April 5, 2020

Re: Update on Lookout Mountain School (”LMS”)

Dear Residents:

As you may know, since our August 2019, community letter, MGT Consulting Group reversed its preliminary recommendation to close LMS, and instead suggest capital renovations of approximately $7 million. 

While we have no indication from the school district central office whether such funds might be available, we are pleased that ultimately, LMS was recognized for the value it provides not only to the county, but more importantly, our community. 

Because our student headcount is below LMS’s physical capacity, the Hamilton County School central office considered a redistricting plan which would have aligned LMS with St. Elmo. However, after reviewing the impracticalities of this plan, the central office has settled upon an “open enrollment” program for non-resident children which for this Fall could bring to LMS up to twenty-two additional students from other areas of Hamilton County. The students would be dispered throughout the various grade levels, excluding the fifth grade. We are hopeful that this infusion of new students not only will enrich the LMS experience, but as a school bus for the new students will not be provided, also bring committed parents who will be responsible for their children’s transportation. 

The planned increase to our student body should make LMS more sustainable, and help to ensure that LMS remains a vibrant asset to the Lookout Mountian community. We will continue to make you aware of significiant developments. 

Pleaes stay safe in these extraordinary times. 


Sincerely, 

Walker Jones
Mayor Chair

​Normally Fairyland Elementary School parents and volunteers would be setting up their booths for the school’s largest fundraiser. Cotton candy and prizes would be on order, and the wooden booths would be well on their way to circling the FES field.
 
However, the threat of COVID-19 cancelled this community event. Obviously, the bills were not cancelled, and expenses to operate the school remain.
 
Lookout Mountain, Ga., councilmember Caroline Williams said that school is closed for the remainder of the year. “The Fairyland Festival has also been cancelled, which is a big fundraiser for Fairyland Elementary School. The bills are still the same though,” she said, “and teachers must be paid, so contributions would be welcome.”
 
To support this elementary school that benefits both towns of Lookout Mountain, please send your check to: 

Erlanger Health System is accepting donations from the community of homemade masks to supplement current personal protective equipment (PPE) needs.  
 
Currently, Erlanger has an adequate supply of PPE on hand to protect its staff and patients. However, the global supply for this equipment continues to be uncertain and the hospital is actively taking steps to secure more supplies.
 
“We are moved by the outpouring of support from our community,” said Liz Hedges, director of business development at Erlanger Health System. “Our community has rallied around the health system and our staff and we couldn’t be more touched by all your messages and desire to help. From the bottom of our hearts we truly appreciate all of you.”
 
Donations will be accepted Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Kennedy Outpatient Center located at the corner of East Third Street and Palmetto Street. The donation cart will be placed in the valet area outside of the building with signs directing donors to the drop-off location.
 
Daily, the masks will be collected and laundered then given to our Emergency Preparedness Team for distribution. The masks will be distributed to all of our facilities throughout the region.
 
A recommended sewing pattern can be found below. Note versions with and without elastic are included. Also, it is required that the fabric is 100% cotton.
 
Resources for how to make a homemade mask:
Video from Deaconess Health https://www.deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask
Joann Fabrics https://www.joann.com/make-to-give-response/

During the end of December 2019 and all during January, lots of websites and podcasts (what should I read next, buzz feed), newspapers (The New York Times, The Washington Post), magazines (The Atlantic, Vanity Fair), NPR, and a good number of credible institutions and people came up with their best book lists for the year. It seems that everyone wants to get on the bandwagon and salute their favorite reads of the last year of the 20-teens.

Best of year selections are not necessarily best sellers, so some of these books may not be on your radar. On The Smithsonian’s list you will find Christine Thompson’s “Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia,” which considers who first settled the remote islands in the Pacific. The Guardian, Britain’s leading daily newspaper, chose “The Porpoise” by Mark Haddon as well as “The Second Sleep” by Robert Harris to be on its best-of-the-year recommendations, neither of which is a runaway seller, but which are both really interesting reads.
Nancy Pearl, a steadfast proponent of reading, is probably the most famous librarian in America and a most eclectic reader, an author, literary critic and commentator for NPR.  While you won’t find Danielle Steel’s latest on Pearl’s list, you will find “Rabbits for Food” by Binnie Kirshenbaum and “Out of Darkness, Shining Light” by Petina Gappah.

Voracious reader former President Barack Obama, a lifelong champion of books, came up with 19 volumes that he enjoyed during 2019. They include the novels “Lost Children Archive” by Valeria Luiselli and “Trust Exercise” by Susan Choi (which also won the National Book Award) and nonfiction titles “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe and “Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee” by Casey Cep.

Some lists are weightier than other, but there is little argument that The New York Times creates the most prestigious collection of best books of 2019. The following list is a diverse one, but it does reflect the tastes of American readers and aligns pretty closely with arrays by other U.S. newspapers or magazines. Here are the NYT’s winners (The first five are fiction, and the last five nonfiction.):
​

• “Disappearing Earth” by Julia Phillips
• “The Topeka School” by Ben Lerner
• “Exhalation: Stories” by Ted Chiang
• “Lost Children Archive” by Valeria Luiselli
• “Night Boar to Tangier” by Kevin Barry
• “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe
• “The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age” by Leo Damrosch
• “The Yellow House’ by Sarah M. Broom
• “No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know about Domestic Violence Can Kill Us” by Rachel Louise Snyder
• “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster” by Adam Higginbotham

When it comes to the books which were most often checked out in libraries, the list is different. While some of the books are new, others are a year or so old, because readers have been on their waiting lists for months or are just getting around to tackling them. Then there are authors who have a faithful following. Fans pounce upon everything written by writers such as Lee Child, David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich and Harlen Coben, so they are always popular.

