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County commissioners approve map to create ‘suburban neighborhoods’ in SE Bulloch
Corridors targeted for water, sewer and R-8 zoning
Florie Consolati, left, who has a master’s degree and experience in watershed science, expresses her concerns to the Bulloch County commissioners Tuesday, June 6, about the new “suburban neighborhood” development area’s inclusion of a large percentage of wetlands in the Black Creek watershed. Another citizen, at right, holds a copy of the Future Development Map with the area marked in yellow at the bottom of the county.
- photo by AL HACKLE/Staff
AL HACKLE/Staff
Updated: Jun 10, 2023, 1:30 AM
Published: Jun 10, 2023, 1:26 AM
The Bulloch County Board of Commissioners this week unanimously approved an amendment to Smart Bulloch 2040 Comprehensive Plan and its Future Development Map that stakes out a big new “suburban neighborhood” character area in the southeastern portion of the county.
Erin Shen and Richard McCombs named Bulloch’s STAR student and STAR teacher
Student and teacher pairs from 5 high schools honored before top award goes to Statesboro High’s 2 STARs
Statesboro High School STAR student Erin Shen, center left, and her chosen STAR teacher Richard McCombs turn toward each other with smiles upon being announced as the Bulloch County STARs. Erin's sister Evy was the county's 2022 STAR student. McCombs has been selected to at least the school honor four times.
- photo by AL HACKLE/Staff
AL HACKLE/Staff
Statesboro Herald
Updated: Feb 13, 2025, 3:27 AM
Published: Feb 13, 2025, 2:22 AM
Erin Shen, Bulloch County’s 2025 STAR student, took part in an international climate leadership and exchange program and launched a student organization at Statesboro High School that she will leave for her selected STAR teacher, Richard McCombs, to carry on as faculty advisor.
That is, when Shen graduates in May and leaves by fall for Stanford University in California, where she plans to study international relations and computer science.
Already Statesboro High’s STAR student for her highest-in-school score of 1530 at a single sitting of the SAT college admissions test and top-10 grade-point average, she was named the countywide STAR student Wednesday during the annual Student Teacher Achievement Recognition luncheon. Students chosen on the basis of their SAT scores and grades choose the teachers they believe have been most influential in their success.
Honored lineup, left to right, Bulloch Academy STAR student Dane Wyles, Portal Middle High STAR student Riley Bolton and STAR teacher Brantley Spence, Trinity Christian STAR student Skylar McGibony and Star teacher Donna McKenna, Statesboro High's Erin Shen and Richard McCombs, and Southeast Bulloch High's STAR student Matilda Erney and STAR teacher Robin Norton receive a round of applause during the Feb. 12 awards luncheon.
- photo by AL HACKLE/Staff
With Bulloch County’s three public high schools and two of the private high schools as participants, the Bulloch County Schools district serves as organizing agency for the local STAR program, and the Rotary Club of Statesboro and the Bulloch County Foundation for Public Education are luncheon sponsors.
This year’s county event – during which school-level STAR students from Bulloch Academy, Portal Middle High School, Trinity Christian School, Southeast Bulloch High School and Statesboro High were first recognized and honored – was held in the community service room at the Ag South Farm Credit corporate headquarters.
All five STAR pairs were called to the front by Hayley Greene, the Bulloch County Schools public relations director, who served as emcee.
Bulloch Academy STARs
Bulloch Academy STAR student Dane Wyles plans to attend Mercer University and major in mechanical engineering.
Wyles chose Beth Burke, his 12th-grade math teacher, as his STAR teacher. Burke was away and unable to attend this week’s luncheon. Like at least two of the other school-level STAR teachers this year, she is a repeat STAR selection. An apparent favorite of high-achieving students, Burke has been a STAR teacher six times now.
Portal High STARs
Riley Bolton, Portal Middle High School STAR student for 2025, plans to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech, that is) and hopes to pursue a master’s degree in aerospace engineering.
He chose his seventh-grade science teacher, Brantley Spence, as his and Portal Middle High’s STAR teacher.
Trinity Christian STARs
Skylar McGibony, Trinity Christian School’s STAR student, has been accepted to seven colleges during the early action period for scholarships, including the University of Alabama, Ole Miss and the College of Charleston, Greene reported in the event program.
McGibony chose her 12th-grade honors chemistry teacher, Donna McKenna, as her STAR teacher. This is the sixth time that McKenna has been selected as a STAR teacher, and this time it occurred after she retired but returned to teach a single class.
Southeast Bulloch STARs
Matilda Erney, Southeast Bulloch High School’s STAR student, plans to attend Georgia College & State University and major in English with a literature concentration, and would likely add an art, history, theater or psychology major or minor, Greene reported. Erney is interested in becoming a professor or a museum curator.
Herself a potential educator, Erney chose her 11th-grade chemistry and physics teacher, Robin Norton, as her STAR teacher.
Statesboro High STARs
Erin Shen, 18, is the youngest daughter Junan Shen, Ph.D., a civil engineering and construction professor at Georgia Southern, and Min Zhu, devoted mother to Erin and her sisters. If these names sound familiar in the context of these awards, that’s because Erin’s sister Evy Shen was Bulloch County’s 2022 STAR student.
Evy is also at Stanford University, and their older sister, Julie, also lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area, so the three sisters will be in proximity when Erin arrives at prestigious Stanford.
If Erin’s choice of McCombs as STAR teacher also sounds familiar, it’s because this is the fourth time he has been chosen. He has been the county-level STAR teacher three times, including once when he and the student who chose him advanced to be Region 8 winners. McCombs is also a five-time Teacher of the Year.
“These kids are amazing, and they all are in their own special way, but they come to me already prepared by elementary school teachers, middle school teachers and some high school teachers, and I just get the privilege of working with them and pushing them to another level,” McCombs said Wednesday.
Since he already knew the family, Erin approached him to work with her in the international climate leadership and exchange Young Eco-Stars Program, or YES-P. Coordinated by the U.S. Department of State, it brought students from Indonesia, Nigeria and the United States together in a five-week virtual training program with international speakers to cover topics from environmental science to climate strategies.
The U.S. students were from the Statesboro area.
“We were able to do field trips or small discussions, but they were able over the summer to meet with professors from around the world to work on environmental issues,” said McCombs.
Coverage of the STAR event will be expanded with more information and comments in the Friday e-Edition and next week’s print edition of the Statesboro Herald.