Make the Industrial Authority be accounted —Tony Daniels at MLK Occupy Valdosta
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.
Mario Bartoletti stood up at the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument in Valdosta and said to Occupy Valdosta:
I’m just shy of 79
and I’ve been out here marching all the way today,
and I’ll tell you why.
When I was your age, we were marching for civil rights.
We made it.
Now we’re marching for another kind of rights,
and I guarantee we’re going to make it!
I want you to promise, when you’re my age,
you’re going to be leading a demonstration
for those who march for those kinds of rights.
Marching for rights —Mario Bartoletti @ MLK Monument Occupy Valdosta
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.
Tony Daniels and Freddie Richardson carry the Occupy Valdosta banner
They marched more than
three miles from Drexel Park to Bank of America, where they noted
BoA got bailed out and we got left out and recommended withdrawing
your money.
Then to MLK Park, where many people spoke on a variety of subjects
ranging from stand together, to make the Industrial Authority be accounted,
to vote No on School Consolidation on November 8th,
to if MLK was alive he would be here today,
to marching for rights for a lifetime,
to no private prison,
to tax the rich,
and and of course
come back here (MLK Park) tomorrow (Sat 15 Oct) at 11AM!
Then to the VDT (where the Assistant Managing Editor was surprised by a cheer) and the Chamber (where the President didn’t care for a thesaurus lesson); more on all those stops later.
Marching to Occupy Valdosta, 14 October 2011:
Drexel Park, Bank of America, MLK Park, VDT, Chamber of Commerce.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Videos are still uploading, so check back later.
I’ll also blog more about specific events along the way.
The latest Lowndes County Lunch and Learn
was yesterday, with County Clerk Paige Dukes
answering the top 50 questions the county receives.
Code Red! Road paving! Tax Assessment! CHIP grants!
Some of these things affect all of you, and many of them could help you specifically.
Gretchen was there and videoed most of it, as well as asking some followup questions.
Among other surprising answers was that the new Commission districts
as shown on the maps on the county website have still not been approved by the Department of Justice.
All of the Commissioners and several of the staff travelled to Atlanta
a few weeks ago to tweak the lines.
Paige assured us that tweaking would be completed in time for next year’s Commission elections.
Mayor Sonny Vickers said he thought it was important for children
and grandchildren and proper for the City Council to take a stand
against school consolidation, and City Manager Larry Hanson read
the statement (transcript appended).
For:
James Wright
District 1
Hoke Hampton
District 3
Alvin Payton
District 4
Ben Norton
At Large
Didn’t Have to Vote:
Sonny Vickers
Mayor
Against:
Robert Yost
District 6
Tim Carroll
District 5
Missing:
Deidra White
District 2
After very brief discussion, the vote was 4 for
(James Wright of District 1, Hoke Hampton of District 3,
Alvin Payton of District 4, and Ben Norton At Large)
and 2 against
(Robert Yost of District 6 and Tim Carroll of District 5).
Valdosta City Council voted to oppose school consolidationo
education, consolidation, resolution,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Here’s the statement transcribed as accurately as I could from the video:
Continue reading →
Current LCBOE member Fred Wetherington said he was on the Chamber of
Commerce Board and is still a member.
Remembering how consolidation started at the Chamber:
The whole idea was could it help us with economic development in our community.
At the same time could we increase student achievement.
And could we save the taxpayers money.
Well, I’m here to tell you tonight that I was one of the board members…
that if that theory and those ideas had held up after research and study,
I would be supporting this idea.
But he doesn’t. Because that theory and those ideas did not hold up.
Current Lowndes County Board of Education (LCBOE) member
Philip Poole said various members of both school boards have met
with consolidation proponents, and had asked them to involve the
whole community in any decisions.
Since that didn’t happen, there’s been less involvement lately.
And the referendum is solely about dissolving the Valdosta School System,
which would trigger the Lowndes system having to take over.
Which would result in losing federal and state funding due to
the resulting school system being larger.
Referendum is to dissolve Valdosta School District —Philip Poole @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011
Why we oppose consolidation,
Community Forum, Lowndes County Board of Education (LCBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Dan Davis suggested letting professional educators deal with education
and let the Chamber attend cocktail parties.
That got a big round of applause.
First he established his credentials in business and education:
20 year veteran of CPIE and of the Chamber of Commerce;
has businesses in many countries, but chooses to live here.
Having seen the world and many educational systems,
he thinks:
This consolidation is really a bad issue; very very bad.
Dr. Troy Davis spelled out where we are financially in the school systems,
and what consolidation would do to that: it would raise taxes and reduce services.
He took CUEE’s own figures for how much more consolidation would require
to be spent per each Valdosta City school student, and demonstrated that
not only would that require raising taxes for both Valdosta and Lowndes
County residents to near the state-capped maximum of 21 mils, but even
then there is no way enough tax revenue would be generated to pay for all
the things CUEE proposes to do after consolidation, and probably not even
enough taxes to continue employing all the teachers currently employed
by the two school systems. Oh, plus consolidation would lose state and
federal grant money by increasing the composite school system size, so the
local taxpayers would have to make up that slack, too.
Lowndes Superintendent Steve Smith explained what the Forum was about:
To support the Valdosta school system, which is fighting for its very existence.
If Lowndes School system did not support them, that would be
misinterpreted as being against them.
To provide you with the truth about consolidation.
Telling the truth —Supt. Steve Smith @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011 Part 1 of 3:
Why we oppose consolidation,
Community Forum, Lowndes County Board of Education (LCBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
He pointed out
consolidation would raise taxes,
would reduce school services,
and would not address the basic issue facing local education,
which is poverty.
Tony Daniels called for accountability at the MLK monument:
