During his sixth year as a school counselor, Derek Francis faced a situation that would change his career.
It was 2017, and the Minnesota high school where he workedâwhich also happened to be the high school he attended as a teenagerâwas in turmoil over a video circulating on social media. In it, one of the schoolâs star volleyball players said the n-word on a bus ride to a game.
At the time, Francis was the only Black counselor in the district, which serves about 40,000 students. And the volleyball player, who was white, just so happened to be in his caseload.
County-by-County: Here’s how districts are working to vaccinate their teachers WSBTV.com News Staff
Replay Video UP NEXT
Monday was a big day for teachers and school staff as many started receiving their COVID-19 vaccine shots.
It’s also the day shipments of the
single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine began to arrive in Georgia. Teachers will be the first to get that vaccine, which is the only single-dose vaccine made available in the U.S. so far.
Gov. Brian Kemp toured a mass vaccination site in Gwinnett County Monday that hoped to get at least 600 teachers vaccinated. Kemp said opening up vaccination eligibility to a new population is a step in the right direction.
Gwinnett County School System drops Gateway Exams as graduation requirement for now
The school system said the decision was based, at least in part, on the lack of help available for students retaking the exam amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Author: Christopher Buchanan Updated: 8:50 PM EST February 20, 2021
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. Georgia’s largest school district is doing away with a usually very important exam this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Gwinnett County School District reports that students won’t be required to take the Gateway Exams for 2021 to graduate. The exams are normally taken in the sophomore and junior years. Those who don’t pass are given extra help before trying again to pass.
Reply
Katie Blum, second grade teacher at Sugar Hill Elementary School, is Gwinnett s Teacher of the Year. Blum has also taught at Riverside Elementary School in Suwanee. (Gwinnett County School District)
SUWANEE, GA A Sugar Hill elementary-school instructor has been awarded Gwinnett County Teacher of the Year honors.
Katie Blum, a second-grade teacher at Sugar Hill Elementary School, was named Gwinnett s top teacher at a ceremony Thursday night at the district s headquarters in Suwanee. Blum was also named Elementary School Teacher of the Year. It is completely shocking and overwhelming and surprising to be Gwinnett County s Teacher of the Year, Blum said to The Gwinnett Daily Post. I never expected this.