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 →
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.
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.
CUEE has lost its framing. Nobody calls it “unification” but CUEE.
Everybody else calls it consolidation, same as for the last thirty years.
And Sam Allen is turning the tide against it.
Sam Allen, president of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS)
and former Valdosta School Superintendent said:
I promised myself three years ago when I left this place,
that one thing I would never do,
and that would come and attend another board meeting.
He said he came for a good cause this time.
The CUEE group is calling this unification all of a sudden.
And I think that’s just a play on words, and a play on our intelligence.
Because for thirty years we’ve called this process consolidation.
Now all of a sudden we’re calling it unification.
We’re calling it unification because the only thing that we want to change
is the central office.
We want all the schools to remain the same.
The only thing we want to change is what goes on right here
at 1204 Williams Street.
Well if you’re going to unify a community, something has to change.
This group has failed to put together a plan that we can follow.
I yield my 5 minutes to Sam Allen of FVCS —JC Cunningham @ 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.
I didn’t catch his name, but he David Mullis talked about his children and said:
All of my children have fourished in the Valdosta School System.
…
The special ed program they have here is second to none.
Then he got to the night’s topic:
When I look at these things when people talk about consolidation,
I have to ask the question:
why do they want to consolidate two school systems?
The things that they say sound good.
I think everything they say would be agreab
What do they mean by them?
And I have a little bit of a problem;
whenever somebody wants to combine two groups together,
it almost looks like they want to control the whole.
And this little bombshell:
It seems like the group that is most pushing this thing
is referring to the Tennessee Hamilton County system,
which if you read their site, sounds like their statistics are good
and everything’s working good.
Except that there’s some data that came out a month ago
that says that they are,
the first time, the entire district is high priority.
…
That means they had two years of bad results.
Hamilton Co. TN is high priority school district @ 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.
If “unification” is about education, where was CUEE at the
last two days’ school board meetings?
Maybe we’ll see CUEE at some of
the three forums VBOE is organizing.
Maybe they’ll address issues such as
consolidation producing no improvement in academic achievement,
consolidation causing increased taxpayer expense,
and the need for any consolidation proposal to come from
educators and parents, and to be voted on by all the citizens
in the affected school districts;
you know, the issues
LCBOE just called them on.
Craig Cardella said his wife Anne
was a current Valdosta City Schools teacher and former Teacher of the year,
and he was a former city manager who had done community development all his life.
I can tell you without doubt this is the most damaging useless thing
I’ve seen proposed in many many years.
This will do more damage to our community than just about anything I can think of
short of a hurricane running through the middle of town.
It will damage both the county and the city school systems severely.
It will hinder the growth of the education of our children.
It will cause chaos among the city and county school staffs,
both of which are like this, because a lot of times they’re
the same people.
The most damaging useless thing —Craig Cardell @ 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.
More transcription; he’s just getting to the best parts:
Continue reading →
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.
