Criminal Defense Attorney in Isle of Hope, GA.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – The Chatham County Board of Elections has announced the updated polling changes and locations for the Dec. 6 runoff between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.

Georgia counties are required to hold early voting days from Monday, Nov. 28, to Friday, Dec. 2. However, Chatham County is also opting to hold voting on Sunday, Nov. 27.

Polling changes:

I-16 Ferguson Ave Baptist Church will vote at the Montgomery Athletic Association at 10155 Ferguson Avenue8-13 Savannah Christian School will vote at 8-03 Silk Hope Baptist Church at 4929 Pineland Drive

Polling Locations for Dec. 6 Runoff Election

1-01 First Presbyterian Church 520 Washington Avenue Savannah, GA 314051-05 JEA Building 5111 Abercorn Street Savannah, GA 314051-06 Central Church of Christ 632 Stephenson Avenue Savannah, GA 314051-08 Grace United Methodist Church 6412 Waters Avenue Savannah, GA 314061-09 Immanuel Baptist Church 7375 Hodgson Memorial Drive Savannah, GA 314061-10 St. Thomas Episcopal Church 2 St. Thomas Avenue Savannah, GA 314061-12 Isle of Hope Baptist Church 22 Rose Avenue Savannah, GA 314061-13 The Sanctuary 8912 Whitefield Savannah, GA 314061-14 St. Luke United Methodist Church 9114 Whitefield Avenue Savannah, GA 314061-16 Montgomery Athletic Association (temp) 10155 Ferguson Avenue Savannah, GA 314061-17 Islands Christian Church 4601 US Highway 80 East Savannah, GA 314102-02 River Pointe 939 Wheaton Street Savannah, GA 314012-03 W. W. Law Center 909 East Bolton Street Savannah, GA 314012-04 Fellowship of Love Community Church 1402 Harmon Street Savannah, GA 314012-05 Holy Spirit Lutheran Church 622 East 37th Street Savannah, GA 314012-06 Eli Whitney Complex #2 Laura Street Savannah, GA 314042-07 Christ Community Church at Morningside 1805 E. Gwinnett Street Savannah, GA 314042-09 Salvation Army 3000 Bee Road Savannah, GA 314042-11 Oasis of Hope Community Center 728 E 55th St. Savannah, GA 314052-12 Williams Court 1900 Lincoln Street Savannah, GA 314013-02 Temple Mickve Israel 20 E Gordon St Savannah, GA 314063-03 Savannah High School 400 Pennsylvania Avenue Savannah, GA 314043-04 1st African Baptist Church 402 Treat Street Savannah, GA 314043-05 New Generations Cathedral 2023 Tennessee Avenue Savannah, GA 314043-08 Jenkins High School 1800 E. DeRenne Avenue Savannah, GA 314043-09 The ConneXion Church 5411 Skidaway Road Savannah, GA 314063-10 Bible Baptist Church 4700 Skidaway Road Savannah, GA 314043-11 Southside Baptist Church 5502 Skidaway Road Savannah, GA 314063-12 Thunderbolt Senior Center 3236 Russell Street Savannah, GA 314043-13 New Covenant Seventh Day Adventist Church 5100 LaRoche Avenue Savannah, GA 314043-14 Oglethorpe Charter Academy 7202 Central Avenue Savannah, GA 314064-02 Islands High School Annex 169 Whitemarsh Island Road Savannah, GA 314104-04 Lighthouse Baptist Church 401 Quarterman Road Savannah, GA 314104-05 Saint Francis Episcopal 590 Walthour Road Savannah, GA 314104-06 First Baptist Church of the Islands 6613 Johnny Mercer Boulevard Savannah, GA 314104-07 Wilmington Island Methodist Church 195 Wilmington Island Road Savannah, GA 314104-08 Wilmington Island Pres. Church 450 North Cromwell Road Savannah, GA 314104-10 Burke Day Public Safety Bldg 78 Van Horne Ave Tybee Island, GA 313284-11 Tybee Old School Cafeteria 202 Fifth Street Tybee Island, GA 313284-12 St. Peters Episcopal Church 3 Westridge Road Savannah, GA 314114-13 Skidaway Community Church 50 Diamond Causeway Savannah, GA 314114-14 Skidaway Island Methodist