Yellow buses were much in evidence on Clarke County’s streets Tuesday as around 13,000 students began the new school year.

About 2,000 of those students not only began a new school year, but did so at new schools — the brand-new Barnett Shoals Elementary School and Clarke Central High School, where a $30 million renovation and expansion project is drawing to a close.

Enrollment at both schools has jumped, said their principals.

“I love it,” said parent Vernai Bolton at Barnett Shoals; she came with her own parents, Vernois and Margaret Bolton, to drop off son Antwon for his first day of pre-K classes — his first day of school ever.

“I love it because it’s new and his teacher was nice,” said Bolton, who is herself an alumni of Barnett Shoals.

Bolton wasn’t the only one whose response was “I love it,” including teachers who’ve now been in the school more than a week, getting used to the layout and learning where everything is.

They were happy to be back after spending three years at the old Gaines School building while workers tore down the old Barnett Shoals and built the new one. Workers managed to preserve some of the old school’s heritage, including its “geology wall” out back — a low wall which University of Georgia geology students helped build, perhaps sometime around the time the original school opened exactly 50 years ago, in 1966. The wall features various types of Georgia rock laid into its concrete. Nearby, workers are beginning to restore another piece of Barnett Shoals’ heritage — a barn, where soon sheep, goats and chickens will live.

Some teachers were taking their children on tours of the school Tuesday morning, forming lines down the wide hallways as they learned crucial information, such as where is the bathroom.

The two-story school has big windows that let in lots of natural light, including almost an entire wall of the lunchroom.

“I love it,” said teacher Miriam Wildman — one of several who used those words to describe the new school. “I love the way the classrooms are, and the new technology.

“We have a lot of space,” she said — a big contrast to the cramped quarters they’d occupied at the old Gaines School.

“It’s bright, it’s clean, everything is new, like when you move into a house,” said another teacher, Wanda Wright, who like Bolton has a special place in her heart for Barnett Shoals Elementary — she went to school here, too, before she became a teacher here.

“It’s very exciting,” said principal Jennifer Scott — in part because the architects and builders paid attention to what teachers, parents and administrators told them when they met to talk about what the new school should be like.

Two things they asked for were lots of natural light, and leaving the ductwork and piping exposed in the hallways, so the children could see the inner workings of the building, Scott said.

Over at Clarke Central, the new construction is also going to be a big lift for students, according to band director Robert Lawrence.

The band program was moribund, with just 21 students, when Lawrence came seven years ago; now it’s built up to 131. And with Central’s new practice and performance facilities, the sky’s the limit, he said.

Like the teachers at Barnett Shoals, Lawrence said Collins Cooper Carusi architect Cheng Li actually listened when he, drama teacher Harriet Anderson and others told him what they wanted to see in Mell Auditorium and in practice areas.

“They improved upon my ideas,” he said. “When I saw the floor plans, I had nothing to say. They made it work, and it’s outstanding. The word outstanding comes to mind, but that’s not quite enough.”

Mell now might be the second-best concert hall in Athens, after UGA’s Hodgson Hall, which is one of the best halls in the South, Lawrence said.

And the band’s practice room has features making it a good room for both making and recording music, such as acoustic panels, high ceilings, angled walls and wiring that allows the space to be a recording studio as well as a practice room.

Students will actually be able to hear their recorded selves on the way home after school, so they can know what they did wrong and what they did right that day, he explained.

“This is a place for the future for these children,” Lawrence said.

Clarke Central isn’t quite finished. There’s more work to be done on the landscaping, and the renovation of the old gymnasium won’t be finished until around October; workers this weekend will also do a do-over on a ramp leading down into the renovated cafeteria, said Joe Dunagan, the school district’s project manager for the Clarke Central project.

But those are small in the overall picture, which includes much larger classrooms, wider hallways because lockers were eliminated, new science labs, a new media center with walls of windows letting natural light in, among other features.

“It’s a 360-degree turnaround,” said interim principal Marie Yuran. Some 1,556 students were enrolled as of Monday, up from about 1,400 a year ago.

“It’s exceeded my expectations,” Dunagan said.

Another do-over was visible in the hallways — metal corner guards where walls came together at right angles; students managed to chip the corners quickly earlier on in the renovation/expansion project.

Unlike Barnett Shoals, there was no place to move an entire high school, so school officials brought in a kind of village of portable classrooms to house the school’s ninth graders and media center. That created enough space inside the brick building to move students from one area to the next as each phase of construction and renovation began.

But the moves are over now, Lawrence said thankfully.

Follow education reporter Lee Shearer at www.facebook.com/LeeShearerABH or https://twitter.com/LeeShearer.

NEW YORK | Delta fliers faced delays, cancellations and more headaches Wednesday as the Atlanta-based airline struggled with its computer systems for the third straight day.

More than 150 flights were canceled by the morning, in addition to the 800 scrapped Tuesday and 1,000 canceled Monday. Hundreds of other flights were delayed Wednesday morning.

