Here are the final maps that Gwinnett County will use in the 2022 election for the county commission and school board. These maps were signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp after passing the General Assembly recently. There is one new element. The Legislature changed the requirement for school board members. The new element is that the School Board candidates will run in a nonpartisan election in the future. (You can click the headline to see larger versions of the maps)
Payne-Simpkins will be new Lilburn city manager
Payne-Simpkins
The city of Lilburn will have a new city manager, effective May 26. Assistant City Manager Jenny Payne-Simpkins will replace Bill Johnsa, who is retiring. In Dec. 2019, Simpkins joined the city of Lilburn in the newly-created position as assistant city manager following a 12-year stint as city manager for the city of Fort Oglethorpe, in north Georgia. She’s also worked for Gwinnett County government and the city of Savannah in various roles. Simpkins received her Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her Master of Public Administration degree from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She was born in Columbus, Ga., and grew up in North Carolina. She and her husband live in unincorporated Lilburn.
Coolray Field site of college, high school games this spring
The Gwinnett Stripers will host college and high school baseball games in 2022 at Coolray Field. The Stripers will host five college baseball games in all, including:
- Atlanta Braves Ralph Garr-Bill Lucas HBCU Baseball Classic on February 25-27. This will be the second annual HBCU Baseball Classic in a three-game weekend series between Grambling State University and Florida A&M University.
- Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta 2022 Spring Classic for Kids on March 6.Georgia Tech will play the University of Georgia for the 19th Annual Spring Classic on Sunday, March 6.
- Georgia State University vs. the University of Georgia on Tuesday, March 22. This is the first time the Panthers and Bulldogs have faced off at Coolray Field.
Here is the schedule where the Stripers will also host the following high school games:
- Athens Christian School vs. Stony Brook (NY) School on March 2.
- Lanier High School vs. Landmark Christian School on March 19.
- 2022 Georgia High School Association Baseball State Championships on May 24-26. For the second year in a row, the state titles will be on the line as Coolray Field hosts best-of-three championship series in two different classifications.
The Gwinnett Stripers’ 2022 season is not affected by the current lockout of Major League Baseball and will go on as scheduled. Gwinnett begins the year on Tuesday, April 5 at Memphis before returning to Coolray Field for opening night on Tuesday, April 12 vs. Nashville.
GGC to offer degree online for special education teachers
Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) students who want to pursue a special education degree can now do so wherever they have an internet connection. GGC has introduced an online option for the Bachelor of Science in Education degree for special education majors.
Dr. Matthew Boggan, chair of GGC’s special education curriculum, offered insight into why there’s such a high demand for people within this program.
“There’s a huge shortage of teachers in general right now, and that’s compounded by the COVID crisis,” he said. “Special education is the number one shortage in the field of teaching.”
Boggan explained that GGC’s online program seeks to rectify that shortage by offering more accessible coursework. The online format lets students learn from home, which allows people who would ordinarily have to factor in jobs or long commutes to work around those obstacles.
The curriculum requires 123 hours of coursework to fulfill degree requirements. Students can achieve that through online courses at GGC or a combination of GGC and eCore courses. eCore is an initiative within the University System of Georgia that provides an online campus for students who need a more generalized and expansive approach.
Although the curriculum is online, Boggan said special education teacher candidates will gain practical experience with students in the classroom through a required field component in Gwinnett County Public Schools during their junior and senior years.
GGC’s new online option is attractive to paraprofessionals, who provide support to special education teachers and provide one-on-one help to students. The special education program offers a program track for traditional daytime college students and a paraprofessional program track for working paraprofessionals featuring evening and weekend courses.
“Special education is a very rewarding field,” Boggan said. “Students have a lot of life challenges, so it’s very rewarding to watch them grow personally and intellectually and become productive citizens.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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