Category Archives: CUEE

The Real Truth About School Consolidation by Supt. Smith to Lowndes County Schools

Received today. -jsq
Sent: Tue, October 25, 2011 7:55:07 AM
Subject: Letter to the Staff
Friends,
Attached is a copy a document that was sent to all Lowndes County teachers and staff from Dr. Steve Smith.
Thanks,
Sam Allen
Samuel Allen, Superintendent Emeritus [Valdosta City Schools]
The letter is on the LAKE website. Here are a few excerpts:
REAL TRUTH: Continuing all of the current programs the Valdosta City School System and the Lowndes County School System have would require a millage rate of approximately 24 mills. Considering state law limits us to 21 mills, some programs will be eliminated. The decision to eliminate such programs will be recommended by the Lowndes County Superintendent, subject to final approval by the Lowndes County Board of Education. There will be winners and losers in consolidation and several current successful programs will likely have to go.
Continue reading →

At the door of the most educational meeting —Karen Noll

Received today on A most educational meeting. -jsq
Thank you, John for that accurate description of the most bizarre meeting that I have ever attended.


Karen Noll and Dean Poling at the door
As I was not invited I remained at the door. Dean Polling came to the door 10 minutes late because he’d been roaming around Rainwater conference center with a few other folks before he found out the meeting was located here. This meeting was held on the date that the CUEE had given when it would unveil its education plan. So many assumed it would be at the conference center and open to the public.(LOL)

The plan put together by the unnamed education task force a sub committee of cuee pushed Levy into having it at VSU, when VSU has clearly stated they are taking NO side!! So CUEE’s educational plan was presented before the vote has been taken to an invited group at a public institution that is staying out of the whole stinking affair. This is all to strange to not ask why and who is behind this mess?

At the end when I told Myrna Ballard about the location

Continue reading →

Count the Vote No Marchers

Some said 200, others 250, others 300, for how many marchers following this banner Friday:

Here is the entire march southbound crossing the tracks.

Here’s Video 1 of 3: Continue reading →

There’s a mousetrap in the house –Rev. Floyd Rose @ Vote No for Consolidation March 22 October 2011

Rev. Floyd Rose, president of the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), spoke against school consolidation yesterday at the Valdosta to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who founded SCLC.

Here’s the video:


There’s a mousetrap in the house –Rev. Floyd Rose @ Vote No for Consolidation March 22 October 2011
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

CUEE you have done what you tried to do —Sam Allen

Sam Allen summed it up before the march:
CUEE you have done what you tried to do.
You have brought us together.
United we stand.

Here’s the video:


CUEE you have done what you tried to do —Sam Allen
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Although maybe this isn’t exactly what CUEE wanted FVCS, SCLC, NAACP, both school boards, the Valdosta City Council, etc. united about:

What are we gonna do?
Vote!
How we gonna vote?
No!

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

He who has the gold rules —Mike Hill

Finally, some truth from the Chamber! “Unification” has nothing to do with education, and everything to do with “He who has the gold rules.” Not any Realtors’ fault of course, “The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel and hits the gas.” So they’d rather destroy public education through a proven failed “unification” than deal with their claimed perception problem. -jsq

‘No’ Vote May Hit You Where You Live

By Mike Hill
Valdosta resident
Realtor

I’m not qualified to talk about the quality of school systems in Valdosta or Lowndes County, probably a rare admission these days. I am qualified to talk about the damage done to Valdosta residential real estate by the perception that one system is better than the other. It ain’t pretty and it’s getting worse.

I’ve been a Realtor since 1976, when newcomers couldn’t house hunt until they rolled in with the kids, dogs and all the furniture looking for yard signs and a local newspaper, which led them to agents and property managers, who then sold or rented them a home. Boy, has that changed!

I’ve got friends teaching or retired from both city and county systems who tell me that a good education is available from either system for students who want one. But newcomers concerned about their children’s education have consistently been getting a different message long before they ever see a “sale” or “rent” sign here.

Unlike even 10 years ago, Internet magic now allows newcomers to arrive armed with all the statistical knowledge our two school boards provide, plus state and federal statistics. And right or wrong, the perception those statistics create that one system is better or worse than the other travels like gossip between anybody anywhere in the world with an Internet connection who has or can create the slightest link to anybody in Valdosta/Lowndes County with one.

How do I know this? Because families walking into my real estate office to buy or rent “in the county school district” who have never been here before has been consistently increasing for years. Newcomers concerned about their children’s education will sacrifice a garage or fenced yard from the “wish list” for their new home, plus make higher payments, for a county location. It irks me that retired city school superintendent Sam Allen has publicly accused Realtors of adding to a problem that started well before he retired from the city school system. Realtors, he has publicly stated, avoid showing houses for sale in city school districts.