Delta Air Lines said in a statement that it planned to resume "normal operations" by Wednesday afternoon. Hundreds of thousands of passengers have been stranded overnight throughout the ordeal, many spending the night in airports around the globe. Others were put up in hotels by Delta, including 2,300 in Atlanta alone Tuesday night.

The system the airline uses to check in and board passengers as well as dispatch its planes is still slow, Gil West, Delta's chief operating officer said Tuesday.

The problems started early Monday when, according to a statement by West, critical piece of equipment failed at the airline's headquarters. It caused a loss of power and key systems and equipment did not switch over to backups as designed.

Delta extended a travel-waiver policy to help stranded passengers rearrange their travel plans. It offered refunds and $200 in travel vouchers to people whose flights were canceled or delayed at least three hours.

Airlines have been packing more people in each plane, so when a major carrier has a technology crash it's harder to find seats for the waylaid. Last month, the average Delta flight was 87 percent full.

SPRINGFIELD | Deputies say dozens of people have been arrested in a child-sex sting in east Georgia.

Effingham County sheriff's officials tell news outlets in a statement that 40 people, ranging in age from 17 to 57, were arrested this summer for trying to have sex with children.

Deputies lured the suspects Effingham and Chatham counties over the past 10 weeks by posing as underage children on the internet.

Officials say the suspects, who hail from Georgia and South Carolina, were arrested on child molestation and computer pornography charges. Some of their mugshots were released Tuesday.

Deputies say some of the suspects would try to meet the children and arrive at locations where they were arrested.

One of those arrested was former Portal Elementary Principal Paul Hudson.

In addition to being the first class at the University of Georgia to benefit fully from the university’s experiential learning initiative, the more than 5,400 students who will begin classes next week are the institution’s most academically gifted to date.

The average high school grade point average of first-year students at the nation’s first state-chartered university is 3.98, which greatly exceeds last year’s average of 3.91. In addition, the average SAT score for the incoming class reached a new high of 1302 this year. The average score for students who took the ACT was 29, which ties last year’s record. In 2011, for comparison, the average SAT score for incoming students was 1226, and the average ACT score was 28.

The rigor of students’ high school curriculum remains a key factor in admissions decisions, and members of the Class of 2020 enrolled in an average of seven College Board Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses in high school.

Nearly 23,000 students applied for admission into the Class of 2020, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year. UGA attempted to meet this unprecedented demand through a measured increase in the size of the freshman class, which was nearly 5,300 last year. UGA’s acceptance rate for fall 2016 was 53 percent, compared to 63 percent in 2011.

“I am excited about the outstanding qualifications and broad diversity of backgrounds represented in this year’s incoming class,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Through strategic investments in faculty, facilities and new academic initiatives, we are creating an unparalleled learning environment and, in turn, attracting the very best and brightest students to the University of Georgia.”

With the implementation of its new experiential learning requirement this fall, UGA has become the nation’s largest public university to ensure that each of its students benefits from hands-on learning opportunities such as internships, research, study abroad and service-learning. A small class size initiative has brought more than 50 new faculty members to campus this fall and created more than 300 new course sections, the majority of which have fewer than 20 students.

“The Class of 2020 includes the very best and brightest of this generation,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “Our top priority is to provide them with unrivaled learning opportunities to best prepare them for successful and fulfilling careers.”

Eighty-five percent of Georgia counties will be represented in the incoming class, and students from nearly all of Georgia’s 159 counties are enrolled at UGA. In-state enrollment in the Class of 2020 is 87 percent, a figure that has remained relatively stable over the past decade. The top states from which out-of-state students hail are North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida and California. The 89 international students in the Class of 2020 come from 52 countries, and the top countries from which they hail are China, Korea and India. The more than 5,400 incoming first-year students will be joined by more than 1,500 transfer students from more than 240 institutions.

The number of incoming students who self-identify as non-white has increased by 10 percent over the past year to exceed 1,730. More than 460 members of the incoming class self-identify as African-American, an increase of 10 percent over the past year. The number of Hispanic students in the incoming class increased by 8 percent over last year.

UGA’s nationally recognized Honors Program will enroll 525 new students this fall, and they bring an average high school GPA of 4.16 that reflects their rigorous Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate curriculum. Incoming Honors students have an average combined critical reading and math SAT score of 1487 and an average ACT score of 33.

“This is an unprecedented class in terms of diversity and scholastic achievement,” said Patrick Winter, associate vice president for admissions and enrollment management. “Their academic rigor is well-rounded with leadership, community and artistic accomplishments, holding promise of great success. I am looking forward to welcoming them to campus and seeing what they can accomplish through the exciting new opportunities that UGA has to offer this fall.”

University of Georgia Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten has appointed a committee to begin a national search to fill the position of dean of the School of Public and International Affairs.

Charles N. Davis, dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, will chair the 19-member search committee, which includes faculty, staff, alumni and students.

Additional search committee members are:

Christina Boyd, associate professor of political science.

Charles S. Bullock III, Meigs, University and Richard B. Russell Professor of Political Science.

Briana Campbell, a Master of Public Administration student.

