Sherwood, Deerfield start

• School year openings went smoothly Friday at two Albany private schools, officials say.

Valerie Benton

ALBANY — Eighth-graders Karlee Roberts and Flannery Burt were both "nervous" Friday about their first day back at Deerfield-Windsor School.

Carrying a stack of books each that stopped at their chins, the students said they had much to look forward to this school year.

Deerfield-Windsor Upper School opened Friday with a half day of activities while the Lower School had a full first day. Both Sherwood Elementary School and Middle/High School opened with half-day schedules.

Surrounded by the chatter of other students at their lockers, Karlee and Flannery talked briefly about the highlights expected for this school year. A trip to Washington, D.C., choosing where to sit at lunch, new activities and a whole lot of new people sprang to their minds.

The two 13-year-olds, who are friends, were disappointed to learn they will not share any classes.

"We're not happy about that," Flannery said.

But it did not take away from opening day of school or dampen their spirits, as evidenced by their smiling faces. "It's been a good day," Karlee said.

Karlee's opinion seemed to be the consensus of school officials, as well.

"It's going great," Deerfield-Windsor School Headmaster W.T. Henry said Friday.

Henry beamed over the school's increased enrollment — 820 students, compared with last year's total of 795.

"We opened with the highest number of students in the history of Deerfield-Windsor," Henry said. "Deerfield has never topped 800 before."

The headmaster said Deerfield Lower Campus has a waiting list because some of its classes are closed to open enrollment.

The Lower Campus, which added a K-4 kindergarten class this new, also had a record number for the lower school. Deerfield Windsor Lower School Director Billy Grimes reported a total of 372 students as compared with 334 last year. About 53 of the new students are in the new K-4 program.

Both schools have experienced "an inordinate number of students move," Henry said. So he and Grimes were surprised by the growth of a combined 157 new students between the two schools.

Sherwood Elementary and Middle/High Schools Headmaster Dr. Glen Schultz was also pleased with the first day of the new school year.

"It really went smooth," Schultz said.

As for enrollment, Schultz said, "We're pretty stable. We found we had quite a few families move out of the area."

The decrease, however, was offset by any growth the schools realized, he said.

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Youth health funds at risk

• Georgia is pressing federal officials to overhaul the funding formula for PeachCare.

Dave Williams

ATLANTA — Georgia's PeachCare for Kids program will run out of federal funds in January, threatening health insurance coverage for 250,000 children, unless Congress acts to redistribute the money, state health officials warned this week.

"The money is there. It can be reallocated," Dr. Rhonda Medows, Georgia's commissioner of community health, told members of the agency's board Thursday. PeachCare began during the late 1990s as Georgia's version of a new children's health insurance program enacted by Congress.

It covers children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but who can't afford private health insurance and don't get it through their jobs.

The federal government provides 73 percent of the program's funds.

Carie Summers, chief financial officer for the Department of Community Health, said the program is financially sound at the federal level.

However, the formula the feds use to allocate the money to states hasn't been changed since the program's inception, she said.

As a result, Georgia and 17 other states are facing a shortfall early in the upcoming federal fiscal year, while some states are rolling up surpluses, Summers said. Texas, for example, is looking at a surplus of $1 billion, she said.

Medows said the formula is based on the number of children in each state who are uninsured. In effect, she said, Georgia is being punished because PeachCare has been doing a good job covering kids.

"The formula actually penalizes us," she said. "The more children we move in (to PeachCare), the less our allotment."

Medows said Gov. Sonny Perdue has brought up the issue with Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, and she has discussed it with officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency within HHS.

She said the National Governors Association is urging congressional delegations in the affected states to address the problem.

A lot of money is stake. Georgia's projected PeachCare shortfall is $141 million for the current state fiscal year and $179 million for fiscal 2008, which starts next July, according to figures released by the DCH.

Medows said that if Congress doesn't act, the state could be forced to pick up that shortfall, either through a general budget appropriation or by diverting Medicaid funds into PeachCare.

"We don't have a choice," she said. "We cannot disenroll these children."

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Traffic cameras green-lighted

• Traffic-light cameras can reduce the number of drivers who run red lights up to eight blocks away, officials say.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Traffic-light cameras that were once stopped by a red light from city officials now have the green signal for installation.

