School Board takes next step to intensify drive for literacy gains

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County School Board voted to move forward with the third edition of a program designed to sharpen instructor’s skills in teaching reading.

The Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling program, which carries a price tag of approximately $1.48 million, was passed unanimously at a Feb. 7 work session and will join a block of other topics set for formal approval at the Feb. 23 School Board meeting.

with Fulton County or embark on their own to operate polling.

The municipal organization

The North Fulton Municipal Association includes the cities of Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Roswell and Mountain Park.

A partner to the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, the municipal organization has no webpage, so agendas or meeting schedules are not posted. The group’s chairman, Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, said the association has been “going on” since he was elected, about a decade ago.

“It’s mostly an opportunity for us to get together and share information, kind of talk through common problems and develop solutions, and proposals, for how we work as a region in the North Fulton area,” Paul said.

See MEETING, Page 8

The curriculum designed for teachers, also called LETRS, is based on “the science of reading.” It trains teachers on “five essential pillars of reading,” phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. It also instructs on writing, spelling and oral language.

The school system has already implemented versions of the program. Fulton County Schools Chief Academic Officer Cliff Jones said the third edition of the program is like

See SCHOOLS, Page 8

Sandy Springs Police Report

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Each week

Appen Media requests police incident reports to inform residents about the safety of their community. Sandy Springs continues to withhold what it calls the “narrative reports” of open cases. It is the only city Appen Media covers that does this. Without that information, The Crier is unable to report on crime in the city.

The city’s position is in conflict with guidance from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, Georgia Bureau of

Investigation, Georgia Department of Law, Georgia Press Association and other organizations.

At right is the report for an incident in Sandy Springs that ended in an arrest for firearm violations. The report is one sentence long, “On January 6, 2023, I obsereved a black suv driving at a high rate of speed on Glenridge Drive.”

Below is a report the Dunwoody Police Department provided Appen Media for a theft arrest.