Griff Doyle, UGA vice president for government relations.

Maryann Gallagher, lecturer in the department of international affairs.

Robert Grafstein, Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Political Science.

Olivia Haas, an undergraduate student pursuing an international affairs degree.

Susan Haire, professor of political science.

Kevin James, academic adviser in SPIA and Staff Council member.

Loch K. Johnson, Meigs and Regents Professor of Public and International Affairs.

J. Edward Kellough, professor of public administration and policy.

Keith Mason, an alumnus who is a UGA Foundation trustee and a partner at Dentons global law firm.

Amanda Murdie, professor of international affairs.

Rebecca Nesbit, associate professor of public administration and policy.

Tyler Scott, assistant professor of public administration and policy.

Shane Singh, associate professor of international affairs.

Julie C. Smith, an alumna who serves on the SPIA Board of Visitors and is a vice president of external affairs for Verizon.

Brian N. Williams, associate professor of public administration and policy.

The committee will be assisted by the UGA Search Group in Human Resources.

SPIA Dean Stefanie Lindquist announced in May she was named deputy provost and vice president for academic affairs at Arizona State University. She also has been named Foundation Professor of Law and Political Science at ASU, and both appointments are effective Sept. 1. Grafstein has agreed to serve as interim dean and has indicated that he is not seeking the position permanently.

ATLANTA | The leader of Georgia’s university system announced Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the year, closing a term of more than five years.

Hank Huckaby said in a statement that the system has a bright future. Huckaby first announced his plans Wednesday morning at a Board of Regents meeting in Atlanta.

“Public higher education touches all aspects of our society. It is the fabric that holds us together and is an investment that pays dividends for life,” Huckaby said in the statement. “The University System is one of the great strengths of Georgia, and I am grateful to have been able to serve with the faculty and staff who bring it to life every day to serve our students.”

Huckaby immediately began work to consolidate various campuses, lowering the number of system schools from 35 in 2011 to 29 this year. Huckaby argued that consolidation was the best way to lower operating costs, but the decisions occasionally sparked disagreement on the affected campuses.

Huckaby served for a short time as a Republican member of the state House before becoming chancellor. He previously worked as director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget under Gov. Zell Miller and vice president of finance and administration at the University of Georgia.

System officials didn’t immediately announce plans for replacing Huckaby.

“Chancellor Huckaby has been a lifelong public servant to the State of Georgia, and public higher education has been his special calling,” Board of Regents Chairman Kessel Stelling said in a statement. “The Board and I express our sincere thanks and appreciation for all Hank has done to support the students, faculty, staff and everyone who will touch the University System for years to come.”

The technical details of constructing a paved multiple-use trail across Athens’ picturesque and historic Oconee Hill Cemetery have been worked out, but some work remains to ensure smooth integration of the cemetery’s operational needs with public access to the greenway, Athens-Clarke County commissioners learned at their Tuesday work session.

The cemetery, off East Campus Road in the shadow of the University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, was established in 1856 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the final resting place for a number of Georgia governors, congressmen and university presidents.

Last August, the commission unanimously approved a project concept for the portion of the greenway routed through Oconee Hill Cemetery. The project is being funded with revenue from a 1 percent special-purpose local option sales tax approved by Athens-Clarke County voters in a November 2014 referendum.

According to information presented to the commission Tuesday, a preliminary estimate places the construction cost of the Oconee Hill Cemetery segment of the greenway at $1 million, which is due in part to special considerations for getting the trail through the cemetery.

In Tuesday’s presentation to the commission on the status of the project, Mel Cochran, administrator of the parks services division of the county’s Leisure Services Department, said the county recognized the cemetery is “a sensitive site,” and is still in discussion with cemetery representatives about plans for how that section of the greenway will be managed by the county.

As a first step, Cochran pointed out to commissioners, the greenway section itself was designed to be minimally intrusive with regard to the cemetery landscape. A series of images depicting what the finished greenway would look like from the cemetery’s Chapel Hill presented Tuesday by Cochran showed the trail winding through trees on the cemetery property. As with other sections of the greenway, the path through the cemetery will follow a county sewer easement, according to Derek Doster, a SPLOST program administrator.

Among the special considerations connected with the Oconee Hill portion of the greenway is the need for fencing to restrict access to the cemetery, commissioners were told Tuesday. Additionally, access to the cemetery portion of the greenway will be through gates, with the hours during which those gates will be opened remaining among the issues to be worked out with the cemetery, Doster noted.

“I think that’s one of the things we’re still in discussion about,” Cochran told commissioners Tuesday.

Also a matter of continuing discussion, Doster said Tuesday, is how access to the cemetery would be controlled when funerals are being conducted.

A depiction of the type of fencing and gate being contemplated for the cemetery portion of the greenway shows a tall decorative fence with a gate anchored by two stone columns. The goal, Cochran told commissioners Tuesday, is to ensure the fencing “sets that tone of reverence” for the cemetery.

According to Doster, the SPLOST staff worked closely with cemetery representatives, holding several meetings with them and even walking the cemetery grounds.