The cameras, which are designed to catch images of drivers who run red lights, are being installed on the north and south directions of Jefferson Street at its Pine Avenue intersection, City Manager Alfred Lott said.

"They're being installed this weekend," he said Friday. "We expect them to be complete by tomorrow."

In May, Lott said that the city did not have enough manpower to staff such a program. He said Friday that city officials have found a way to operate the cameras.

"Well, we put our heads together," he said. "We sat down with engineering and police ... (and) worked the staffing problems out."

The city chose the Jefferson Street intersection because it has a high volume of right-angle crashes and wrecks in which one vehicle hits another one at a 90-degree angle, Albany Safe Communities Coordinator Michele DeMott said in a previous interview about the cameras.

The cameras photograph any vehicle driving through the traffic signal after it has turned red, DeMott said. Then the city mails out a citation to the owner of the vehicle.

If someone other than the vehicle's owner commits the crime, the owner can appeal the decision in court, Lott said.

DeMott said the cameras should be operational next week.

Studies have shown that traffic-light cameras like the ones on Jefferson Street can reduce the number of drivers who run red lights up to eight blocks away from the intersection where they are installed, Lott said.

Employees at businesses near the intersection had mixed reactions to the cameras' installation.

"We hope it'll make it a safer intersection," Becky Boyd, an employee at First Baptist Church of Albany said.

Pat Barnett, who works across the street at Security Bank & Trust Co., had a different take on the cameras.

"Unless they (drivers) know it's there, they're going to still run the traffic light," she said.

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Albany man sought on multiple charges

• Christopher Morman is wanted on several charges in connection with a Thursday home invasion.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Albany police are searching for a man who they say was involved in a Thursday home invasion.

Christopher Morman, 19, is being sought on charges of burglary, kidnapping, aggravated assault and false imprisonment, Lt. Kenn Singleton of the Albany Police Department said Friday.

"We want to solicit the public's help in locating this individual," Singleton said.

La'Chelsea Westbrooks, 20, told police that Morman knocked on the front door of her Fern Ridge Drive home at about 9:50 a.m. Thursday and, when she asked who it was, identified himself as a man whom Westbrooks knew, according to a police report.

After Morman entered Westbrooks' home, he took her 5-month-old baby from her and pointed a gun at them, forcing Westbrooks to sit on the couch, according to the report.

Westbrooks told police that Morman searched the entire home, but seemed to have been searching for something specific, according to the police report. The report does not state what he might have been searching for.

Westbrooks told police that she recognized Morman because he had come to her house Wednesday, according to the report. Morman was wearing black shirts over his head and mouth when he entered Westbrooks' home, according to the police report.

In June, Morman was jailed at the Dougherty County Jail on a charge of forgery, a jail official said Friday. Morman was jailed in June 2005 on a charge of fighting, she said.

Singleton said that anyone who has information on Morman's whereabouts can call (229) 436-TIPS (436-8477), or (229) 431-3288.

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Hearings are delaying real progress on immigration

Dave Williams

The House Republicans' summer road show to build support for their version of federal immigration reform will make a couple of stops in Georgia this week.

Nine House committees have been taking testimony on how illegal immigration is affecting different parts of the country.

But critics accuse House GOP leaders of playing politics with the 21 field hearings, pursuing a strategy that will delay and possibly prevent a solution this year to an issue at the top of the national agenda.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Evans, will chair a hearing on Monday in Gainesville focusing on how illegal immigrants in the work force are affecting wages.

Then on Tuesday, Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville, will preside over a hearing in Dalton on the effects illegals are having on the healthcare system.

House Republican leaders decided to take the immigration issue to the nation after their counterparts in the Senate passed legislation in May that differs dramatically from a bill the House approved last December.

The House version takes a get-tough approach, declaring it a felony to be in this country illegally and calling for tougher border security measures.

The Senate bill, passed with the support of Republicans and Democrats, would provide the estimated 11 million illegals already here with a pathway to citizenship. The Senate version has the backing of President Bush.

"People need to understand what's in the House bill and what's in the Senate bill," said John Stone, Norwood's spokesman.

The hearings are giving House Republicans an opportunity to get out that message while, at the same time, generating news coverage of what the witnesses are telling committee members.

"What these hearings are showing is the devastating impact illegal immigration is having on the country," Stone said. "We're trying to make the point that this is real in state after state."

But opponents of the House bill say they're suspicious of the timing of the hearings.

It's very unusual for congressional committees to hold hearings on legislation after it has passed the House and Senate.

Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said it would be more productive for House and Senate leaders to appoint a conference committee to work out a compromise that both legislative chambers could pass and send to the president.

Gonzalez's organization is so incensed about the hearings that it will be sponsoring news conferences before both the Gainesville and Dalton hearings to talk about the contributions immigrants are making to the American economy.

"The House bill is a ridiculous bill that won't go anywhere because business interests won't have it," he said. "Everybody agrees the immigration system is broken. ... We need to fix it and not waste time with these dog-and-pony hearings."

But Adrienne Elrod, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said House Republicans are more interested in scoring points with voters in an election year than achieving meaningful reform.

"Republicans are running a single-issue campaign on an issue that they can't point to one accomplishment on," she said. "Flying around the country politicizing the issue won't change that."

Even if House Republicans were interested in coming to the table, however, supporters of their version of immigration reform aren't willing to go where the president and Senate Republicans want to take them.

"I think no bill is better than this terribly flawed, expensive amnesty," said Phil Kent, the Atlanta-based national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control, who will testify at Monday's hearing. "The Senate bill is so bad I'm glad the hearings are focusing on it."

Stone said House Republicans hope the hearings will put pressure on Bush and Senate GOP leaders to back away from their demand that any bill include an amnesty provision.

The Norwood spokesman suggested the two sides could find some middle ground in a proposal being pushed by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., that calls for securing the borders before addressing any other aspects of immigration reform, including amnesty or overhauling the guest-worker program.

"There's no point in having a discussion until the border is secure," Stone said. "Then, let's come back and deal with illegal immigrants who are here now."

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Georgia to open newest college

• For the first time in 100 years, the state of Georgia has a new four-year public college.

Dave Williams

LAWRENCEVILLE — During nearly every discussion of whether Georgia needs a new four-year college, one talking point supporters trotted out was that the university system has been stuck on 34 institutions since the 1970s.

But that argument understates the historic significance of Friday's opening of Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville.

The colleges added to the system three decades ago, including Bainbridge College, were two-year schools.

"This is the first new four-year college in 100 years in the state," said Rob Watts, who oversees state colleges and two-year colleges for the Board of Regents. "This is a rare event."

Years of effort by Gwinnett County's political, business and community leaders will finally pay off when classes begin on Friday at Georgia Gwinnett, which had neither a name nor a president a year ago.

Last September, the board hired retired Brig. Gen. Dan Kaufman to serve as the new school's president.

Formerly a top administrator at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Kaufman then presided over the naming of the college, the hiring of the first staff and faculty and the development of the first academic programs.

"For us, it's been a final sprint," Kaufman said of the last few weeks and months. "It's Aug. 18, ready or not, but we'll be ready."

LOCAL CONTROL

Former Regent Glenn White of Buford, who helped steer the plans through the board, said a stand-alone college will mean local control over important decisions affecting higher education, something that hasn't existed with the University of Georgia and Georgia Perimeter College running satellite campuses in the county.

"The community can have a bigger role in the school instead of UGA or Georgia Perimeter coming in and saying, 'This is what we're going to offer this year,' " White said.

He said GGC officials also will be in a better position to push for the school's funding needs than were administrators from UGA or Georgia Perimeter, who had their own funding priorities to attend to.

"There's no better advocate for you than yourself," White said.

But Kaufman said the ultimate beneficiaries will be Gwinnett

s students. The vast majority have had to leave the county to get a bachelor's degree.

"The UGA (satellite) program was relatively small," Kaufman said. "A significant number of kids had to go somewhere else. Now, there's a continuity of opportunity ... a reduction of uncertainly for our students."

The opportunity for a four-year college education in Gwinnett, however, will be limited at first.

During the upcoming school year, GGC will be offering degree programs only in business, biology and psychology.

A bachelor's program in education will begin in fall 2007, followed by nursing, radiology and technology management the following year, subject to accreditation approvals.

TEACHER PIPELINE

Gwinnett County School Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks said the education degree program should help address a perennial shortage in the work force: teachers.

He said all of the university system's education programs combined are turning out only about 3,500 new teachers a year in a state that typically hires about 10,000.

