In the hotly contested town council meeting of Sept. 15th, the council voted to terminate the Chief of Police, Mark Warchol. Since then, a petition has been passed around the reinstate the Chief.
Read more at the Aiken Standard.
We are excited to see the Wagener Fire Department resume services under the leadership of Hendrik Swanepoel. Many new voluteer firefighters have been brought into the department. If you are interested in volunteering, file an application at town hall or at the fire department any time the bay doors are open.
More on this at the Aiken Standard.
In 2014, Aiken County voters approved a 10-year 1% Sales Tax to help fund reconstruction of a handful of schools in greatest need of improvement, including North Augusta High, Leavelle McCampbell Middle, Aiken High, Ridge Spring-Monetta’s K-12 campus, and the forthcoming Aiken County Career and Technology Center, a project which broke ground this month.
The 1% tax approved by voters in 2014 is a 10-year tax and does not auto-renew. In November 2024, Aiken County’s Board of Education intends to provide voters an opportunity to consider a renewal of this tax, which would help fund a new set of school campus renovations and improvements.
District administration and the school board have discussed a number of possible projects to prioritize and include for voter consideration on November’s ballot. District leadership has just completed a series of Community Input Meetings where stakeholders were invited to attend and share what they believe are the most urgent school facility improvement needs in the district. We appreciated the opportunity to discuss school facility improvement needs at this latest series of meetings directly with stakeholders that attended. At the close of those meetings, attendees were invited to share further insight through a survey. The invitation to share input through this survey is now open to all parents, students, teachers, staff, and community members.
As the Aiken Co. School Board considers, deliberates, and ultimately determines which school facility needs to prioritize for possible funding through a renewal of the 1% sales tax, they hope that everyone will take a few minutes to provide input on what facilities needs they believe are most urgent to address and that they’d like to see presented to voters for their consideration on November 5.
Parents in Aiken County can mark lunchbox off the back to school shopping list. When school starts on July 25, every school in the District will offer delicious, chef-created breakfasts and lunches at no cost for every student each day that school is in session.
A growing number of schools in Aiken County have offered no cost breakfast and lunch to its students through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for the last several years. The revamped program, featuring made-from-scratch recipes, executive chef-led trainings and student-approved menu options, is expected to transform the meaning of “school food” in Aiken County, and now with all schools classified as CEP, participation is expected to skyrocket.
Employees in the District’s School Food Service Department have embraced the extensive training this summer, learning enhanced safety, customer service and culinary skills. Presentation is key; Food Service professionals will be dressed in new uniforms, aprons, and hats provided by Chartwells as they prepare and serve new menu options as visually-appealing as they are tasty to students as their customers.
“Students will feel more like they are visiting a restaurant or café, than a school cafeteria,” explained Polly Peyinghaus, District Coordinator for School Food Service. Peyinghaus is new to the District as well and brings a unique passion for school nutrition and a work history of food service in education, as well as in restaurants. She is working hand-in-hand with Chartwells’ Resident District Manager Howard Grinberg to train and prepare to introduce new recipes, allow students to share their feedback, and implement other changes to enhance students’ mealtime experience.
When making a payment in person at the town hall, all Senior Citizens and persons who are handicapped may pull up front and blow their car horn. We will kindly come out and retrieve payment.