“We have some additional work to do, don’t get me wrong,” Doster said, but he told the commissioners technical considerations for the project, from routing to construction materials selection, have been addressed.

The commission could revisit the preliminary plans for the Oconee Hill section of the greenway, and a number of other greenway sections on the east side of the county, at their agenda-setting session later this month, and could make a final decision on preliminary plans for those sections as soon as next month.

The final tally for the hastily arranged Independence Day holiday weekend street festival and fireworks show in downtown Athens is in, and it pegs the cost of the July 1 Downtown Fireworks Spectacular at $74,632, well below the $82,401 budget approved by the board of the Athens Downtown Development Authority.

That tally means the ADDA, whose board initially approved allocating $15,000 of the authority’s money to the festival, but later agreed to cover up to $32,000 of the festival’s cost, will only be shelling out $21,388 for the event, ADDA Executive Director Pamela Thompson said Wednesday.

According to Thompson, efforts by her and the ADDA board to attract corporate sponsorships for the event brought in $30,500, with the balance of the cost of the festival covered by an allocation of local hotel-motel tax revenue and money from a discretionary fund attached to the Athens-Clarke County mayor’s office.

“That’s not terrible for estimating the first time,” Thompson said Wednesday regarding the final tally for the downtown Independence Day celebration. Thompson persuaded the ADDA board to back a downtown fireworks show and street festival after the community learned in May that Georgia Square, the Atlanta Highway mall that sponsored the local Fourth of July celebration for the previous two years, would not hold the event this year as it retooled for a 2017 celebration.

In other developments regarding the ADDA, the authority’s board was updated at its Tuesday meeting on efforts to have the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government do a feasibility study on installing an amphitheater in downtown Athens, as proposed in a downtown master plan funded by the ADDA.

The plan, developed by University of Georgia professor Jack Crowley and some of his students, along with considerable public input, envisions an amphitheater on publicly owned property above Hickory Street in the eastern end of downtown Athens that could eventually connect with The Classic Center, downtown Athens’ public convention and performance space.

Thompson was asked by Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Mike Hamby, who sits on the ADDA board and also chairs a commission committee working toward implementing proposals included in the downtown master plan, to ask UGA for the feasibility study.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Thompson told the ADDA board the Vinson Institute wants to combine the amphitheater feasibility study — which would concern itself with the economic viability of such a venue, and would not address design issues — with a wider study of the impact of downtown Athens businesses on the local economy.

Thompson said Wednesday the ADDA has wanted that broader study of the economic impact of downtown businesses to help serve as an economic development tool. The study could be used in cooperative efforts of the ADDA and the Athens-Clarke County government’s Economic Development Department to foster economic development in Athens, Thompson said Wednesday.

No cost figures for the combined studies were provided to the ADDA, Thompson said Wednesday, but she said she expected to have a more detailed report on the proposal for the ADDA board at next month’s meeting.

At the same time as the ADDA is looking at the feasibility of an amphitheater, Paul Cramer, executive director of The Classic Center, downtown Athens’ convention and performance space, is looking into the feasibility of building an enclosed arena in the area proposed for the amphitheater. Cramer has argued that an enclosed arena could be used more frequently, and for larger events, than an amphitheater, thereby creating a greater economic impact on the community. Cramer recently presented the Classic Center Authority with some design proposals submitted by UGA students.

In other business Tuesday, the ADDA board approved a new two-year employment contract for Thompson. The new contract includes a cost-of-living adjustment to Thompson’s salary, bringing her annual compensation to $94,100.

WIB Breasts & Vests Safety Seminar: 6:30 to 8:30 a.m., Oconee State Bank Operations Center, 7920 Macon Highway, Watkinsville.

Nature Ramblers: 8 to 9:30 a.m., State Botanical Garden of Georgia, 2450 South Milledge Ave., Athens. Free (donations accepted). www.botgarden.uga.edu

Redcoat Band history on display: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries, 300 North Hull St., Athens.

Athens Area Newcomers Club: 9:30 a.m., Central Presbyterian Church, 380 Alps Road, Athens. Free. (706) 850-7463, athensareanewcomersclub.org

Mini Olympics: 10 to 11:30 a.m., Rocksprings Community Center & Park, 105 Columbus Ave., Athens. (706) 613-3602 or visit www.athensclarkecounty.com/rocksprings. Free.

Tai Chi Easy: 10 to 11 a.m., Rocksprings Community Center, Rocksprings Court, Athens..

Lunch and Learn: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Madison County Library, Danielsville, 1315 Ga. Highway 98, Danielsville. (706) 549-4850, www.athenslibrary.org/madison

The Lounge Gallery: Deepanjan Mukhopadyay: noon to 9 p.m., Lyndon House Arts Center, 293 Hoyt Street, Athens.

Museum Mile Tour: 2 p.m., Athens Welcome Center, 280 E. Dougherty St., Athens. Reservations are encouraged by calling 706-208-TOUR (8687). $20 per person.

