County considers shorter school week

Another Georgia county is considering going to a four-day school week. Middle Georgia's Jones County is in the exploratory phase of the idea. The cutback would target high fuel prices and offset state funding cuts. The county estimates having school on four days a week would save the system $250,000 a year on fuel for gas and heating and electricity for buildings. Muscogee County has also said it's considering a shorter school week.

Sumter Co. schools to curb bus service

Sumter County School buses ferrying students to classes this fall will be making fewer stops, primarily to save on gas according to the Americus Times-Recorder.

The decision, by the Sumter County Board of Education, will affect students residing no more than one and a half miles from school. State law does not subsidize fuel costs up to that distance.

The familiar yellow buses will continue on the same routes, but will not stop at locations listed here.

Union County schools closed a third straight day

The cold weather of the week across the state will keep students in extreme north Georgia's Union County home for a third straight day. Students there were supposed to return to class on Wednesday for the start of the new semester. However, snow that fell in the area combined with single-digit overnight temperatures forced closure of the school system. Warmer temperatures are being forecast for the state over the weekend.

State may double high school graduation exams

State board of education members are considering a proposal that would require teens to pass at least nine exams before they earn their high school diploma - nearly twice as many tests as they take now.

The new end-of-course exams would replace the state's current high school graduation test, which is 16 years old and has been criticized because most students easily pass it.

The additional subject exams have not yet been developed, and state board members would have to formally approve the policy. Federal officials would also have to sign off on the changes.

State lawmakers for years were preparing to replace the five-part graduation exam now given to high school juniors with End of Course tests - eight standardized exams taken throughout a student's high school career. The tests were introduced four years ago, but making the full switch was complicated by problems meeting federal standards in the No Child Left Behind Act.

State education administrators say new credit requirements that take effect next year will ensure that all public high school students take the same basic courses, and allow the tests to be used for granting proposals. New tests could be created for physics, government, world history and U.S. history courses. The writing section of the current graduation test would still be used, and some current end-of-course exams would be revised to conform to the new state curriculum.

The revised structure would increase the number of tests a student takes that are linked to a diploma. If the proposal is approved, the changes could go into effect for freshmen starting in 2009. Students entering high school before then would still take the old graduation test.

Georgia students usually perform worse on the end-of-course exams than they do on the graduation test. A report presented to the state education board this week warned that graduation rates and college enrollments could drop and the number of high schools failing federal academic standards could rise with the new testing.

Last school year, about 4,600 students didn't earn diplomas because they couldn't pass the current graduation test.

(The Associated Press)

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Police suspect gang in school vandalism

Vandalism and a torched SUV at a northwest Georgia high school could be connected to last month's gang-related arrests.

A spray-painted message on the front windows of Rome's Armuchee High School reads, “You can’t catch us all.” Floyd County Police have made 10 gang-related arrests in the past month, all of teens, all associated with a gang that calls itself the Riverside Boys.

Armuchee High School’s Principal James Burris said the paint was easy to clean off, but what worries him is the SUV burnt to a crisp in a back parking lot.

“Of course it’s one of those disturbing things that we are taking seriously, but school’s going on as normal as possible and everyone is as safe as we can make them here,” said Burris.

Burris says vandalism happens every few years at Armuchee. He students have always came foreword with information but so far, no one has.