Category Archives: FVCS

Lawsuit against school charter surrender

In Tennessee, supporters of education decided to fight a bogus consolidation attempt.

Lawrence Buser and Sherri Drake Silence wrote for the Memphis Commercial Appeal 12 February 2011, Shelby County Schools files suit over Memphis charter surrender: Complaint says city shirking duty to kids; rapid takeover ‘impossible’

Shelby County school leaders have taken their fight against consolidation to the courts, filing a federal lawsuit Friday alleging that the city school board’s “irrational” charter surrender deprives Memphis students of their constitutional rights.

In the lawsuit, suburban district leaders also blast the city of Memphis and the Memphis City Council for supporting “the (MCS) board’s unplanned and un-thoughtful effort to abandon its obligations to the children of Memphis.”

Hm, I wonder if there would be legal grounds for this around here?

-jsq

The end game is …. —Karen Noll

Received yesterday on “the qualified voters voting thereon in each separate school system proposed to be consolidated”. -jsq
Questions abound: Why is it that Lowndes County residents will not be voting on the most important issue to face their school system since its inception in 1950?

If I lived in the county I’d be mad that CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce chose to leave my vote out of such a very important decision.

Quick fact: Consolidation alone will not save money & Consolidation alone will not improve academic success, according to the Vinson Institute report commissioned by CUEE and the Chamber.

Further Query: Why would CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce spend $50 grand to collect the signatures for the petition causing the City of Valdosta to spend thousands of tax dollars (2 staff dedicated to task & 4 temps hired) to verify the signatures on the petition?

Continue reading →

A real education dialog @ LCDP 2 May 2011

The only real public dialog about unification or education that I’ve heard of was at the May 2011 Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting, organized by LCDP Chair Gretchen Quarterman. You can see it either of two ways:
  1. Through the LCDP 2 May 2011 LAKE blog topic, which has all the relevant posts, newest first.
  2. Through the YouTube video playlist. Each video has a link to the relevant blog post.


    School unification dialog at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP)
    Videos by John S. Quarterman, Jim Parker, Gretchen Quarterman, 2 May 2011.

At that LCDP meeting I pointed out that the CUEE education committee was not scheduled to report back until after the proposed referendum vote, and nobody had any rebuttal.

-jsq

“the qualified voters voting thereon in each separate school system proposed to be consolidated” —GA Constitution

Justia > US Law > Georgia Law > Georgia Constitution > Art. VIII EDUCATION

SECTION V.

LOCAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS

Paragraph I. School systems continued; consolidation of school systems authorized; new independent school systems prohibited. Authority is granted to county and area boards of education to establish and maintain public schools within their limits. Existing county and independent school systems shall be continued, except that the General Assembly may provide by law for the consolidation of two or more county school systems, independent school systems, portions thereof, or any combination thereof into a single county or area school system under the control and management of a county or area board of education, under such terms and conditions as the General Assembly may prescribe; but no such consolidation shall become effective until approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon in each separate school system proposed to be consolidated. No independent school system shall hereafter be established.

dialogue on consolidation was a forbidden zone —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Videos of CUEE’s idea of a “public dialog”. -jsq
In their minds every name signed as attending is part of their consensus, which is why I never sign in. It is also why they keep trying to say Sam Allen is for consolidation even though he chairs the group against consolidation.
I went to the June & July CUEE meetings just to see what they were doing & to dialogue about consolidation. At both meetings dialogue on consolidation was a forbidden zone. I keep telling you their game plan is textbook UN Agenda 21. Debate is not allowed. They manipulate everything to create what they misname “consensus” which means per their numbers & statistics everyone who does not speak out against their agenda is for their aganda including anyone who never shows up at all. In their minds every name signed as attending is part of their consensus, which is why I never sign in. It is also why they keep trying to say Sam Allen is for consolidation even though he chairs the group against consolidation. They made sure they got photos of him at the July meeting to further their consensus game.

