Valdosta and Lowndes County are not the only places with sunshine
in south Georgia, and Albany and Dougherty County are perhaps
already more organized.
MAGE SOLAR, looking for both customers and installers, is hosting a
program at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Albany Civic Center.
Susanne Fischer Quinn, communications manager for MAGE SOLAR, said there
are just 13 certified installers of solar panels in Georgia.
The opportunity for growth in this area is tremendous, she said.
Tuesday’s program will open with remarks by Jeff Sinyard, chairman
of the Dougherty County Commission, and Albany City Commissioner Roger
Marietta
Then, a panel of representatives from MAGE, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the University of Georgia will present information about
solar power in Georgia.
We already did a smaller version of this, but what have we done since?
Continue reading →
The Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber is positioning Metro Valdosta as Opportunity
Central with opportunities for business to grow and thrive, career
opportunities for well-educated young professionals and opportunities
for cultural interests and active lifestyles.
We have complaints that some people couldn’t understand
what Dr. Mark George was saying in
the previous post of his remarks at Monday’s Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting,
so here’s another version from a different camera.
Feedback, please.
He said the Chamber of Commerce said schools were not its issue.
Dr. George pointed out that it was the Chamber and the
real estate industry that largely produced the current situation
by funelling people to the county schools.
He said the unification project started with a request from
the Industrial Authority, who said it didn’t look good when
potential industry saw there was a black school system and
a white school system.
(The timing of this is interesting, because it comes after
Brad Lofton was hired as VLCIA Executive Director,
and other people formerly associated with VLCIA say they
were never asked by any potential industry how many school
systems we have.)
Dr. George discussed many other interesting points, such as CUEE’s
terminology drift from consolidation to integration to unification.
Camera 2: Dr. Mark George about CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011 Part 1 of 2:
Debate between proponents of school system unification (CUEE) and opponents,
at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), Gretchen Quarterman chair,
Videos by George Rhynes, Jim Parker, John S. Quarterman, and Gretchen Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2011.
In this second video from camera 2,
Dr. George noted
that the Valdosta school system is internally segregated.
He said both he and Rev. Rose asked to have somebody put
on the CUEE council, and that that didn’t happen.
There’s more; you can watch it for yourself.
Here’s
Part 2 of 2:
Camera 2: Dr. Mark George about CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011 Part 2 of 2:
Debate between proponents of school system unification (CUEE) and opponents,
at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), Gretchen Quarterman chair,
Videos by George Rhynes, Jim Parker, John S. Quarterman, and Gretchen Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2011.
I can describe some reasons our members oppose unification.
We believe VBOE has discriminated against black students with
alternative school referrals.
We believe VBOE has discriminated against black teachers in hiring,
firing, promotions and demotions. I can’t describe the details of personal
cases, but last year when the RIF directive came down, nearly 60% of
those fired were black, and black professionals only represent 20-25%
of the employees.
The VBOE system is over 70% black students, yet the black students
are not given equal opportunities to achieve. I can describe issues
we brought to the Department of Justice, as well as issues about the
Alternative school, and a very serious issue about how the Alternative
school was given a different school code, which we believe was a ploy to
artificially inflate the test scores at the students’ home schools. We
have evidence that we gave to the DOJ that students were sent to PLC
based on minor infractions.
Many of our members went through the consolidation in the sixties and
don’t want to see their children put into a situation where they will be
even more of a minority. Our children are in the majority at Valdosta
City Schools, but yet we still fight serious issues of discrimination
and inequality in education.
Many of us attended the CUEE education session at Serenity Church,
and did not hear anything that changed our minds.
Many of us distrust an “education” initiative brought forth from
the Chamber of Commerce. Our branch is a member of the Chamber, and we
support Chamber events and some policies, but we don’t support this
one. I can’t remember a time when “business” thought it knew what
was best for education except when school privatization was going on,
and the studies indicated that there was no benefit to that direction
insofar as student achievement.
Mr. Parris and Mr. Rowell, come to some of our branch meetings and we’ll
be glad to talk to you about it, so you can hear directly from us, I
am unable to completely explain the many different opinions that were
presented at the branch meeting when this came up for a vote. Also,
a former teacher named Dr. Marilyn McCluskey has written about many of
the issues we were involved in, and these descriptions can be found at
her blog TheNakedTruth4U.
-Leigh Touchton
Note it was
Alex Jones
who commented on this blog today; I’m pretty sure Alex Rowell has
a different opinion.
This is interesting; it’s apparently the same map you can get on paper from the Chamber of Commerce, online with zoom and pan of both sides.
If you select directions, it sends you to google maps.
MAGE SOLAR, looking for both customers and installers, is hosting a program at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Albany Civic Center.
