BLUE RIDGE, GA — In the words of board member Terry Bramlett, “There are so many good things to talk about” in the education system in Fannin County.With a couple of great reports and several new projects beginning in the near future it looks like the education system in Fannin County is in great standing and it’s only going to continue to get better.

The 2014 audit report for the entire school system recently came back with a report of ZERO findings. That’s a big deal for the largest “business” in Fannin county.

“This is the largest business [fiscally] in the county. With all the money coming through this system in payroll and project funding the auditors couldn’t find a single discrepancy…We strive to stay clean,”

said superintendent of schools Mark Henson.

Speaking of project funding: the board voted on Thursday night to begin receiving bids for the over-all cost of $150,000 to be used out of SPLOST to build a new outdoor adaptive classroom designed for children with disabilities in the Fannin County school system.

Henson stated that the playground would be located at Blue Ridge Elementary School because children from all the other schools travel to BRES already.

“The adaptive classroom will help children with disabilities to learn the simplest of life skills that we take for granted such as climbing stairs and turning knobs,”

said Henson.

The entire board was excited to vote to move forward with this project stating that they all saw the great need for such a facility.

Another project that the board voted to move forward with was that of a school radio station.

Fannin County band director Scott Barnstead came to the board in September of 2013 with the idea. At that time Henson gave Banstead the task of researching the project in great depth and asked him to return to the board with a “turn key” price for the entire project.

Barnstead, along with others, set out to do just that. Spending countless hours on learning more about the benefits for the children, and the entire school system really, the team came back with mounds of valuable information, the greatest of which was the cost that the station would ensue, around $41,000.

“At first I wasn’t sold on the idea of having a radio station for our school system, but after hearing the benefits that will come from this for the students I think we should go forward with the project,”

said Henson.

One of the greatest benefits of the students learning to use and be a part of a school radio station will be becoming more competitive in the job market.

Georgia is now ranked 3rd in the nation in the area of production and having this experience in radio journalism will give the students of Fannin County an extra edge.

Just as a side note; only three schools in the whole state of Georgia have a radio station. For Fannin County to have this opportunity will certainly move students along with the times.

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