Watch Superintendent Bearden’s Message to the Community

Dr. Jeffrey Bearden, new superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools, shares his professional background, and first impressions and future goals for the school system in a six-minute video that is currently airing on Comcast Cable Channel 24 and on demand at the FCBOE website, www.fcboe.org.

Comcast Cable subscribers can watch the video at the top and half of each hour, seven days a week, by tuning into Channel 24, the school system’s educational channel.

Non-cable subscribers, or those who prefer to watch the video at their convenience, can do so through the school system’s official website, www.fcboe.org, or by using the following link: http://74.50.2.149/DR_BEARDEN-title0.mp4.

Viewers will need QuickTime Media Player to watch the video; a free download is available at www.apple.com. Macintosh computer owners should use either Firefox or Opera web browsers; Safari is not compatible with the video.

------
Community News You Can Use
Click to read MORE news:
www.GeorgiaFrontPage.com
Twitter: @gafrontpage & @TheGATable @HookedonHistory
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
Twitter: @artsacrossga, @softnblue, @RimbomboAAG @FayetteFP

Fayette County School System Now Podcasting Board Meetings and Channel 24 Programming

Audio podcasts of Fayette County Board of Education meetings and Channel 24 videos are now available through the Fayette County school system’s website and the iTunes Store.

Residents who cannot attend meetings of the board of education can now keep up with the latest discussions and item votes by listening to the taped meeting on their computers, usually as soon as the next day.

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed has been set up for the podcasts, allowing subscribers to the feed to receive immediate notification as soon as a new podcast is posted. The public can sign up for the free feed by going to the school system’s website, www.fcboe.org, and clicking on the feed link in the center of the page under “Channel 24 Headlines.” Be sure to click on the feed that says “new,” located just under the “board meeting podcast/channel 24 videocast” link. The other RSS feed is for press releases only and will not work for the podcasts.

“We are excited to be able to offer another level of communication to our stakeholders,” says Public Information Specialist Melinda Berry-Dreisbach. “Many times people are not able to attend our public meetings but they are interested in knowing what really happened. Now they can listen to the meetings and hear for themselves how the meeting evolved.”

The public can also sign up for the RSS feed by going to the iTunes Store. Persons who already have the iTunes Store downloaded on their computer can type “FCBOE” in the search box and select “FCBOE Board Meeting Podcasts.”

Because iTunes must review each podcast, it could take as long as one to two weeks before the subscriber is notified. The feed from the school system’s website will provide immediate notification of a new podcast.

Visitors to the podcast page will also notice that they can view videos that are currently airing or have aired on the school system’s educational channel, Comcast Channel 24. There is a separate RSS feed for the videos that can be accessed by clicking on the same feed link as the board meeting podcasts.

“This service has been requested for a long time by our stakeholders. Many Fayette County residents do not have Comcast Cable and a number of our employees live outside of the county. These stakeholders rarely, if ever, get to see the programming that is aired on the channel. Now they will be able to see all videotaped programming. Our next task will be getting the still announcements added to the site so that viewers can see the channel in its entirety,” says Berry-Dreisbach.

Just like the board meeting podcasts, the public can also go to the iTunes Store to sign up for the video feed by typing “FCBOE” in the search box and selecting the feed that says “FCBOE Channel 24 Videocasts.” However, remember that notification of new items may be delayed when using the feed from iTunes versus immediate notification with the feed from the school system’s site.

Anyone who has trouble accessing the podcast and videocast link or needs help with signing up for any of the RSS feeds, can contact Berry-Dreisbach in the Fayette County school system’s public information office, 770-460-3535.

-----
Editor's Note: There is no charge to use either the RSS or the iTunes Store podcast.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Community News You Can Use
Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Free newspapers, ditches and conspiracies

A vast majority of families in Fayette County have a free newspaper tossed in their yard each week. Some receive two, some three. There are two freebies that go out on Thursday, one on Wednesday.

All lay claim to a circulation of around 26,000 papers I think. I "assume" (but don't know) that the number claimed includes the stacks left at the Chamber of Commerce, libraries, local gyms and other places. I "assume" (but don't know) that the number includes the ones placed in boxes for sale around the county.


The point of today's missive isn't about the actual circulation.

It's about ditches.

We only get one paper on our street each week. I'm not sure how the paper's break down the area they distribute their free papers. I've lived in four locations in the county and have only received one of the three papers no matter where I live. Same one. I know others who receive different papers, so I'm not doubting for a minute that some are getting out, I just don't know the areas they've chosen to toss their papers.

We have a wide, very wide, driveway.

On either side of the driveway, we have ditches.

Each week, without fail, the free newspaper ends up in the ditch.

It's a ditch conspiracy.

The people across the street have ditches. The people to the left and right have ditches.

I've been watching. Their paper ends up on their driveways the vast majority of the time. When it isn't on the driveway, it isn't in the ditch either, it's on the grassy part of the yard behind the ditch. No climbing down in ditches to get it for our neighbors, oh no.

It's a ditch conspiracy. It's a game. They singled us out because we have the widest driveway on the street. Ours should be the easiest to hit.

If I didn't mind a trashy yard, I'd let the newspapers pile up in the ditch.

I know the person who tosses out the papers must live somewhere nearby. They zip down the road early, early, toss our paper into the ditch. Then they go home and sleep for a few hours. They know our routine by now. After all, they've been tossing it that same ditch for the past four years...

They sit somewhere safe, with their binoculars, or better yet, their camera, and wait for us to slide down into the ditch to get the paper. Somewhere there is a YouTube video with nothing on it but people like us slipping and sliding down into a ditch to get a soggy plastic wrapped paper.

All across the county, paper delivery people are watching their chosen victims as they tumble and contort to try and reach that plastic wrapped paper. Maybe they sit around at special occasions showing their favorite videos. Maybe they have paper delivery contests for the most trouble, the funniest or the most dangerous attempt to get the paper.

We may be slow, but we finally figured out a way to thwart their Candid Camera moment. We have a rake that we now use to grab the paper out of the ditch.

So there wicked paper tossing video making delivery person. That's the last time you'll win a video contest with us in it.