Dacula Cheerleaders Taking Part in the 'Sparkle Effect'

Cheerleaders from are taking part in the "Sparkle Effect" program. This program is student-run and encourages students to include students with disabilities in their high school cheerleading programs.

The idea behind this new program is that participating students will take part in enhancing the social, communicative and physical skills of students with disabilities as well as allow students with disabilities to experience acceptance and improve their confidence while participating in high school activities. “The Sparkle Effect – When everyone cheers, everyone wins!” is the slogan adopted by this program.

The Dacula cheerleaders will hold practices on Thursday afternoons each week of home football games and the practices will run from 2:45 p.m. until 4 p.m. The cheerleaders were introduced for the first time at the Sept. 9 home football game. Read more about this program online.

In local school news:

• Twenty-four Gwinnett teachers of modern and classical language were recently recognized with PEAK Awards. These awards given through the Foreign Language Office recognize teachers for professionalism, experience, knowledge and achievement. The following PEAK teacher recipients from our local Dacula area are as follows:
  
  • Fourth time recipients
    Christy Belby, French,
    Jaime Claymore, Latin, Mountain View High
  • Third time recipients
    Laura Droms, Spanish, Mountain View High
  • First time recipients
    Lindsey Campbell, Latin,
    Nicole D’Antonio, Spanish, Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology
    Sergio Parra, Spanish,

• The following local Dacula area Gwinnett County Public Schools were recognized by Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful with Green and Healthy School Program Awards.
  
  • Reaching Higher Schools: ,and
  • Taking Action Schools:, and Mountain View High
  • Progressing Schools:

• will hold a Title I Committee meeting on Monday, Sept. 12 at 9 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. to receive parent review and feedback on Alcova’s Title I Budget plans. Meeting will take place in the Parent Center.

• is hosting a Family Literacy Night for students and families of the school on Sept. 12. This event will feature special guest Carmen Deedy. Books are available for purchase. Visit the school website for more information. 

• Gwinnett County Schools will be giving first, third and fifth grade students the CogAT test during the month of September.

• Archer High School recently received a donation from Nash Chevrolet for Archer High’s participation in the Chevy’s Drive to Perfection Program which is in place to promote student attendance.

In local college news:

• The Gwinnett North College Fair will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 21 from 6 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at the Gwinnett Civic Center.

• Registration is now open for spring semester at Gwinnett Tech. Registration will run through October 24 and the school session is scheduled to begin on January 17. Spring semester orientation sessions will take place in November and December.

• Georgia Gwinnett College is set to receive $150,000 as part of the $1 million Completion Innovation Challenge grant recently awarded to Georgia by the Complete College America program. This program is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Thirty-three states applied for this grant and Georgia is one of ten states chosen to receive the grant. The four colleges that will use grant funding to pilot innovative remediation programs included Georgia Gwinnett College, the College of Coastal Georgia, Athens Technical College and Dekalb Technical College.