Windows Basics: 2 to 4 p.m., Oconee County Library, 1080 Experiment Station Road, Watkinsville. (706) 769-3950 or visit www.athenslibrary.org/oconee.

Kids’ Crafternoon: 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., Oconee County Library, 1080 Experiment Station Road, Watkinsville. (706) 769-3950 or visit www.athenslibrary.org/oconee.

Clarke County Democratic Committee Headquarters Grand Opening: 4 to 7 p.m., Just Pho & More Llc, 1063 Baxter St., Athens.

Epps, Holloway, DeLoach & Hoipkemier, LLC Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting: 4:30 p.m., 1220 Langford Drive, Building 200, Watkinsville.

Alcoholics Anonymous: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. (706) 389-4164 for location. www.athensaa.org.

BFK Book Sale: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Homewood Village Shopping Center, 2405 Jefferson Road, Athens.

Ladies Personal Safety and Awareness Class: 6:30 to 8 p.m., Oconee State Bank Operations Center, 7920 Macon Highway, Watkinsville. $25, and includes a T-shirt.

Athens Popfest 2016: 7 p.m., Georgia Theatre, 215 N Lumpkin St, Athens. Deerhoof 12:30 a.m., Tunabunny 11:30 p.m., Shopping 10:30 p.m., Gauche 9:30 p.m., Antlered Aunt Lord 8:45 p.m., Dead Neighbors 8 p.m. This event is for ages 18 and up. $12-$48. (706) 850-7670, info@georgiatheatre.com, athenspopfest.com/

Bluegrass Jam: 7 p.m., The Bar-B-Que Shack, 4320 Lexington Road, Athens. Free. (706) 613-6752

Open Bridge Game: 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, 780 Timothy Road, Athens. Athens Duplicate Bridge Club is starting an open game. The game will be directed by Liz Swanson, the most experienced director in the Athens area. For more information, contact E. J. Stapler at ejstapler@gmail.com or call (706) 248-4809.

TOPS weight loss: 7 to 8 p.m., Government Annex Building, Highway 15, Watkinsville. (800) 932-8677 or www.tops.org.

Entertainment Trivia: 8 p.m., Butt Hutt Bar-B-Q, 480 Macon Highway, Athens. Free. (706) 850-8511

Full Contact Trivia: 8 p.m., Johnny’s New York Style Pizza, 1040 Gaines School Road, Athens. Free.

Live Wire Presents Sun Dried Vibes: 8 p.m., Live Wire Athens, 227 W. Dougherty St., Athens.

Music Trivia: 8 p.m., Saucehouse Barbeque, 830 East Broad Street, Athens. Free. www.facebook.com/saucehousebbq

Patterson Hood: 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., 40 Watt Club, 285 West Washington Street, Athens. This event is 18 and over.

Diablo Sandwich and the Dr. Peppers at Lumpkin Street Station: 10 p.m., Lumpkin Street Station, 175 N Lumpkin St, Athens. Free Show 21+.

Dr. Fred’s Karaoke: 10 p.m., Hendershots Coffee, 237 Prince Avenue, Athens. (706) 546-5609

For more events or to add an event to a future calendar, visit events.onlineathens.com.

A Macon woman this week reportedly was indicted for homicide in connection with the December death of an 18-year-old friend who she allegedly struck with a car while intoxicated last winter in Bibb County.

The fatal accident occurred early the morning of Dec. 22 in Macon.

According to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, Mary Elizabeth Wade’s car became stuck after the student drove it off a parking lot and into some grass and mud. Her passenger, 18-year-old Murray Nixon, was pushing the car in an attempt to get it unstuck when the vehicle rolled back and killed Nixon, the sheriff’s office said in a news release at the time. Wade was a University of Georgia student at the time of the accident.

It is illegal in Georgia for drivers under 21 years old to have any alcohol in their system, and authorities said that at the time of the accident Wade’s blood-alcohol concentration was .02. The adult legal threshold for drunk driving is .08 percent.

Prosecutors later presented the case to a Bibb County grand jury, which on Tuesday returned an indictment charging Wade with first-degree vehicular homicide, DUI and reckless driving, according to the Macon Telegraph,

Wade was booked into the Bibb County Jail at 10:50 a.m. Wednesday and released three hours later upon posting a total bond of $44,200, according to the jail’s website.

Follow Criminal Justice reporter Joe Johnson at www.facebook.com/JoeJohnsonABH or www.twitter.com/JoeJohnsonABH.

Two people were killed Wednesday morning in a one-vehicle wreck on Interstate 85 near Jefferson, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

The wreck occurred about 9:40 a.m. near the U.S. Highway 129 exit, where a southbound Ford Excursion pulling an enclosed utility trailer overturned and rolled several times, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

The driver apparently lost control of the vehicle which went off the shoulder of the highway and began to overturn, Trooper Cpl. C.E. Parker said.

While overturning, the front seat passenger and both rear seat passengers were ejected from the vehicle, which hit a tree, according to Parker.

The driver was restrained but partially ejected and was killed. The front seat passenger was also killed, the patrol said.