At the Signal Mountain Library, the ten most checked out books of 2019 are:

1. “Where the Crawdad Sings” by Delia Owens
2. “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides
3. “Past Tense” by Lee Child
4. “Educated” by Tara Westover
5. “Long Road to Mercy” by David Baldacci
6. “Wolf Pack” by C. J. Box
7. “Neon Prey” by John Sanford
8. “Run Away” by Harlen Coben
9. “Nine Perfect Strangers” by Liane Moriarty
10. “Look Alive 25” by Janet Evanovich

The above titles show up on many lists around the country. Even the New York Public Library’s systemwide locations echo some of our local choices in their frequent checkouts:
​

1. “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
2. “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover
3. “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng
4. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
5. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
6. “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee
7. “Circe” by Madeline Miller
8. “Nine Perfect Strangers” by Liane Moriarty
9. “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” by John Carreyrou
10. “Milkman” by Anna Burns

 
Patrons frequently ask us for suggestions of what to read, and these books listed here are some that you might want to try. All the above titles, except for two volumes, are in our collection here at the Library. We will also be adding new books every two weeks, some of which we know we’ll see on 2020’s best reads assemblages. So please visit us often and be sure to let us know if there are books that you’d like to read that we don’t have, and we will do our best to get them for you.
Here’s to the next eleven months of happy and enlightening reading!

How do we think of change, transition, and new life?

When we see a caterpillar it looks like a fully formed creature. It crawls, climbs trees and eats and eats and eats. Then, apparently out of nowhere everything changes. It wraps itself up in a chrysalis and the caterpillar we once knew is gone. Or so it seems.

We wait for days and weeks. Nothing seems to change. And then slowly but surely emerges a butterfly - transformed and beautiful. All that could not happen without a time of unknown stillness.

Butterflies are a symbol of new life, change, and hope.

We are all in a period of waiting. The life we knew has changed. But, there is hope. There is hope in God's love. There is hope in Jesus. There is hope in the resurrection.

Join us in sharing this symbol of hope far and wide. We invite you create butterflies, many, many butterflies!
Create your own butterfly or look below for more butterfly making ideas!

There are so many options. You can string these butterflies from your trees, share them with your neighbors, mail them to friends and family far away. You can write a prayer on each. You can list something for which you are grateful. You can name your butterfly. You can sidewalk chalk butterflies on your driveway.
Wouldn’t it be great to have your lawn, your trees, your neighborhood, our city filled with butterflies? In these times we can share hope and love with everyone, everywhere.
​
Share your butterflies with us! Send pictures here. Post them on social media with the #changehopebutterflies.

​Click here to learn more. 

If you or someone you know in our Lookout Mountain community finds yourself in need during the COVID-19 pandemic, Love Lookout would like to help. Please reach out to us via needhelp@lmpc.org, whether those needs are physical (such as help with grocery or pharmacy errands), financial, or spiritual. 

E-mail Love Lookout, click here

Ideas from Love Lookout

"We want to do something that will connect us as a community even though we need to stay physically distant from each other right now. Some neighborhoods across the country hosted a “shamrock hunt” for St. Patrick’s Day, and it gave us the idea to do our own neighborhood scavenger hunt, Love Lookout style! It’s a fun activity for kiddos during these long days at home, and it can be a sweet display of solidarity & connection in our beloved mountain community. 💙💙💙

Have your kids create a big heart to put in one of your windows or on your mailbox that says “Love Lookout”. (If you don’t have kids then adults can make one, too! The more hearts the better!) Let’s try to get as many houses on the mountain to participate as we can. Once the hearts are all up, it will be like a scavenger hunt for love! ❤️

You can take the kids out for a walk near your house to get some fresh air and see how many Love Lookout hearts you can spot. We sure do love this community, and we want to take care of each other! Sometimes that starts with keeping our spirits up and remembering we are all in this together. #lovelookoutmtn❤️⛰"

Follow Love Lookout on Facebook and Instagram
​

We hope that you and your families are all doing well!  Please see below for an announcement from Hamilton County Schools about Kindergarten registration:

Online Kindergarten Registration Open Now
​
Online registration for kindergarten in Hamilton County Schools for the 2020-2021 school year is open now, and runs through Friday.  Due to schools being closed at this time, the district has postponed the day planned during the registration period to provide on-site registration at schools.  Parents can access online kindergarten registration on the district’s website at www.hcde.org. Look under the “Parents & Students” tab on the home page for “Registration Information.”  On the Registration Information page, there are several links to kindergarten registration.  Video tutorials are available on the registration site to assist parents with the online process.

To attend kindergarten this fall, a child must be five years of age on or before August 15, 2020. Documents will be necessary to complete registration. Parents can upload the documents required during the online registration process.

Documents parents will need to complete registration
• A certified copy of the child’s birth certificate or officially acceptable evidence of the date of birth
• A Tennessee School Immunization Certificate available from the Hamilton County Health Department
• A photo ID of the parent or legal custodian of the child
• Proof of court-ordered custody of a child living with a divorced parent, custodian or guardian
 
Acceptable documents proving residency (two required)
• Lease, mortgage or deed
• Utility bill (gas, water, electric) dated in the last 30 to 60 days
• Insurance document (home, health, or life)
• A government document showing residency

If you are not sure which school serves your area, the School Zone Finder on the Hamilton County Schools website will help you find the information.
 
When schools reopen, a date will be announced for parents and children to visit school sites.