Church 54 Diamond Causeway Savannah, GA 314115-02 Senior Citizens Inc 3025 Bull Street Savannah, GA 314055-03 Butler Pres. Ed. Building 603 West Victory Drive Savannah, GA 314055-05 Liberty City Community Center 1401 Mills B. Lane Savannah, GA 314055-06 Seed Church 1950 Chatham Parkway Savannah, GA 314055-07 Elks Lodge 183 Wilshire Boulevard Savannah, GA 314195-08 Southside Assembly of God (temp) 401 Tibet Avenue Savannah, GA 314065-10 Jonesville Baptist Church 5201 Montgomery Street Savannah, GA 314055-11 Largo Tibet School 430 Tibet Avenue Savannah, GA 314066-01 White Bluff Presbyterian Church 10710 White Bluff Road Savannah, GA 314066-02 Windsor Forest Baptist Church 12521 White Bluff Road Savannah, GA 314196-03 Crusader Community Center 81 Coffee Bluff Villa Road Savannah, GA 314196-05 Windsor Hall 302 Briarcliff Circle Savannah, GA 314196-06 The Light 8511 Waters Avenue Savannah, GA 314066-08 Christ Memorial Baptist Church 1023 Dutchtown Rd Savannah, GA 314196-09 Trinity Lutheran Church 12391 Mercy Boulevard Savannah, GA 314196-10 Georgetown Elementary 1516 King George Boulevard Savannah, GA 314196-11 Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens 2 Canebrake Road Savannah, GA 314197-01 First Baptist Church of Garden City 35 Nelson Ave Garden City, GA 314087-03 Preston B. Edwards Gymnasium 101 Turnberry Street Port Wentworth, GA 314077-04 Lakeshore Community Center 1000 Lake Shore Boulevard Port Wentworth, GA 314077-05 Woodlawn Baptist Church 407 Talmadge Avenue Garden City, GA 314087-06 First Baptist Church of Pooler 204 US-80 Pooler, GA 313227-07 Rothwell Baptist Church 216 East Rothwell Street Pooler, GA 313227-08 Bloomingdale Comm. Center 202 E. Moore Street Bloomingdale, GA 313027-09 Adult Ministry Center at Compassion 50 Al Henderson Blvd. Savannah, GA 314197-10 Progressive Recreation 5321 Ogeechee Road Savannah, GA 314057-11 Savannah Fire Station 14 480 Highlands Blvd Pooler, GA 313227-12 West Chatham Baptist Church 1360 S Rogers St Pooler, GA 313227-13 Southside Fire Training Center 1381 Dean Forest Road Savannah, GA 314197-14 Coastal Cathedral Church of God 275 Berwick Boulevard Savannah, GA 314197-15 Rice Creek School 100 Mulberry Street Port Wentworth, GA 314077-16 Pooler Rec Center Gym 900 S. Rogers St Pooler, GA 313228-01 Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum 460 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Savannah, GA 314018-02 Hellenic Center 14 W. Anderson Street Savannah, GA 314018-03 Silk Hope Baptist Church 4929 Pineland Drive Savannah, GA 314058-05 West Broad YMCA 1110 May Street Savannah, GA 314158-06 Tompkins Recreation Center 2333 Ogeechee Road Savannah, GA 314158-07 Woodville Tompkins Technical Institute 151 Coach Joe Turner Street Savannah, GA 314088-08 Resurrection of Our Lord Church 112 Fell Street Savannah, GA 314158-09 Moses Jackson Center 1410 Richards Street Savannah, GA 314158-10 Carver Heights Community Center 905 Collat Street Savannah, GA 314158-11 Butler Elementary School 1909 Cynthia Street Savannah, GA 314158-12 Beach High School 3001 Hopkins Street Savannah, GA 314058-13 8-03 Silk Hope Baptist Church (temp) 4929 Pineland Drive Savannah, GA 314088-15 Cooper Center 700 Davis Ave Savannah, GA 314088-16 Mighty 8th Museum 175 Bourne Ave Pooler, GA 313228-17 Georgia Tech, Savannah Campus 210 Technology Circle Savannah, GA 314078-18 Savannah First Seventh-day Adventist Church 50 Godley Way Savannah, GA 31407

Isle of Hope K8 science, technology, engineering, art and math teachers started an astronaut club so students could build and launch rockets after school.