"We're getting a significant number of teachers from outside of Georgia," he said. "We have to hire them from somewhere."

The limited number of programs being offered at GGC this fall will be for a limited number of students.

Kaufman said he is capping applications at 250 for the fall semester, and all of the students will be juniors. The new college plans to really pick up steam next year when it brings in its first freshman class. The goal next fall is for an enrollment of 3,000 students.

One aspect of campus life that will be missing at least for the time being is dorms.

But Kaufman said those will come as GGC's enrollment grows.

"The thought of 10,000 kids driving onto campus every day doesn't thrill me," he said. "When you think strategically about a college of 10,000 students, we may have to go with a residential campus in a few years."

For now, Kaufman seems excited enough shepherding a commuter college into existence.

"We've been practicing long enough," he said. "It's time to play the game."

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Phoebe nurses bidding online for vacant shifts

• Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital nurses bid online for extra 12-hour shifts that they want to work.

Valerie Benton

ALBANY — Darlene Moore, a registered nurse at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, considers herself "a workaholic," but she wants to choose when she works.

With the installation of a new Web-based program at Phoebe, she has that option.

BidShift allows employees to go online to view and request open shifts on any unit of the hospital for which they are qualified to work. The program allows employees to bid for time slots that are outside of their core schedules established by their managers.

The schedule is on a four-week cycle, said Frances Marthone, assistant vice president of Medical Services. Nursing managers complete the core schedule, which includes Mondays-Thursdays, weekends and vacation requests.

Employees then have the option to bid for the vacant slots in the schedule created by employees on vacation, or on sick or personal leave. All vacant positions are posted online, Marthone explained.

At the start of each cycle, Moore said she counts down the hours until Monday at midnight — when the new schedule is activated and bidding opens — to get the jump on her peers from her home computer.

"I'm a workaholic and I love to work," said Moore, who works on the eighth and ninth floors of the hospital. "I get the days I want to fit around my schedule."

BidShift has made it possible for Moore and other nurses to not have to take leftover shifts.

"I don't wait 'til there's holes," Moore said. "I get to choose my days."

Linda Henderson, director of the eighth and ninth floors, and Lori Nurmi, assistant nurse manager for the two floors, jointly schedule employees in their department. Nurmi said the program has taken some of the burden of scheduling off of managers.

"We don't have to hunt nurses down" to fill open slots, Nurmi said. "We've been able to get extra help from other areas. We haven't had to basically beg nurses (to work)."

The program, which went online at Phoebe in June, is open to registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, paramedics, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and unit secretaries.

More than 600 nurses registered to participate in the program, Marthone said. But there is a pool of about 1,000 employees who are eligible to participate, said Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Karen Snyder.

The five-minute registration requires that nurses complete a profile that lists their work history, level of experience and skills, and CPR certification.

Managers refer to the profile, particularly when there is more than one employee bidding on the same shift. The manager, when deciding which employee will be awarded the shift, fits the job with the most qualified employee.

Employees are notified by e-mail when they've been awarded a shift.

"You know within a few hours whether you've been awarded that shift," Moore said.

Marthone said there has been no squabbling over shifts. "Right now, it's working out that everybody's getting what they want," she said.

Program participation is an employee perk or privilege, which Marthone said is also being used as a disciplinary tool. If employees participating in BidShift are tardy or not following hospital policy, their participation in the program can be deactivated.

Marthone said another benefit of the program is that the hospital has been able to reduce the number of contract nurses hired to fill vacancies.

"You have your own people pick up shifts," Marthone said. "It improves the delivery of care because you're not having to train a new person."

Marthone thinks that temporary employees "don't have the same commitment, the same loyalty to Phoebe."

And because managers are not familiar with a contract nurse's skills or experience, they are reticent about entrusting them with critical cases.

"You don't give them a patient load that is as intensive," Marthone said. "You're biased."

Marthone thinks that having patients cared for by Phoebe's own nurses ensures that quality of care is consistent.

Marthone said BidShift is also saving Phoebe money by not hiring contract nurses. She said a contract nurse costs Phoebe about $60,000 a year. By not hiring two contract nurses a year, the program "would have paid for itself," she said.

BidShift, which is a subscription program, costs Phoebe $108,000 a year —$9,000 a month, Marthone said.

Another reward of the program is having "a happy staff," Nurmi said. "They're here when they want to be."

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