Space isn’t available to address the absurdity of that statement, except to quote the other side of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold rules.” The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel and hits the gas. The client started driving the car the minute he got into the passenger seat with his checkbook and knew where he wanted to go before he and his family came to town. Accurate or not, perceptions about differences in our split school system exist, with serious consequences in several different directions that aren’t going away. Industries may avoid us, for instance, and we’ll never know how many jobs we lost. In real estate, “perception” makes the value of a house on the city side of a street worth less than an identical house on the county side of the street.

Neither of those things are good and without change, it’s not going to get any better, either.

The Chamber hasn’t spent any money on a consolidation campaign? What’s this, then?

Etta Mims reports that Myrna Ballard told her on the telephone Thursday a week ago that the Chamber hasn’t invested any money in the school consolidation campaign. Myrna did admit that she spent some of her time and some time of one staff member. Etta asked Myrna was not time money? At that point Myrna stated Etta had hurt her feelings, and she was going to get off the phone.

Etta wonders why, then, do we find the glossy advertisement you see on the right here at http:// www. chamberorganizer .com/ valdostachamber /docs/ October 2 News Ad Get the FACTS.pdf, when www. chamberorganizer .com/ valdostachamber looks like one usual place the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce puts web materials it funds?

We already knew Myrna Ballard advised Rusty Griffin about that notorious fake-Morgan-Freeman radio ad.

I wonder, if the Chamber didn’t pay for that new ad, who did? Ditto for the radio ad. And who did Rusty Griffin have to get to sign off on it?

Also, I’m still looking forward to hearing any “FACTS” from the Chamber. So far every alleged “FACT” from CUEE or the Chamber about “unification” or consolidation has been readily disproved, and David Mullis has compiled the real facts.

-jsq

Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator

The VSU Spectator posted the most detailed traditional news media report of Occupy Valdosta, along with an excellently edited video. Desiree Thompson wrote 20 October 2011, Occupy movement inspires Valdosta,
According to Occupy Valdosta’s mission statement, the group exercises their right to “peacefully assemble, to nonviolently occupy public space, to create an open process to address the problems they face, and to generate solutions accessible to everyone.”

In an attempt to raise revenue, Bank of America Corp. plans to charge customers at the beginning of next year with a $5 fee every month they use their debit cards outside of withdrawing from the Bank of America ATM.

Protestors demanded an answer from the bank downtown, but employees refused to comment.

Here’s the Spectator video:


Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator
We are the 99%,
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, Occupy Valdosta,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Extensive quotes from students: Continue reading →

A most educational meeting: VSU, Wiregrass Tech, CUEE, FVCS, et al.

Only Lemony Snicket could do justice to the peculiarity of last night’s most educational meeting at VSU’s Continuing Education building, about K-12 education even though neither school superintendent was there, most of the school board members were not present, and it was presided over by two very uneasy college presidents.

Who called it was unclear, who was invited even less, for what purpose there was no consensus, yet there was a decision by the pair of presiding college presidents. It was somehow about the general state of education in Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia, although the topic of consolidation was discussed only by the frequent admonitions that it was not to be discussed, and for that matter that nothing else related to educational improvements should be discussed until after the November 8th consolidation referendum. Both school system superintendents were elsewhere at a conference of school superintendents. A few Valdosta City School Board members were in attendance, although none of them said anything. I didn’t recognize any Lowndes County School Board members. There were no introductions to the group, other than self-introductions by the two college presidents. Maybe you can identify some of the attendees.


CUEE Vice-Chair Rusty Griffin near left, Chamber President Myrna Ballard far right, VBOE Member Jeana Beeland and CUEE Board Member Tom Kurrie near corner of the tables, SCLC President Rev. Floyd Rose to Kurrie’s right. FVCS President Sam Allen is near the far end of the left side of the table. CUEE Board Member Walter Hobgood is near the far end of the right side of the table.

There was no agenda. There was a document to be presented, but it was not handed out to the attendees, and the principal presider, VSU interim president Dr. Louis Levy, refused Continue reading →

Why CUEE turned shy

So why did the list of community supporters disappear from CUEE’s website? After a most educational meeting this evening so peculiar only Lemony Snicket could really write it up properly (more on that later), I found the answer to that question.

First I asked Lee Henderson, who was on that list. He admitted he knew, but he wouldn’t say. He suggested I talk to CUEE.

Tom Kurrie walked up at that point, and I asked Henderson if Kurrie was CUEE. Henderson said I would know that better than he would, which caused me to refer to Black Crow’s Mr. Henderson as very modest and humble.

Tom Kurrie remarked that he always saw me with a camera, and at a previous event I’d asked him what was in unification for him. He reminded me he’d answered there was nothing in it for him, and I observed that was a good answer. Anyway, I asked CUEE Board Member Mr. Thompson Kurrie, Jr. what went with the list of supporters. He allowed as how he didn’t really visit the web site very often, since he wasn’t good with computers.

So I asked who would know? He said that fellow over there at the table with the sign-in sheet, Daniel Storey. Continue reading →