• The annual angel tree drive sponsored by the Fayette County school system's Children at Risk in Education program provides gifts for economically disadvantaged students at schools throughout the county. CARE coordinator Karen Spangler oversees the operation, collecting wishes for the tree from school counselors, gathering donations, wrapping gifts and arranging delivery. The school system's warehouse supervisor Ron Ross and warehouse employee Bryan Nation helped Spangler this year with taking gifts to the schools before winter break. "I know how busy they are, and for them to work this into an already tight schedule, it means so much to me, and to the students and their families we are helping this year," Spangler said. The angel tree drive provides gifts for more than 400 students and their families each year.
• The D. Scott Hudgens, Jr. Early Education Center at Gwinnett Technical College is the first pre-kindergarten center in Georgia to receive an inclusion endorsement from the Department of Early Care and Learning. "The Quality Rated Inclusion Endorsement is a significant step in ensuring that child care programs and teachers are equipped to serve children from all backgrounds and needs in their classrooms," said DECAL Commissioner Amy M. Jacobs. "I am extremely proud of the D. Scott Hudgens, Jr. Early Education Center for being the first child care program in Georgia" to receive it. The Hudgens Center, on the Gwinnett Tech Campus in a 26,000-square-foot, two story-facility, opened in August 2006. It is also the lab school for the Early Childhood Care and Education program at Gwinnett Tech.
• An online application will be available beginning Jan. 1 for 2016-2017 hardship transfers or to renew a current hardship transfer to another Fulton County elementary, middle or high school. Hardship transfer requests relate to medical reasons, curriculum differences, child care situations or school employees' children. Paper applications will only be accepted for medical transfers, which require pertinent medical provider's signatures and documentation. The transfer application deadline is 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 15. Schools participating in open enrollment, a separate transfer process that allows students to move to a school with available space, will be announced in early May.
• McIntosh High School students Steven Lukehart and Parker Olsen have been chosen for the 2016 Georgia All-State Band Ensemble. Steven made the cut for two sections: trumpet (5th chair) and piano (alternate). Parker's audition placed him as the principal for the drum section. Only one to five students plus an alternate are chosen for each of the 11 ensemble sections. Auditions at the district level and then, for students who make that cut, at the state level, determine the ensemble members. Steven and Parker will perform in concert with the other All State Jazz Ensemble members in Athens Jan. 28-30.
• Fulton County has received a grant from the Georgia Office of Highway Safety to fund Students Against Destructive Decisions activities at nine high schools. The grant allows the district to receive up to $45,000 to fund SADD activities, including $2,500 each to Alpharetta High School, Centennial High School, Chattahoochee High School, Creekside High School, Independence High School, Langston Hughes High School, McClarin High School, Northview High School, and Roswell High School.
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