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‘State of the City’ address set for Feb. 15 MILTON, Ga. — Residents are invited to Milton’s State of the City event Feb. 15, where they can come together as a community, revisit important developments from 2022 and look forward to expected progress in the coming year. The event will take place at Milton City Hall at 6 p.m. with a reception featuring complementary beverages provided by the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce and appetizers prepared by Milton’s Cuisine and Cocktails. An hour into the event, Milton Mayor Peyton Jamison will begin his remarks. Milton’s State of the City will allow residents to interact informally with city leaders and one another before the mayor gives a speech outlining some of what has happened recently in the city and what’s to come over the rest of this year. While the event is free, residents are encouraged to RSVP because of limited capacity. Those planning to come should email RSVP@miltonga.gov on or before Feb. 9 and include the names of those who will attend.
By CANDY WAYLOCK candy@appenmedia.com
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Armed driver eludes Milton police By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com MILTON, Ga. — Milton Police attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a yellow 2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Jan. 29 at around 5:40 p.m. traveling northbound on Cogburn Road. The suspect continued after police activated emergency equipment, the police report said, and made a right on Oakstone Glen. After ignoring police for some time, the suspect made a left onto North Stone Close, where he pulled into a
Senate committee to examine funding for public education
driveway. An unidentified Black male driver, with a slim build, wearing a black jacket with white stripes, exited the vehicle where he fled north on foot toward the wood line behind the residence. Police pursued the suspect on foot but lost sight of him when he jumped the fence headed toward Ga. 9. Milton officers and Alpharetta Police K-9 responded on scene to set up a perimeter where they continued to canvass the area for the suspect, but he was not located.
Police checked the car’s dirty tag, which came back to a green 2005 Ford LGT Truck with ceased ownership. Police then checked the vehicle’s vin to contact the registered owner, where the owner said she sold the car two years before to a young Black man off Facebook marketplace. While conducting an inventory of the vehicle, a black Sig P320 handgun was found inside a black book bag on the front passenger’s seat. The handgun had
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ATLANTA — The formula for funding public schools in Georgia dates back to 1985 when the Legislature passed Quality Based Education. It was considered landmark legislation at a time when schools were funded primarily by local taxes. QBE determines the cost to educate a full-time, public school student. It uses that figure to calculate how much a district “earns” each year in state funding. With nearly $11 billion of state revenue budgeted for public schools this year through QBE, getting the formula fully funded and fair is important. “It’s a plurality of the state budget,” said Stephen Owens, education director at the Georgia Policy and Budget Institute. “But it’s in the [Georgia] constitution as a primary obligation to provide an adequate public education free of charge.” In developing the “per pupil” cost each year, QBE considers a variety of factors including grade level, teacher staffing and experience, class size, special services, like special education or gifted classes, student-teacher ratio and other direct and indirect costs of education. While QBE determines how much a school earns in state funding each year, the state’s economy and budget determine how much the school systems actually receive. Since 1985,
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