Here’s a
video playlist
for the whole meeting: teacher hiring, board member training,
and a statement against school consolidation, with additional
comments by many citizens.
Many of these videos have already been published in the
VBOE 29 August 2011 category in this blog.
Videos of entire VBOE 29 August 2011 meeting
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
The playlist also includes other video material,
such as
Continue reading →
The first Public Forum presented by Valdosta City Schools on
the subject of School Consolidation is tonight at
Valdosta High School’s Performing Arts Center (PAC), 7PM to 8:30 PM.
That’s after the Valdosta City Council meeting,
so you can even go to both.
This is the clearest statement of the football argument I’ve heard.
This is the same speaker who already mentioned
quality of education, property taxes, and property values,
so this is just one argument among many.
The speaker is associated with FVCS, and if I went to VHS,
I’d know his name right away; I’m an LHS graduate.
The first thing they’ll do is sell that stadium.
They’d be crazy not to do….
They’re not going to pay upkeep on two stadiums.
Look at Tallahassee, Macon: all the schools play at one stadium….
…
Don’t let those people run the show.
Don’t let them take the power away from us.
…
If one day it makes good economic sense for y’all to
make the decision to sell that property to Valdosta State
and build another stadium and we can come out ahead,
I think that’s a great idea.
Like my granddaddy said, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
By “those people” I don’t think he means the Lowndes County Board
of Education; I think he was referring to CUEE.
Research quality of education, property taxes, and property values
after school consolidation, and you’ll find down, up, and down,
said this speaker.
Didn’t get his name; sorry.
I don’t have kids, but I have plenty of friends that do.
that are in Valdosta city school system,
and they like the direction that the school system is going.
They like the quality of education that their children are getting at this time.
My grandfather used to say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
It ain’t broke, so why are we going to let them try to fix it?
Do the research; I’ve done the research.
Do the research on other communities that have consolidated two systems.
When you get a big huge system, the quality of education goes down.
Check it out. Research it.
Property taxes go up.
Property values go down.
Do the research.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it @ VBOE 29 August 2011
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Classrooms are festooned with college pennants. Hallway placards proclaim:
“No Excuses!” Students win prizes for attendance. They start classes
earlier and end later than their neighbors; some return to school on
Saturdays. And they get to pore over math problems one-on-one with newly
hired tutors, many of them former accountants and engineers.
If these new mores at Lee High School, long one of Houston’s most
troubled campuses, make it seem like one of those intense charter schools,
that is no accident.
In the first experiment of its kind in the country, the Houston
public schools are testing whether techniques proven successful in
high-performing urban charters can also help raise achievement in regular
public schools. Working with Roland G. Fryer, a researcher at Harvard who
studies the racial achievement gap, Houston officials last year embraced
five key tenets of such charters at nine district secondary schools;
this fall, they are expanding the program to 11 elementary schools. A
similar effort is beginning in Denver.
Charter schools were supposed to be pilot projects, so why not
adopt what works there in public schools?
However, this still seems to be all about test scores.
Maybe some public schools could look farther afield,
Continue reading →
If TV cameras show up for football, why don’t they show up
“when the people come together on issues such as this,
not just black folk, not just white folk, but all Americans
are here tonight because of our concern”?
The school consolidation referendum is already having ill effects more than
two months before anybody gets to vote on it.
The Valdosta School Board has had to postpone further work planning
for a new elementary school.
However, since the referendum for consolidation made the ballot,
it would be impossible for us to sell bonds at this time.
because who would buy them, knowing the selling school board
might not exist come this November?
Or, if the consolidation referendum passes, for some unknown time
after that?
So the board decided to postpone even selecting an architect
until the consolidation question is resolved.
“It would be impossible for us to sell bonds at this time” —Dr. Cason @ VBOE 29 August 2011
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
After dancing around the issue and muttering about “ugly turns”,
the VDT finally gets to the point in its
editorial of today:
We still believe in school unification, but we can no longer support
the current effort.
For the past several weeks, readers have asked us how unification
would work. Would it change millage rates? Would students be bussed
cross-county? Who would lose or keep their jobs? When would Valdosta
City Schools dissolve its charter and the Lowndes County School System
take over? What are the estimates on cost savings? Would it be more
efficient? What happens Nov. 9, the day after the election?
We’ve asked these questions, too. No one can answer them.
The organization that worked to place the issue on the ballot has not
offered satisfactory answers. Community Unification for Educational
Excellence has admirably spent time proposing ways to increase academic
performance if the systems are unified. But CUEE has yet to present a
recommended plan for how the merger would work.
If the referendum passes, the school boards will decide how unification
would proceed. And both school boards are opposed to unification.
It is this prevailing sense of the unknown that has spurred The Times
to oppose the Nov. 8 referendum.
There are too many unanswered questions. There are too many uncertainties
at this point. There has to be a better way to present this to the voters.
A vote for unification in this climate is a vote for chaos.
Anyone attending the CUEE meeting expecting a plan for how unification of
the city and county school systems would work left disappointed. Instead
of discussing how the school systems might merge if CUEE’s campaign to
dissolve the Valdosta school charter succeeds during the Nov. 8 election
referendum, the Education Planning Task Force focused on its primary
objective: improving academics for area students.
So they have no plan, and of course they also have no control over academics.
If “unification” passes, that control would lie with
Continue reading →
A few people qualified on the last day. They’re marked ! below,
in this latest information from
Deb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections;
* indicates incumbent.
-jsq
Valdosta
Mayor
Brooks D. Bivins !
John Gayle
Gary Minchew
At Large
Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton *
Council 1
James R. Wright *
Council 3
Joseph Sonny Vickers *
Council 5
Tim Carroll*
Hahira
Council 2
Bruce Cain *
Council 3
Ralph Clendenin *
Sherry Parham Brown
Dasher
Post 2 special election
Donald J. Bryan
James (Jim) Dew !
Becky Rogers
(was held by Rodney Lieupo)
Post 3
Albert Hall !
Edwin R. Smith *
Post 4
Anita Armstrong *
Lake Park
Mayor
Walker Keith Sandlin *
City Council At Large (Vote for 4)
Eric Schindler *
Ronald Carter *
Paul Mulkey *
Cathi Brown !
Russell Lane !
Sandy Sherrill !
Special election
voting now
Cathy Brown
Sandy Sherrill
Whoever wins will also have to run again in November.
Remerton
Mayor
Cornelius Holsendolph *!
City Council At Large (Vote for 5)
Alexander Abell !
Sam P. Flemming, Jr. !
Steven Koffler !
Jasen L. Tatum *
Bill Wetherington *
Here’s a
video playlist
for the whole meeting: teacher hiring, board member training,
and a statement against school consolidation, with additional
comments by many citizens.
Many of these videos have already been published in the
VBOE 29 August 2011 category in this blog.
