After chronic absenteeism more than tripled during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dougherty County School System leaders say the district now has enough attendance cases to justify hiring a full-time truancy officer as part of a broader effort to reconnect students and families with schools.
After moving to Lee County for better schools, Jocilyn Hardguittini turned a lifelong passion for Latin cooking into Flavor & Fuego, a growing catering business with plans for a food truck and, eventually, an upscale Hispanic restaurant.
Just a few months after founders were racing to meet fire safety requirements and raise money for a sprinkler system, Motif officially celebrated the opening of its new women’s sober living home Thursday with a ribbon cutting attended by supporters, volunteers and community leaders.
At Dougherty County Schools' back-to-school convocation, keynote speaker Demont Pope explained how losing a dinner-table debate to his 7-year-old daughter became a lesson in humility, innovation and partnership for the new school year.
A review of eight years of City of Dawson salary records reveals a widening divide in employee compensation. The city's salary schedule shows the largest pay increases are concentrated among leadership, department head and supervisory positions, while many frontline employees received increases that failed to keep pace with inflation, leaving the city's payroll increasingly divided between those whose earnings accelerated and those whose purchasing power stagnated or declined. The city has not produced records explaining why individual salaries changed, making it impossible to determine how much of those increases resulted from promotions, reclassifications or raises.
The Terrell County Board of Education adopted a $13.2 million general fund budget for the coming school year that is 9.3% smaller than last year's, eliminating a senior administrative position and reducing spending in several instructional support areas while holding nearly $10.8 million in unreserved general fund reserves — enough to cover roughly 10 months of operating expenses.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration finalized a rule rescinding the long-standing regulatory definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act, removing language that had interpreted the law to include significant habitat modification or degradation that actually kills or injures protected wildlife.
Part Two: Twenty years after county planners warned that homeowners were carrying too much of the load, residential property makes up a larger share of the tax digest than it did then.
A congressional hearing this week on proposed national packaging-labeling standards could have implications for several of Southwest Georgia's largest manufacturers, many of which produce or package products shipped across state lines.
The Terrell County Board of Commissioners rejected a request July 7 to remove Plantation Road from the county road system after nearby residents warned that closing the roadway could leave them without emergency access when adjoining roads flood.
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