The other passengers, a woman in her late teens and a man in his 40s, were both transported with serious injuries to the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, according to Jackson County Emergency Services.

The trailer was full of furniture.

The names of the victims are being withheld until notification of next of kin.

Some of the usual welcoming signs on elementary school classrooms are in Spanish this year at Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School. “Bienvenidos,” says one, instead of “Welcome.”

On another, the teacher’s message tells her students that eres (you are) cientifico, explorador, importante, amigo, respetado, querido ­ scientific, explorer, important, respected, loved.

It’s the launch of Oglethorpe Avenue’s new dual-language immersion program, now starting up in two kindergarten and one pre-K class.

Oglethorpe Avenue Principal Scarlett Dunne and the parents of 66 children in the new program have high hopes for the initiative, in which most of the instruction is in Spanish. Some of the children are growing up in homes where Spanish is their parents’ first language, but most are native English, attracted by the potential long-term benefits such dual-language programs have demonstrated elsewhere. Children named Elvin, Jaleyah and Jordan are classmates with others named Guadalupe and Enrique.

Perhaps surprisingly, many families whose first language is Spanish were reluctant to enroll their children in the dual-language immersion program.

“Hispanic families are afraid their children will lose English. That’s a barrier we have to break down,” Dunne said.

Becoming literate in two languages seems to change brain wiring, Dunne said, and children get benefits beyond simply becoming fluent and literate in two languages. They become more creative thinkers, better at problem solving and reasoning, and more competent in subject areas such as science.

Eight families actually opted to have their children repeat kindergarten so they could participate in the program, the principal said.

The program is beginning in the two earliest grade levels, kindergarten and pre-K, but the plan is for the program step-by-step to become part of a progression that extends all the way through high school.

Next year, these kindergarten students will continue on into first-grade dual-immersion classes, and the year after that, second grade, and so on through fifth grade as new kindergarten and pre-K classes are added each year.

When they finish elementary school, they will not only be bilingual but biliterate, Dunne said.

Then in middle school, the children will be able to take the four Spanish language courses students normally take in high school, and in high school, more advanced study such as AP classes.

Dunne believes many of the students will persist in the program.

“I have more parent involvement with the dual-language immersion program than any other group,” she said.

The original plan was for the first year to be limited to two kindergarten classes, but teachers at the school district’s Early Learning Center asked for a pre-K option. That class filled up fast, just as the two kindergarten classes did, and now there’s a waiting list for both, Dunne said.

In each classroom, both the teacher and the paraprofessional worker are native Spanish speakers, with the exception of one paraprofessional, a native speaker of closely related Portuguese.

On the program’s second day, pre-K students in the class of teacher Mireya Fambro and parapro Constanza Deorn were learning sonidos iniciales — first sounds, just as their schoolmates in English-only classes. Math would also be in Spanish.

In the afternoons, they’d work again on recognizing letters, sounds and other skills involved with reading, along with the names of colors, but this time in English.

Reading is fundamental to the program, Dunne explained.

“There’s lots of bilingual people out there; they’re just not biliterate,” Dunne said.

Follow education reporter Lee Shearer at www.facebook.com/LeeShearerABH or https://twitter.com/LeeShearer.

ATLANTA | A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday says Atlanta police officers violated the rights of a man who was grabbed and thrown to the ground when he was arrested during a protest.

Lawyer Mawuli Davis said he filed the lawsuit on behalf of Corey Toole, who was arrested Nov. 25, 2014 as he participated in a protest in response to the decision by a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, not to indict a police officer in the shooting of Michael Brown.

The officers treated him violently after targeting him because he was filming the protest, the lawsuit says. The city has failed to properly train officers and to update its policies, despite previous court orders to do so, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit names the city, two deputy police chiefs and several officers.

City spokeswoman Anne Torres said the city had not yet been served with the suit Wednesday afternoon and therefore could not comment.

Toole was using his cellphone to record the protest in downtown Atlanta around 9:30 p.m. when an officer started yelling at him to get back on the sidewalk, the lawsuit says. When Toole got into an argument with the officer because he was already on the sidewalk, several officers grabbed him, pulled him through the crowd and threw him on the ground, the lawsuit says.

Toole received a deep gash on his forehead and another cut on his lower lip and one of his front teeth was chipped when officers threw him on the ground with his arms behind his back and held him there, the lawsuit says. That has left him with lasting scars, back soreness and migraines, the lawsuit says.

The officers then brought Toole to a prisoner transport van where he waited for several hours with other arrested protesters before they were taken to a police station. While they were waiting, Toole and a number of other protesters were not told what charges they faced, the lawsuit says.

Toole was charged with disorderly conduct and released early the morning after his arrest.

The officers' behavior violated Toole's constitutional rights and also violated state and federal law, the lawsuit says.

The city's repeated failure to adopt policies and training required by court orders led directly to the violations of rights suffered by Toole and has "created a de facto custom of APD officers repeatedly interfering with — and often arresting — citizens who are legally photographing or filming police activity," the lawsuit says.

