits, we are really another set of eyes,” and the assessments can offer teachers and staff a new perspective on safety issues which need to be addressed or enhanced, he said. Stanfield took principals and system staff through walkthroughs of the entire school campus, following the 11-page site assessment guide. Among the things he looked for were updated and individualized school safety plans, school security measures, training plans and drills, facility maintenance, classroom set-ups, entryways and exits, signage, emergency storm shelter locations, playgrounds, athletic fields, sprinklers, school fencing, continued on page 6