If you live in the city or the county & you want to hear real dialogue about consolidation

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Three things to actually improve education —John S. Quarterman

People ask me why I oppose CUEE. It’s because I’d rather actually improve education instead.

It seems to me the burden of proof is on the people proposing to make massive changes in the local education system. And CUEE has not provided any evidence for their position. Sam Allen of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) pithily sums up CUEE:

“It’s not about the children. It’s about somebody’s ego.”
I don’t think the children should have to suffer for somebody’s ego.

CUEE’s unification push isn’t about education. It’s about a “unified platform” to attract industry. That alone is enough reason to oppose “unification”. It’s not about education!

As former Industrial Authority Chair Jerome Tucker has been heard to remark on numerous occassions, “nobody ever asked me how many school systems we had!” The only example in Georgia CUEE points to for this is the Kia plant that came to Troup County, Georgia. It’s funny how none of the locals seem to have mentioned any such connection in the numerous articles published about the Kia plant. Instead, the mayor of the town with the Kia plant complains that his town doesn’t have a high school. That’s right: he’s complaining that the school system is too consolidated! The only actual education between Kia and education in Troup County is with West Georgia Tech, the local technical college.

CUEE has finally cobbled together an education committee, but it won’t even report back before the proposed ballot referendum vote. CUEE has no plan to improve education.

If CUEE actually did want to help the disadvantaged in the Valdosta City schools, Continue reading →

“It’s not about the children. It’s about somebody’s ego.” —Sam Allen, FVCS, 7 July 2011

Sam Allen asked in various ways:
“What about the children?”
He made it clear he doesn’t think school consolidation will help the children, and it will definitely hurt current Valdosta teachers and staff, so he says don’t do it.

Continuing the FVCS press conference, Sam Allen asked some good questions,

“If the school system was good enough for them, why isn’t it good enough for us?”
and
“If there’s not going to be any change, why are we doing it?”

Here’s Part 1 of 9: Continue reading →

Tinkering with number of schools doesn’t improve education —John S. Quarterman

While I agree with most of Karen Noll’s post, especially the part about CUEE should come clean about why it’s spending so much money on something about which it knows little, I don’t agree that consolidating high schools would help.

I remember when Lowndes County consolidated two high schools into one, and the rationale was cost saving and more resources for science classes. What it was really about was football. And it worked: Lowndes High School now often wins the state championship, and Valdosta hasn’t in a decade. While education lags behind.

I think the Lowndes County Board of Education is doing the right Continue reading →

Why is CUEE so interested? —Karen Noll

Received today on We’re here to save our schools. -jsq
To date CUEE has lead the discussion and they have no role in making the solutions happen if consolidation should go through. CUEE consists of folks very minimally involved in the city schools at this time. Why is this group so ‘interested in Valdosta City Schools’? Until this issue is clarified CUEE’s motives will forever be questioned.

At the same time, if this issue is on the ballot we (parents, teachers, BOEs…)must begin the true discussion of facts and become informed on the issue that we may be called to vote on in November. So, here we are.

CUEE has spent thousands (more than 100 grand) to get this Continue reading →

We’re here to save our schools —Sam Allen, FVCS, 7 July 2011

Sam Allen, former chair of the Valdosta school board and head of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) held a press conference to announce opposition after CUEE announced 9,000 petitions for a referendum to combine the Valdosta and Lowndes County school systems.. Why so late with the opposition?

Sam Allen explained:

“We were scared. We were intimidated because we had heard about all these consultants coming down, and all these studies being done. So we just thought that we would just sit back and watch and this thing would eventually go away like a bad dream. But folks I want you to know it’s not going away like a bad dream. It’s becoming a nightmare.

Now we stand before you with one purpose in mind: do not sign any petitions. … If it comes to a vote, we want you to vote no.”

Guess they’re not scared any more.

He added: Continue reading →