"This suit is a reminder that the voices of people who are crying out for change cannot be silenced by false arrests or police brutality," Davis said in an email.

The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

GRANTVILLE | Authorities say three suspects have been arrested in the attempted robbery of an 83-year-old Georgia woman who was badly burned during and critically injured.

According to The Newnan Times-Herald Sheriff Chuck Smith identified the suspects as 38-year-old Justin Pierce Grady, 18-year-old Cortavious Deshun Heard and 17-year-old Shanquavious Keontrell Cameron. Smith says Grady and Heard had previously worked for victim, Dorothy Dow, at her Grantville home, about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta.

They trio was arrested Monday and are being held without bail. Charges include criminal attempt felony murder and armed robbery.

It was not immediately known if they had lawyers.

Dow told police the attackers woke her Thursday night, demanding money. When she said she didn't have any she was hit in the face with a gun, doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil | Georgia's Allison Schmitt and Melanie Margalis earned gold medals and Brittany MacLean picked up a bronze as members of 4x200-meter freestyle relays on Wednesday at the Olympics.

Schmitt joined basketball standout Teresa Edwards as the top Georgia performers all-time with four Olympic gold medals each. Schmitt extended her own school mark as she picked up her eighth Olympic medal (four gold, two silver and two bronze medals) in her third Games.

Serving as one of the team's captains, Schmitt led off the United States relay -- which also featured Leah Smith, Mya DiRado and Katie Ledecky -- to open Wednesday's finals. The relay stopped the clock in 7:43.03 to outdistance Australia (7:44.87). Schmitt anchored the gold medal-winning relay at the 2012 Games in London.

"I had no doubt," Schmitt said. "I had complete faith in these three girls. I was just going out to try my best. ... We like to have fun. A happy swimmer is a fast swimmer."

"It's fantastic to have Schmitty on the team this year and see her swimming so well," Ledecky said. "I don't know, I think we were all swimming for Schmitty."

"I knew Schmitty was going to throw down an awesome leg," Smith said. "I watched her in prelims and she fired all of us up."

In Wednesday's preliminaries, Schmitt led off and Margalis swam the third leg as the United States posted a time of 7:45.37. Margalis earned the gold medal, her first, by virtue of competing in the prelims.

Schmitt and Margalis ended their Georgia careers in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

MacLean came in third on her 4x200-meter freestyle relay in a Canadian-record 7:45.39 to earn the bronze, her first Olympic medal. It was also Team Canada's first-ever medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. MacLean, who swam the third leg on Thursday, is appearing in her second Olympics for Canada. She capped her Georgia career in 2016 by leading the Lady Bulldogs to their third NCAA title in four seasons.

In the 200-meter butterfly finals, Hali Flickinger of the United States came in seventh in 2:07.71. Like MacLean, Flickinger finished her Georgia career in 2016.

Competing for Canada, rising senior Chantal Van Landeghem came in 10th in the 100-meter freestyle. Van Landeghem reached the wall in 54.00.

NEW YORK | As flight cancelations and delays move into their fourth day, Delta Air Lines isn't providing details on a "small fire" Monday at its data center and whether that fire — or attempts to extinguish it — compounded the airline's troubles.

Delta's problems started early Monday morning when a piece of electrical component at its Atlanta headquarters failed, CEO Ed Bastian told The Associated Press on Wednesday. That led to a shutdown of the transformer providing power to the airline's data center. The system moved to backup power but not all of the servers were connected to that source, which caused the cascading problem.

But that initial failure also caused a fire. The airline is refusing to detail the extent of that fire — and the damage it caused.

"The equipment failure sparked a small fire. It was put out immediately and there was no need to call the fire department," Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said via email Thursday.

The airline would not say how the fire was extinguished or if the means of putting it out damaged any other electrical equipment or any of the computer servers.

Delta has canceled more than 2,100 flights so far this week, the most of them happening Monday and Tuesday. But Thursday morning still had some headaches for travelers, with FlightStats.com reporting at least 30 Delta flight cancelations and nearly 300 other delays. Some were due to the computer problems and others were due to bad weather, the airline said.

Bastian, on Wednesday, said that Delta knew it had to make technology upgrades "but we did not believe, by any means, that we had this type of vulnerability" regarding its flight operations and reservations systems.

Delta takes pride in having one of the best on-time records and rarely canceling flights. Bastian said this week's problems do not reflect his airline's long-time track record or what he foresees for the future.

"We're going to do everything we can to make certain it does not ever happen again," he said.

Redcoat Band history on display: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries, 300 North Hull Street, Athens.

The Lounge Gallery: Deepanjan Mukhopadyay: Noon to 9 p.m., Lyndon House Arts Center, 293 Hoyt St., Athens.

BFK Book Sale: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Homewood Village Shopping Center, 2405 Jefferson Road, Athens.

Museum Mile Tour: 10:30 a.m., Athens Welcome Center, 280 E. Dougherty St., Athens. Reservations are encouraged by calling (706) 208-8687. $20 per person.