They never imagined it would lead to a competitive NASA space shuttle launch.

Twelve Isle of Hope students will go to the Kennedy Space Center this month to compete in the Student Astronaut Challenge National Finals. They've been studying engineering, astrophysics and orbital spaceflight basics so they can master the process for launching, orbiting and safely landing a space shuttle.

Middle school teams from Florida and Georgia will be tested on how well they handle the pressures of space travel. They'll use NASA space flight training equipment to simulate a mission in which they launch at sunrise, repair a faulty pipe in space, grow food on Mars and safely return to Earth.

Twelve teams will compete in the national finals. The teams from Georgia include Isle of Hope, two teams from Richmond Hill Middle and one from William James Middle in Statesboro.

"We started the program just to be able to build and launch rockets," said science teacher Carolyn Rethwisch. "When we took the students to the regional Astronaut Challenge in Richmond Hill our goal was just to expose them to the challenge. But 10 of our kids scored in the top 10 percent - high enough to go to the finals."

In addition to their regular school work, students get daily assignments to study NASA terminology, physics and other topics that would baffle many high school and college students. The contest even requires them to write a 12-page paper with APA format citations.

STEAM teacher Wade Smith warned students that the Astronaut Challenge would be tough, but they didn't back down.

Davian Smith, a seventh-grade sports star, decided to sit out basketball season so he could be part of the team's mission control crew. Sixth-grader Bella Carter sacrificed dance lessons until Feb. 16. She wore ballet-style shoes Thursday as she practiced her landing skills on a flight simulator.

"It's always education over any type of sport," Davian said.

The community has rallied behind their effort. Bobcat of Savannah donated engineering expertise, cash, computers and supplies so the students could build mock control panels out of wooden crates and hook them up to a space launch simulation program. But they're still working to raise $7,000 for expenses and travel. The 12-student club can't afford to rent a 15-passenger van. so several parents have agreed to carpool.

This is the first time Isle of Hope has competed. They'll be facing more experienced teams from schools with high-tech equipment and more resources, but students said they were inspired by the African-American female mathematicians in the movie "Hidden Figures" and they want to inspire other Title I, low-income, school students like them.

"I want to be a role model for young girls," Bella said.

LaKayla Watkins, the team's eighth-grade flight engineering expert, said she has enjoyed learning about space travel so much she wants to come back and help other teams after she goes to high school next year.

"I love telling the pilot and flight commander what to do," she said.

Team members John Saxon, Callum Bagley-Heath, Bella Carter, Davion Smith, Own Walsh, Jonah Tinfow, LaKayla Watkins, Jaevon Hill, Jeaneva Hill, Noah Shook, Elicxavier Madril and Ayasha Pickney will all travel to Kennedy Space Center, but just six of them will compete. Yet they aren't fighting each other for the six coveted spots. They're all helping each other learn as much as they can and they want whoever has the best chance of successfully completing the mission to compete.

"When I first started I didn't understand anything, but I started watching the other kids and they taught me. Now I'm good at mission control," he said. "We're all helping each other."

The Student Astronaut Challenge is designed to promote creativity, teamwork, and the understanding and application of STEM subjects. The Isle of Hope students say they'd love to win, but the best part about the competition so far has been stretching themselves to learn more about science than they ever imagined.

"It might be hard and we might fail, but we want to try it," Davion said.

The Astronaut Club at Isle of Hope K-8 School earned the gold medal for the Landing Challenge and were named national champions at the National Student Astronaut Challenge Finals earlier this month at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The competition was held Feb. 3-7.

In the past three years, this was the club’s highest finish. The students also earned the bronze medal for the Space Shuttle Simulator Challenge, according to the press release from the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System. Overall, the 2019 team finished third place overall (in all four challenges), fifth in design, and ninth in engineering, according to an email from Carolyn Rethwisch, Isle of Hope sixth-grade math teacher and head coach of the Astronaut Club.

The students had qualified for the competition with their third-place finish at a run-off last fall to select the 15 best teams from across the U.S. to compete at nationals.

The students spent that time from last fall to the early part of this year practicing 12 to 18 hours a week, including weekends, to prepare for the four challenges they would face over the competition, the press release stated. The four challenges included a Design Challenge, Engineering Challenge, Space Shuttle Atlantis Simulator Challenge, and a Landing Challenge.

