School starts back tomorrow after celebrations and preparations
News August 4, 2021
GILMER COUNTY, Ga. – This week has seen celebrations and preparations for many as school prepares to resume. Tomorrow, August 5, 2021, classes will return to session with two days before the weekend.
As previously stated in Gilmer’s Board of Education meetings, some teachers use the short week to get introduced to students and to the year. Others utilize the short weekend to respond and reorganize certain aspects of classes or lessons after having a day or two with students.
Mere weeks ago, Clear Creek Elementary school was still going through final punch lists and last minute preparations for the school year.
An entire school has spent many days over the recent weeks moving. Classes of Clear Creek Elementary begin tomorrow in their new building, having left behind the former Ellijay Primary School. With staff and others helping to move the furniture, many of those teachers have spent time getting used to their new classrooms in addition to preparing for lessons.
And this week also so celebrations of the new year with the Gilmer Chamber. The Education Celebrations saw over $5,000 worth of door prizes given out during the celebration. All of those prizes went to Gilmer County Charter School System educators. The Gilmer Chamber said, “We had a great time celebrating our teachers at Education Celebration!”
The rest of the county is preparing for the return to school traffic and changes with them in the coming year. With the recent report during a Board of Education meeting, the Sheriff’s Office is ramping up education and information spread of new traffic cameras coming to the area near three of the schools.
The school calendar is posted to the Gilmer Schools website. Students, teachers, and even coaches are wasting no time in returning to the usual schedule as the Gilmer Bobcats prepare to scrimmage Fannin on Friday.
Students going back to school are also benefitting from emergency funding from the USDA for lunches. Already having moved to free breakfasts in previous years, the school system will be allowing free lunches for this year only. Gilmer County Schools will be serving a free breakfast and a free lunch meal to all students attending in person classes during the 2021-2022 school year. The USDA provided the emergency funding specifically for schools to provide meals at no cost to students.
Classes for each school will operate on the following scheduled start and dismissal times:
All Elementary Schools ( EES, CCES & MVE)
Start Time: 8:00am
Dismissal: 3:00pm
Parent Drop Off (EES & CCES): 7:35am
Parent Drop Off (MVE): 7:20amClear Creek Middle, Gilmer High & Mountain Innovations
Start Time: 7:45am
Dismissal: 2:45pm
Parent Drop Off: 7:15Pre-K
Start Time: 8:00am
Dismissal: 2:30pm
Mayor asked to return key to City Hall
City Council, Election, News March 11, 2021
Blue Ridge, Ga. – Mayor Donna Whitener was asked to turn in her key to City Hall as council members expressed their concerns over the upcoming election.
“With all that has been going on over the past couple of months, which the public is just now starting to find out about, to be very honest, I don’t know that I feel comfortable with the election that is coming up and not having an unbiased party being over the election,” Council Member Nathan Fitts expressed his feelings on the upcoming election.
Haight requests that Whitener return her key to City Hall during the election period.
Council Member Rhonda Thomas and Fitts both agreed that having outside municipal counsel handle any election related events would be in the best interest of not only the candidates but the City as well.
This proposition comes with the consideration that current City Attorney James Balli is hired to represent City Council members, many of whom will be running in the upcoming election, and therefore might have a biased conflict of interest in any election related matters.
Haight suggested approaching the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) attorneys and getting their legal opinion on the matter.
Fitts agreed with Haight’s recommendation stating, “I know too much. I know the history of the last election. I know things that went on and I do not feel comfortable with it.”
With the request for an outside legal counsel, Haight also requested that the Mayor return her key to City Hall during the election period.
“None of us have keys except for the Mayor and I don’t feel like she should have a key to this building during that election time,” Haight said adding that she doesn’t want any possibility of wrongdoing to occur and jeopardize the election process.
“I have no problem with that,” Mayor Whitener responded to Haight’s request but did point out that there have been emergency occasions when she (Whitener) has had to access the building.
One thing that all council members and mayor did agree upon was to look into third party handling of future elections.
Fitts pointed out that the staff of City Hall, who currently handle city elections, is “put in the middle of way more than they should be”.
While some council members felt it was too late to seek outside handling of the 2021 City Election, they did agree to pursue this route in the future.
The General Election is set to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021 with voting at City Hall. Polls open at 7 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m.
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Happy New Year!!!
Community, Featured December 31, 2020
We know this year has been a tough one. But we are here to tell you 2021 is a new year and hopefully a better one! Happy New Year from all of us here at FYN!
NCHSAA Sports Calendar Amended, Football Moved To February
Sports, Team FYN Sports August 14, 2020
The NCHSAA Board of Directors met last night via zoom and were able to come up with an amended calendar for the 2020-2021 season.
The decision to amend the 2020-2021 sports calendar was not one that was taken lightly, as the NCHSAA was guided by the NFHS and others in order to make a properly informed decision.
All sports schedules for the year have been changed in some way or another. In the graphic below, you can find the 1st practice dates, 1st competition dates, final contest dates, season contest limit, and weekly contest limit for all NCHSAA sports for the 2020-2021 school year. 
The first practice date for football has been pushed back all the way to February 8th, with the first game coming February 26th. Another big change to the football season is that all NCHSAA teams will only play 7 games this season, with the final contest date set for April 9th.
The first practice date for Basketball will be December 7th, and the first game will be January 4th. Basketball will only play 14 games this season.
You can view the attached graphic for the updated schedule for all of the changes made to the other NCHSAA sports in the upcoming year.
The NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker said in her video release earlier today that if you have any question please do no hesitate to contact them, and that they would be happy to field any questions or concerns that the general public had about the upcoming seasons after they hold their media press conference at 3:30. You can contact the NCHSAA by visiting NCHSAA.org.
The NCHSAA is holding a virtual press conference at 3:30 today for members of the media to ask questions about the new amended calendar, so stay tuned to the Team FYN Sports page for the latest updates on this developing situation.