This photo was taken Thursday on Crow Gap Rd. in Kensington. Guy in the hole says it was three feet deep and about five feet long under the pavement. County came out to patch it a few days earlier. After this they were called back out and “filled it with about six big rocks.”

Meanwhile the county road crew is clearing land for the Davenport family on Lookout Mountain and paving driveways at Mountain Cove Farms. We have resources to fix this stuff properly (all over the county) but don’t use them where they should be used.   

Georgia has freed schools from following the standards of No Child Left Behind and its hated AYP school scoring system. A new state-crafted acronym, CCRPI (College and Career Ready Performance Index), has been rolled out to evaluate school performance and the first scores from that system were released this week.

WQCH Radio, 05/08/13: “WALKER COUNTY SCHOOLS JUST RECEIVED THEIR FIRST SCORES UNDER THE NEW [CCRPI] ACCOUNTING SYSTEM. EACH SCHOOL IS GRADED ON A 100-POINT SCALE. NORTH LAFAYETTE ELEMENTARY HAD AMONG THE COUNTY’S HIGHEST SCORES: A 90.4. NAOMI SCORED 87.8, ROCK SPRING 84.2, AND GILBERT ELEMENTARY TRAILED AT 80.9. THE STATE AVERAGE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IS 83.4.

“AMONG MIDDLE SCHOOLS, LAFAYETTE MIDDLE SCORED SLIGHTLY BELOW THE LEADER, CHATTANOOGA VALLEY MIDDLE. THE LMS SCORE IS AN IMPRESSIVE 92.7. THE STATE AVERAGE IS 81.4. AND AMONG THE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS, LAFAYETTE HIGH TOPPED RIDGELAND BY A SCANT 9-10th OF A POINT WITH A SCORE OF 76.6. RIDGELAND HAD THE LOWEST SCORE OF ALL WALKER COUNTY SCHOOLS AT 75.7. THE STATE AVERAGE FOR HIGH SCHOOLS IS 72.6, SO BOTH WALKER COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS WERE ‘ABOVE THE AVERAGE’.

“FAIRYLAND ELEMENTARY, TRADITIONALLY THE SYSTEM’S HIGHEST PERFORMING SCHOOL, REPEATED THAT RECORD WITH 96.9 OUT OF 100 POSSIBLE POINTS. TWO WALKER COUNTY SCHOOLS SCORED BELOW THE STATE AVERAGE: GILBERT ELEMENTARY AND ROSSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL.

“SINCE THIS IS THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW MEASUREMENT, THERE ARE NO PAST SCORES WITH WHICH TO COMPARE THIS YEAR’S RESULTS. THE WALKER COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM DID NOT MAKE ‘ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS’ LAST YEAR, LARGELY DUE TO ATTENDANCE AND DROPOUT RECORDS AT THE TWO HIGH SCHOOLS.”

So far it’s not clear how CCRPI differs from AYP, other than being something local schools perform better on. Which might be the only advantage – we couldn’t pass the old test, so here’s one we can pass.   

Scores for All Walker County Schools:

All scores state-wide

Another report of copper theft in LaFayette, this time from someone already in prison.

A prisoner doing work on the library renovation was caught tossing wire over the fence for a friend who lived nearby to retrieve. Apparently the crime had been occurring regularly for some time.

Who’s supervising the supposed trustees working over there?   

Walker Co Schools will be redoing a new sign for Saddle Ridge School in Rock Spring. The finished sign said “Saddleridge” or “SaddleRidge” and referred to the K-8th institution as an elementary school.

Not sure if the county or sign maker eat the costs, or maybe split it up. How do you get to the point of having a sign MADE with a mistake? Did they not review it or see some designs or proofs ahead of time?

Would it be cheaper to redo the sign or just rename the yet-to-open school?   

Police in Fort Oglethorpe, along with the GBI, are investigating two “soda bottle” bombs found in yards yesterday.   

Photo taken in mid-April of young kids playing on the RR tracks in town, with no adults around. This is illegal, but more importantly it’s dangerous.

Most people have walked down or on the tracks before, but these kids aren’t old enough to have good judgment if a train comes. This was near McLemore Street. LPD was contacted but didn’t seem particularly interested in doing anything.

Trains DO still run through town, and they don’t always come at the same time. Always look and listen, and don’t let your kids play on the tracks.   

Arbitration between Walker County and three of its cities over how to divide sales tax revenues continues, but the whole issue will be out on hold while the state supreme court takes a look at a law specifying how split amounts are decided.

Meanwhile Walker County enters an eighth month with no fiscal 2013 budget.   

Chattooga Co. Sheriff’s Office is looking for the owner of “a fair amount” of money someone found (and turned in) at the Summerville McDonald’s. Presumably it’s yours if you know how much there is.

After several days the cash still hasn’t been claimed. The Sheriff now says they might pull security camera video to look for the owner; that may have been a good place to start looking to begin with.     

Last Monday Georgia announced plans to turn over operation of three state parks to a private company. The company, Coral Hospitality of Coral Gables FL, already took over two other state properties in December. The plan is to turn upscale “lodge” parks or parks with golf courses into a source of revenue for the entire state park system.

Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park has been managed by a private company since 1998, and seems to make a profit for the state AND business partner. It’s a nice tourist attraction but it’s also pretty pricey.   

Journalism hits new highs in Fort Payne. Hate to miss something like THAT in editing.

(Thanks to David Young.)   

Georgia has the third-highest teen unemployment rate in the US: 30.6%. That’s behind only South Carolina and California.   

For today’s links and any breaking news, follow the Underground on Facebook or Twitter.