The 2019-20 Astronaut Club is coached by Bob and Carol Nickels, Barbara Serianni, assistant education department professor at Georgia Southern University, and Rethwisch who founded the club in 2016.

The Nickels’ daughter, Robbie Lynn, is married to Commander Robert Shane Kimbrough, who was part of the team aboard ISS missions 49 and 50 for NASA, according to the release. The following organizations helped offset the team’s expenses: Bobcat of Savannah in Pooler, The Rotary Club of Skidaway Island, and Isle of Hope Parent Teacher Association.

The challenges

For the Landing Challenge, six of the members of the team who participated in this challenge had to land the shuttle. They were randomly selected for each portion of the challenge -- meaning all six participants had to know how to both land the craft in multiple scenarios, as well as communicate how to land the craft to their teammates.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis Simulator Challenge included a pre-launch checklist, launch into orbit, de-orbiting procedures, and landing at a designated location, according to the release. In preparation, students had to learn the schematics of the Shuttle, as well as the layout of the controls in the cockpit. They had to collaborate strategically to isolate problems and repair them, all while flying the Shuttle.

For the Design Challenge, students Chyler Ross, Megan Nguyen, Aisha Rhenals, Ally Arnsdorff, Cameron Huggins, Kelli Singleton, LaMyla Hill, David Washington, Lee Puckett and Alli Piatt researched the injuries sustained by astronauts. They interviewed experts in the field, including engineers and Kimbrough, wrote a research paper on their findings, created a slideshow, and built the prototype.

“Cameron and LaMyla (both eighth-graders) have been on the team for the past three years,” Rethwisch wrote in an email. “They were both part of last year's second-place team.”

For the Engineering Challenge, students were divided into a mission control team and a team aboard the Space Lab on the ISS, according to the release. There were four components that had to be completed: lack of technology for communication/relay between team members; broken circuits that had to be fixed where one team had the circuits and another team had the directions, computation of Ohm’s Law; and the ability to analyze the problem, design a solution, and understand (in that scenario) whether the problem had truly been corrected.

The Isle of Hope students are no strangers to placing high in this competition. In 2018, the students walked away with two second-place awards for both the Shuttle Simulator and the Landing challenges with only one point separating the Isle of Hope team from first place award in the Landing Challenge. The Isle of Hope students also received the first-ever Apollo 13 Flight Team Award. The school’s team finished second in 2017.

To get to college this fall without a high school diploma, Isle of Hope resident Katy Thompson needed to take the GED test.

But as a 16-year-old last February, she said she had to be enrolled in a program to take the test. Thompson enrolled at Savannah Technical College to accomplish her goal. With a score of 734 out of 800 on the high school equivalency test, she earned the top GED score in the state of Georgia and was named GED Adult Education Valedictorian, Savannah Technical College said.

The GED program is housed in Savannah Technical College’s Adult Education program, which the Technical College System of Georgia recognized for achieving the highest enrollment increase for a large program last school year. Savannah Tech’s Adult Education and English as a Second Language program served 2,300 students from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018, up 28 percent from 1,800 students the prior fiscal year.

About 400 of the 2,400 student in the Adult Education program are English as a Second Language learners from other countries, said Brent Stubbs, vice president for Adult Education at Savannah Tech., located at 5717 White Bluff Rd. in Savannah.

Savannah Tech’s Adult Education and ESL students vary from people trained as engineers who need to improve their English language skills to those with limited education who “need English survival skills,” Stubbs said. They also include students who have dropped out of high school for many different reasons.

Thompson wasn’t the typical GED student, Stubbs said. Thompson, who wants to pursue law or social work, is attending the University of South Carolina Beaufort this fall. She moved every five years as a child because of her mother’s career. “I’ve lived in five states and went to at least two schools in each state,” she said. But she did well because he loved to read and write. “I study a lot of languages; that’s just a personal hobby – Spanish, French, a little Romanian.”