Athens Heritage Tour: 1 p.m., Athens Welcome Center, 280 E. Dougherty St., Athens. Price: $15. (706) 208-8687.

Afternoon Beer Club: 4 to 9 p.m., Live Wire Athens, 227 W. Dougherty St., Athens. www.livewireathens.com.

Alcoholics Anonymous: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. (706) 389-4164 for location. athensaa.org.

Athens Brewery Tours: 5:30 to 9 p.m., Varsity, 1000 W. Broad St., Athens. The tour departs from the Varsity. $35. athensbrewerytours.com, (706) 548-6325.

Athens Popfest 2016: 7 p.m., Georgia Theatre, 215 N. Lumpkin Street, Athens. Popfest will feature over 50 artists performing over four days. $12-$48. (706) 850-7670, info@georgiatheatre.com, athenspopfest.com/.

Ought, His Name Is Alive, The Bastards of Fate: 7:45 p.m., Georgia Theatre, 215 N. Lumpkin St., Athens. $12-$48.

Jazz at Highwire: 8 p.m., Highwire Lounge, 269 North Hull St., Athens. highwirelounge.com.

The Odd Couple - Female Version: 8 to 10 p.m., Town & Gown Players, 115 Grady Ave., Athens. $15 for adults, $12 for members, seniors, and students.

The Colour Negative, Son & Thief, REVEL IN ROMANCE: 9 p.m. Friday, 40 Watt Club, 285 West Washington St., Athens. $5.

Athens Area Board Games Meetup: 10 p.m., Jittery Joe’s, 1880 Epps Bridge Parkway.

Breadfoot: 10 p.m., Lumpkin Street Station, 175 N Lumpkin St., Athens. $5.

Athens Showgirl Cabaret: 10:30 p.m., Little Kings Shuffle Club, 223 West Hancock Ave., Athens. $5. athensshowgirlcabaret.com.

For more events or to add an event to a future calendar, visit events.onlineathens.com.

A Statham woman remained in the Jackson County Jail on Thursday following her arrest Aug. 5 on numerous drug charges.

Sandra Denise Sims, 52, was arrested after Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies searched her home at 105 Thurmond Road, a single-family home located just north of Statham’s city limits.

“We have worked cases on her before and started receiving more information on the tip line about heavy traffic going in and out of the residence,” sheriff’s Capt. Rich Lott said.

Sims had a fourth-amendment waver which allowed deputies to enter her home without a warrant, but after entering and finding some evidence of a crime, officers obtained a search warrant, according to Lott.

Deputies found methamphetamine, marijuana and prescription narcotic drugs, he said, along with tools commonly used to distribute the drugs.

Some guns were also seized and none were reported stolen, but the serial numbers will be checked a second time, Lott said.

Among the seven felony charges filed against Sims are possession of meth with intent to distribute, possession of controlled drugs with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Sims’ bond is set at $45,000.

Two Hart County residents were charged Thursday with the murder of an elderly Lavonia mobile home park owner, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Rayfondia Nashon Craft, 45, of Hartwell and Kristen Odister, 30, of Bowersville are each charged with malice murder for the slaying of 82-year-old Samuel Verner Harbin, whose body was found Monday in his home.

The GBI reported that an autopsy showed Harbin died “by blunt force injury.”

Craft and Odister were arrested early Thursday in the Bowersville area.

The charge was filed after investigators conferred with Northern Circuit District Attorney Parks White, the GBI said.

More charges are possible, a spokesman for the GBI said.

Anyone with information concerning Craft or Odister and their connection to this crime are asked to contact the Hart County Sheriff’s Office at (706) 376-3114, the Lavonia Police Department at (706) 356-4848, or the GBI at 1-800-597-8477.

Commerce Police Chief Brandon Sellers turned in his resignation on Wednesday.

Sellers did not give a reason for resigning the job he held for about a year, but said he “appreciated the opportunities with the city,” Commerce City Manager James Wascher said Thursday.

Sellers will continue to work in the office until his official resignation day of Sept. 9, Wascher said.

“During that period I will work closely with him and some of his command staff to make a good transition plan while we advertise for a new chief,” Wascher said.

Wascher was not the city manager when Sellers was hired, but he said the city did receive more than 20 applications when the job previously came open following the retirement of Chief John Gaissert. Wascher was police chief for the city of Alma, when he was hired by Commerce.

Sellers took time off from his job after July 20 when Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies went to his home in Commerce in response to a domestic dispute, officials said.

“After the investigation, there were no charges filed,” Wascher said.

Deputies went to Sellers home in Commerce in response to a late night 911 call from his wife, who accused her husband of seeing another woman, which resulted in an argument, according to a Jackson County Sheriff’s report.

The dispute resulted in a pushing match before Sellers left the home prior to the officer’s arrival, deputies said. The wife had no visible injuries, the deputy reported. The wife also has a background in law enforcement, according to her LinkedIn page.

Wascher said that ideally the job will be filled in 60 to 90 days, but it depends on a number of factors including the responses to the job posting.

The Commerce News reported the job is expected to pay between $58,000 and $70,000.