Funeral Set for Woodstock Man Killed In Marina Accident

Josh Roberts, 21, will be laid to rest on Wednesday.

Funeral services have been scheduled for the Woodstock man who was killed in an on-the-job accident last week near Canton. Services for Josh Anton Roberts, 21, will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Woodstock. The family will receive friends between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. tonight at Sosebee Funeral Home in Canton.  Roberts died in a work place accident at Little River Marina on Jan. 23. Along with being employed at the marina, he was also a student at Kennesaw State University. He graduated from Woodstock High School in 2009. He loved running, working out, drawing and music, according to his obituary posted on Sosebee's website.  Survivors include his mother Sharon Rodriguez; father Mervyn Roberts; …

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Woodstock High Student Charged With Terroristic Threats

The teenager posted on Twitter, “Planning on pulling a Columbine tomorrow guys, be prepared!”

Woodstock High Student Charged With Terroristic Threats

The teenager posted on Twitter, “Planning on pulling a Columbine tomorrow guys, be prepared!”

A Woodstock High School student is behind bars after threatening a Columbine-type attack. Lake Reynolds, a 17-year-old junior, has been charged with making terroristic threats and remains at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center on a $1,200 bond.  Reynolds at 12:21 a.m. Friday posted "Plannin on pullin a colombine (sic) tomorrow guys.. Be prepared!" on his Twitter account (see the attached screen shot of the tweet).  The reference is to the April 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that killed 12 students, one teacher and injured dozens of others before the two gunmen killed themselves. Woodstock parents alerted school officials to the tweet and the school notified the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office. The student was …

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Woodstock High Students Named To Advisory Council

Three students from the school will serve on the 2012-13 Student Advisory Council, which will advise State Schools Superintendent Dr. John Barge how state policies impact local classrooms.

Three Woodstock High School students will be among 50 who will serve on the 2012-13 Student Advisory Council.  Rani Tilva, Luke Sellers and Ben Floyd will serve on the council, which will meet twice this school year with State Schools Superintendent Dr. John Barge to discuss how education policies are impacting the classroom. "The Student Advisory Council allows me to hear directly from students in our schools and discuss major initiatives with them," Superintendent Barge said in a press release on Friday. "The council also gives students the opportunity to share with me their ideas and concerns, which we can use to shape future state policies.” The Georgia Department of Education had over 750 students from 121 school districts apply to be…

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8 Named National Merit Semifinalists

These Cherokee County School District seniors are eligible to compete for 8,300 scholarships worth more than $32 million.

Eight Cherokee County area high school seniors were recently named 2013 National Merit semifinalists. The designation, which is based on performance on the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, allows the students to compete for about 8,300 scholarships worth more than $32 million. Cherokee's class of 2013 bested last year's graduating class, which had a total of seven semifinalists. Of that number, only three were enrolled in a school in Cherokee's district. The remaining four were in private school or homeschooled in Cherokee. All eight of this year's semifinalists are Cherokee County School District students. Creekview High's Victoria L. Cochran, Etowah High's Alyssa K. Baker, Ahila Manivannan and Duncan M. …

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U.S. News: Woodstock High No. 1,372

No other Cherokee County school received a national ranking in U.S. News & World Report's list of top public high schools.

U.S. News & World Report released its list of top public high schools today, and Woodstock High was the only school in Cherokee County to earn a national ranking. Of the 2,008 ranked schools, Woodstock came in at No. 1,372, which was enough for the magazine's silver medalist designation for top-performing schools. U.S. News first examined how well students at nearly 22,000 schools performed on state assessments, comparing them with other schools in the same state based on demographic factors. Within Georgia, Woodstock is the 24th best high school, according to the magazine. Eligible schools were then considered for national designations based on student success in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs. The AP …

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41 Student-Athletes Sign Scholarship Offers

An additional 43 Cherokee County student-athletes were honored at the February signing day.

Cherokee County had 41 more student-athletes sign scholarship commitment letters to compete at the collegiate level. Parents, coaches, athletic directors and principals joined the students at a ceremony at the Northside Hospital-Cherokee Conference Center to be honored for making their college choices in their respective sports. The spring signing day ceremony was sponsored by the Credit Union of Georgia. There were 43 other students who were honored at a February signing day for their scholarship commitments. Check here to see the list of students who were honored earlier this year. The following students were honored at a brunch on April 11:

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Creekview RB Named Nat'l Achievement Semifinalist

Keith Woods is eligible to compete for one of 800 scholarships that will be awarded in the spring.

Keith Woods, a captain on the Creekview High varsity football team, was named a 2012 National Achievement semifinalist today. Nationwide, only 1,600 African American high school seniors received that designation, which is based on performance on the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. As semifinalists, Woods, Woodstock High's Ibukun Babalola, and Sequoyah High's Ryan A. Croom and Madison E. Gilbert are eligible to compete for one of 800 scholarships that will be awarded in the spring. The scholarships have a total value of more than $2.4 million. About 1.5 million juniors in 22,000 high schools took the 2010 PSAT. More than 160,000 requested consideration for the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Program, …

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Whiz Kids

Local Dancer Delights All

Carly Bandy, who lives in BridgeMill, is this week's Whiz Kid.

Carly's Age: 16 Carly's School: Woodstock High School Carly's Accomplishments: She is headed into her junior year with a 3.7 GPA. Proof, this girl said, that "I like to ... stay on top of things." That includes her toes. Carly is an accomplished ballerina at Woodstock's Dancentre South, where Annie Day and Marcus Alford are directors. She has been dancing since she was 2 years old and now dances four times a week with several weekends spent rehearsing. "I absolutely love it," she said. "Wouldn't trade it for a thing." Carly's Key to Awesomeness: During the school year, Carly volunteers her time with Woodstock High's Friends Club. "I work (with) the special needs students during my hour of lunch every day," she said. "And I attend all of …

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Moms Talk Q&A

Public Education or Endangerment?

Are our public schools providing our students with education or abuse and exploitation?

Two Cherokee County teachers have made headlines recently, and it was not for their excellence in education. On Feb. 21, Woodstock High School teacher Laurie Peavy pleaded guilty to false imprisonment. In 2008, Peavy and former paraprofessional Nancy Cheek were accused of duct-taping an autistic boy to a chair and confining a blind girl under a desk. They were both arrested in 2009 on counts of false imprisonment and first-degree cruelty to children. Last Friday, Mill Creek Middle School teacher Raymond Watts was arrested on child pornography charges after officials said he shared more than 1,000 explicit images of underage boys with an undercover agent. Watts came under investigation after law enforcement agents were made aware of his …

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