Her family moved to Isle of Hope when her father, Brian Thompson, took a job at Gulfstream a few years ago, and Katy enrolled at St. Andrew’s School, an independent college preparatory school. A teacher recommended her for Bard College in Massachusetts because of its early college program, and after a year of online education from her home, Thompson started college there last fall — two years early. But after the first semester, she wanted to be closer to home. Bard didn’t require a high school diploma, but most colleges do, so Thompson needed a GED. “Once I was enrolled [at Savannah Tech], it only took me a week to complete all the course work,” she said.

For most teenage students, it takes months longer, Stubbs said. Many GED students have struggled in school or dropped out before graduating from high school to help support their families.

“Our GED students have been support systems for their families. We may look at them as behind, but they are the bedrock of their family. They are transport support and childcare support for their family,” he said. These returning students often have to learn to make their own educations a priority. “That can be a real challenge,” he said.

About 60 percent of students from Chatham County who enter Savannah Tech are “functioning under the sixth-grade level,” Stubbs said. “They get behind and realize when they’re 16, they’re not going to graduate and so they leave,” he said.

Often, these students at some point will enroll at Savannah Technical College. Earning a passing score on the GED is the first step in pursuing education at the college level. The school provides free practice tests and offers scholarships to many students to over the $160 GED test fee, Stubbs said.

Many GED students have tried to make it in the work world without a GED, but they became frustrated. “We also serve student who are on probation,” Stubbs said. Some have left high school due to teen pregnancy or because of bullying. “Schools can do everything they can, but my goodness they can’t solve every social problem that exists.”

Students who haven’t enjoyed high school often succeed at Savannah Tech because it provides a flexible schedule, where student can attend days, nights or online. The college also works to give students a say in their education, Stubbs said. They can choose their focus, from traditional academic courses to dental hygiene, nursing, welding, construction or culinary arts. “It’s about student voice and creating a space where students can thrive,” he said. “We don’t have those detentions. We’re here to create opportunities to learn.”

What Savannah Tech’s students have in common, Stubbs said, is a motivation to improve through education and skills training. “They come here because they really want to have career success.”

Savannah Technical College Early Admission Day

When: 8 a.m. to noon Saturday

Where: 5717 White Bluff Road, Savannah

If you go

The Isle of Hope Middle School #Fiddlernauts Student Astronaut Club has launched its new Bobcat Space Shuttle Simulator. The simulator is a vital component, supplementing math and problem-solving skills, in the students’ preparation to compete in NASA-University of Florida Student Astronaut Challenge.

The simulator was funded by the Skidaway Island Rotary Club and built by the Bethesda Barn Builders, Rotarians and Isle of Hope #Fiddlernauts. It will provide an on-site environment that closely replicates the functions of the NASA competitive site, giving the Isle of Hope Middle Schooler’s Club an added benefit in practice time.

The #Fiddlernauts is an afterschool club which has 18-20 students from grades 6-8. The Club was started in the Fall of 2016 when Mr. Wade Smith, Mr. Darren Bagley-Heath and Ms. Carolyn Rethwisch first took a team of 12 students to compete in a Regional Student Astronaut Challenge competition in Richmond Hill. Over the past three years, the #Fiddlernauts have had tremendous success. In the most recent national 2019 Student Astronaut Challenge at Cape Kennedy, competing against 14 other top middle schools across several states, the #Fiddlernauts TEAM #1 (all girls team) placed 1^st in the Space Shuttle Landing Challenge. With the additional help of Ms. Margaret Nease (GA Southern/Armstrong University), they also placed 1^st in the Lab Challenge (“Powering small home appliances by using a car battery”). When all four of the challenges were averaged together, the #Fiddlernauts all-girls Team #1 was 2^nd in the nation overall! Finally, to top off the celebrating, the crew of TEAM #1 once again brought home the Apollo 13 Teamwork Award. The award has only been given twice and this was the second consecutive year for the #Fiddlernauts. This is a HUGE feat for the young team.

This talented group of students is inspired and coached by Isle of Hope School 2018-2019 Teacher of the Year Ms. Carolyn Rethwisch and Dr. Barbara Serianni of GA Southern/Armstrong University. The Skidaway Rotary Club is proud to be able to support these outstanding young people and their mentors. The Skidaway Club’s primary goals are to support and stimulate Early Childhood Learning and Student Leadership. In developing this simulator, the potential to develop these IOH young people’s leadership skills is greatly enhanced. THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!

See more photos here: https://bit.ly/2JGgY52​

​