Author: On Common Ground News

Honey Creek Elementary School students and faculty returned to school on Tuesday, Sept. 25, after the school underwent a thorough “scrub.” School officials ordered faculty not to report and parents to keep their children home on Monday so that a thorough cleaning of the school could be conducted in response to a number of absences last week believed to be caused by a gastrointestinal virus. School officials had sent out a letter and robo call advising parents   about 20 percent of the students and staff became sick with a gastrointestinal virus last week. Cindy Ball, the school district’s spokesperson, said 91.26…

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday, Sept. 25, to approve an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the cities of Pine Lake and Stone Mountain to provide sanitation service. Pending approval of their city councils, sanitation service in the city of Pine Lake is scheduled to begin Dec. 1, 2018, and Jan. 1, 2019, for the city of Stone Mountain. “The City of Stone Mountain is committed to providing value to our residents and business owners,” said Stone Mountain Mayor Pat Wheeler. “The intergovernmental agreement to provide sanitation service to the city of Stone Mountain will further enhance our…

DeKalb County’s Super District 7 Commissioner Gregory Adams and City of Stonecrest District 1 Councilman Jimmy Clanton will host town hall meeting on Thursday, Sept. 27, 6 p.m.at the Lou Walker Senior Center, 2538 Panola Road, Stonecrest. The public is invited for an evening of community conversation and engagement with both DeKalb County and the City of Stonecrest. “Keeping our community abreast to what is occurring as well as providing updates on our continued public service is a top priority,” said Commissioner Adams. There will be presenters from DeKalb Public Safety, Keep DeKalb Beautiful and the City of Stonecrest’s Code…

The next meeting of the DeKalb County Board of Health is scheduled for Thursday, September 27, 3 p.m., in the Bohan Auditorium, located in the Richardson Health Center at 445 Winn Way, Decatur. The public is invited to attend. Agenda items for the meeting include the approval of minutes from previous meetings, service award presentations, a director’s report, and the financial status report. Anyone who would like to bring an issue before the board can be placed on the agenda by contacting India Dyer at 404-294-3787. Written comments to the board will be accepted at:  Office of the Director, DeKalb…

Attorney General Chris Carr today announced that the State of Georgia, along with 49 states and the District of Columbia, has settled with California-based ride-sharing company Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) to address the company’s one-year delay in reporting a data breach to its affected drivers. As part of the nationwide settlement, Uber has agreed to pay $148 million to the states. Georgia will receive $4,137,509.67. In addition, Uber has agreed to strengthen its corporate governance and data security practices to help prevent a similar occurrence in the future. “Personal identifying information that is obtained in a data breach can expose…

Rockdale County School District school officials have announced that Honey Creek Elementary School will be closed on Monday, Sept. 24 due to an increase of a gastrointestinal virus. The sick-out day is for Honey Creek Elementary School students only. About 20 percent of the students  and staff became sick with the virus last week, officials said. School officials issued a robo call notifying parents of the reported illnesses and a letter from Principal Susan Norton that read: Dear Parent or Guardian: Recently, an increase in gastrointestinal illness has been reported among students and staff at Honey Creek Elementary School.  Our school…

Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary has announced that he plans to take medical leave to undergo treatment for cancer. Mayor pro tem George Turner will oversee the City Council meetings likely until the end of the year, said Lary, who has started pre-radiation treatment. Lary said the council’s heated and lengthy debate at the Sept. 17 City Council meeting over the management of the city’s SPLOST program was the tipping point that led him to make the announcement. Councilwoman Jazzmin Cobble made a motion, which was seconded and approved by the council, to remove all of the items from the City…

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD SPLOST LIST (.PDF) By Valerie J. Morgan DeKalb County is putting its one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) to work.   The county has begun repaving the first of more than 300 miles of the worst streets and roads with funding generated from SPLOST, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November 2017.  “I want to thank the voters, who entrusted their government to responsibly use their tax dollars to improve infrastructure throughout the county,” DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond said during a Sept 20 news conference. “Today, we are fulfilling our promise to resurface county…

By Valerie J. Morgan The former Rockdale County Sheriff’s deputy who falsified jail logs stating mandatory checks were made on Shali Tilson, a mentally ill man who died while in custody in March, has been arrested in an unrelated case. Dan Lang was charged with stealing guns from the evidence room and pawning them and $40,000 in cash. A warrant was issued for Lang’s arrest and he turned himself in to the Rockdale County Jail on Sept. 20 without incident, authorities said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said Lang was charged with multiple violations of theft by taking 42 firearms…

The high school graduation rate for the DeKalb County School District (DCSD) continues to improve, based on recently released data from the Georgia Department of Education. The four-year graduation rate for DCSD’s Class of 2018 was 75 percent, an increase from the 2017 graduation rate of 74 percent. Between 2013 and 2018, the district graduation rate improved 15 percentage points, closing in on the state’s rate of growth each year. DCSD’s work toward closing the gap between district and state graduation rates continues to persist. For Black/African-American students, the overall percentage of graduates increased three points since 2017 – from…