Community Meeting Talks About Helping School System

A group of concerned county residents come together to talk about ways to help the Stephens County School System in light of its financial crisis.

That group met Thursday night at the Doyle Street Community Center in Toccoa.

Nadine Scott helped to organize the meeting.

Scott said she wanted to put something together to try and figure out ways to support the students and the school system staff in light of all of the recent budget cuts within the Stephens County school system.

“I knew there were people out there that still believed in this community, that believed in the children and our students and I knew those people were out there and I wanted their voice to be heard because angry voices usually scream the loudest,” said Scott. “I wanted those people that have a positive comment to be heard and share and be united in one place.”

The people in attendance talked about ways they could help the school system.

Those ideas included things like volunteering time in the schools to work with students or help in certain areas of the school affected by the recent cuts, or donating supplies to classrooms or money to an individual school to help provide things that the school can no longer afford easily because of the budget situation the school system faces overall.

Others in attendance also suggested that PTO’s and other groups at all of the schools work together to help each other out when possible.

Scott said she plans to continue to hold more meetings and try to continue moving this effort forward.

She pointed to people who banded together over the Wilbros’ issue as an example.

“Look how the community banded together over that issue,” said Scott.

For more information, people can call Scott at 706-491-7790.