The Valdosta Board of Education voted tonight 8 to 1 for a statement
opposing school system consolidation.
Here are some still pictures.
Update 10AM 30 August 2011:
Video to come of the board statements and vote is now available (see below).
Chairman Lee asked Vanassa Flucas to read the statement.
The Valdosta City School Board opposes consolidating the Valdosta City
and Lowndes County school systems at this time. This Board feels that
a decision to merge the two systems should be a collaboratively planned
effort between the two school boards and citizens of both the city and
county, along with those who have the best interest in educating all
the children of our area.
Council Carroll made a motion to put the referendum on the ballot
and Council White seconded.
Yost, White, Norton, and Carroll voted for.
Wright and Vickers voted against.
The mayor then pointed out voters will have had to be registered for six months
to vote on this referendum in November, so if someone registered
tomorrow, they couldn’t vote in November.
(It’s not clear that this is actually true, but it is what he said.)
They all had more to say later in Council Comments.
5.a. Vote to put school consolidation referendum on ballot —Tim Carroll @ VCC 25 August 2011
petition, education, referendum,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Then they voted on the motion to deny.
Council White agonized over whether they were doing anything illegal.
They
split evenly 3 to 3:
Wright, White, and Vickers for denying, and
Yost, Norton, and Carroll against.
Since it was a tie, the Mayor got to vote.
First he made a statement, which included:
It started out in the least inclusive manner.
…
This seems forced to people who don’t want the city school system
and to a city school system which doesn’t want to cope with these
people right now.
And that’s unfair.
He suggested the legislature should handle it.
After all that, he voted against the motion to deny,
so the motion failed.
5.a. This seems forced —Mayor John Fretti @ VCC 25 August 2011
petition, education, referendum,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Council Vickers said there was no plan for how to do school consolidation, and so he was against the referendum, and he called for a vote on his motion to deny the referendum.
He said that if we were going to consolidate school systems,
the two school boards should sit down and make a plan.
But in this case, there is no plan.
…
We just don’t know.
…
Too much is unknown.
5.a. There is no plan … we just don’t know –Sonny Vickers @ VCC 25 August 2011
petition, education, referendum,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Council Carroll noted that council was merely voting on putting
a referendum on the ballot.
Attorney Talley said he hadn’t looked at soem of the legal possibilities,
and talked about several specific pairs of counties consolidating schools.
Council White asked for further clarification.
Manager Hanson used an analogy of annexation (for which he said there
were at least four legal methods) to indicate that proponents could
pick whichever one they liked.
He said someone could choose to challenge it in court.
I believe he also said council could vote against holding the referendum.
5.a. Legal issues –Attorney Talley and others @ VCC 25 August 2011
petition, education, referendum,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Council Wright again said proper legal process had not been followed.
The local school boards that are responsible for this burden
should have sent a motion to the state board of education
asking for it [a feasibility study on consolidation].
That has not happened.
He called the state board of education and the Valdosta Board of Education
and no feasibility has been done.
The process has not been followed.
…
This is the law.
…
This is in black and white.
Council Ben Norton, who hardly ever speaks, noted that he
was elected at-large and thus represents all of Valdosta, and said:
If this came to us with every legal T dotted and I crossed,
as Council …
Carroll stated already
is to put this referendum on ballot.
I encourage our citizens if that is the case …
to study carefully both sides of the issue
and I believe with all my heart that … our Valdosta citizens
can make the decision.
He never did say which side he was on regarding consolidation.
And of course once again it’s just Valdosta citizens voting on
an issue that affects the entire county.
And yes, he really did say “T dotted and I crossed” and he had to
be prompted for the name of his Council colleague.
The organization that considers every rezoning request
for Lowndes County
or any of the cities of Valdosta, Dasher, Hahira, or Lake Park,
the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission,
meets tonight, 5:30 PM, 29 August 2011.
This appointed body decides nothing, but it does make recommendations to the
elected governing body of the appropriate county or city,
which does take those recommendations into account before deciding.
If you want to rezone, or if there’s rezoning near you,
you would do well to go to the Planning Commission meeting
before it gets to your local elected body.
The mission of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) is to look
beyond short-term solutions in planning for the future of the Greater
Lowndes community; to improve the public health, safety, convenience and
welfare; and to provide for the social, economic and physical development
of communities on a sound and orderly basis, within a governmental
framework and economic environment which fosters constructive growth
and efficient administration.
The Planning Commission meets at the old Lowndes County Commission offices:
Continue reading →
17. A. Consolidation/board position – Mr. Lee – action required
Also this item:
18. B. Public forums on consolidation will be held Sept 8 (VHS PAC), Sept 20 (VMS) and Oct 25 (JLL) from 7-8:30 p.m.
I wonder will these be real forums, or the sort of fake forums VLCIA and
CUEE have foisted on the community?
CUEE’s
Kick-Off meeting
had no opponents speak, took questions only in writing,
and conveniently didn’t get to Rev. Rose’s question of what
would consolidation do to improve education.
LAKE
has published videos of the whole thing.
Chairman Lee asked Vanassa Flucas to read the statement.
The Valdosta City School Board opposes consolidating the Valdosta City and Lowndes County school systems at this time. This Board feels that a decision to merge the two systems should be a collaboratively planned effort between the two school boards and citizens of both the city and county, along with those who have the best interest in educating all the children of our area.
Attorney Talley said he hadn’t looked at soem of the legal possibilities,
and talked about several specific pairs of counties consolidating schools.
