Category Archives: Community

Video playlist @ VLCIA 2012-08-21



Here are videos of the
21 August 2012 Regular meeting.
of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).
Here's

the agenda.

See also

Steeda Manufacturing moving into medical parts and new markets.


Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland, Chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer, Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton, Attorney, Tom Davis, CPA, Allan Ricketts, Project ManagerS. Meghan Duke, Public Relations & Marketing Manager, Lu Williams, Operations Manager,

Videos by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 August 2012.

-jsq

What other states have had charter school referendums?

Thanks to Jim Galloway, we learned that charter school proponents say

“No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative.”
OK, what other states have had any sort of charter school referendums?
Such ballot initiatives have at least been tried in

Massachusetts,

Michigan,
and

Washington.

BallotPedia

records some state charter school referendums.

Massachusetts



In Massachusetts,

charter school proponents couldn’t even get enough signatures to put a
pro-charter school referendum on the ballot this year.

The measure would have removed limits on number of charter schools,
their funding, and enrollment. Other changes would have been made in
laws that governed charter schools, including requiring approval of
qualified applications for charter schools to be in districts where
there was low student performance.

Michigan

In Michigan,

a referendum to ban for-profit charter schools
may be on the ballot in November:

Continue reading →

Yes VDT, but —Save Strickland Mill

On facebook,

Save Strickland Mill
just posted

a critique of

certain parts of

the VDT’s writeup on the

Remerton City Council’s Strickland Mill vote.
-jsq

Valdosta Daily Times,
September 12, 2012

Mill to come down:
Buildings to be razed, historic tower to remain

by Quinten Plummer

VALDOSTA — The iconic smoke stack will still tower over the


City of Remerton, according to local officials, but

the majority of
the historic Remerton Mill complex will be demolished and converted
into a park

after the City Council gave the mill’s owners the
go-ahead for demolition during Monday evening’s regular session.

This is not a factual statement: the city council’s motion is as
follows: Councilman Bill Wetherington made the following motion
which was unanimously voted in by the council members present that
night (note that councilman Sam Flemming was not in attendance)

“I move to approve the certificate of appropriateness 2012-04 for 1853
W. Gordon to be issued and effective as of October 25th 2012 for a
period of one year from that date with the condition that the cotton
mill smokestack remains intact and shall continue to remain intact
in accordance with title 18 of the code of City of Remerton.”

The mill’s ownership group simply wants relief from its obligations
to the property, and Remerton

Mayor Cornelius Holsendolph said the
restoration of the mill is just too large of a project for a city of
Remerton’s size.

That is the reason why

Continue reading →

Support for charter school referendum falling?

A recent poll shows markedly lower support

Georgia Charter School Polls
for the November charter school
referendum than polls in March and July, which were already down from January.
At this rate, the charter school referendum can lose as badly in November
as T-SPLOST did in July.
Maybe people are catching on that diverting local taxes to control by
a state appointed body is a bad idea,
especially this time when the money would end up going to private profit.

Georgia Family Council wrote, presumably in January,

Poll Shows Support for Charter School Changes,

On January 24, the Georgia Charter School Association and My School,
My Choice Georgia held a news conference on Capitol Hill to release
the results of a new study regarding public school choice….

The new numbers showed that 52 percent of voters are dissatisfied
with the public system as it currently stands. A whopping 72 percent
feel that a group other than local school boards should be able to
authorize charter schools, the basis for HB 881. Moreover, Georgia
voters tend to support a “money follows the child” approach to
charter school funding.

So there’s a baseline for January for what proponents
of charter schools claimed: 72% support for something very like
the charter school referendum that ended up on the November ballot.

Or not.
That writeup includes a link to

georgiaschoolchoice.com,
but that domain is no longer registered.
This is probably it over on

the snazzy new gacharters.org website.
The gacharters.org writeup doesn’t mention 72%, and does say:

Continue reading →

Charter school preamble biased like T-SPLOST?

T-SPLOST proponents are up to their old tricks again,
starting with the preamble to the charter school referendum.
And

Bert “Little Goose” Brantley,
formerly of Lowndes County, defends that wording.

Paul Crawley wrote for 11alive.com September 12 2012,

Is Charter Schools Amendment wording biased?

Here we go again, apparently another ballot issue with questions
about whether it’s worded fairly.

First, it was the July 31st transportation sales tax issue, known as
T-SPLOST, which Georgia voters rejected overwhelmingly.

Opponents howled when they found out the ballot preamble wording
promised to “create jobs” and “relieve traffic congestion”.

Now, opponents of a November ballot question are also crying foul.



They’re upset over the preamble wording for the Charter School
Commission Amendment.

It reads, “Provides for improving student achievement and parental
involvement through more public charter school options.”

How can the preamble say that?

Continue reading →

“No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative” —former T-SPLOST proponents now pushing charter schools

The same people who pushed the failed T-SPLOST tax referendum
on the July primary ballot are now pushing the charter school referendum
on the November general election ballot.
Four of their leaders are the same specific individuals,
including one from right here in Lowndes County.
They’re pushing something they admit has failed in every other state.
Let’s not be the first to fall for it.



According to the

Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA),

No other state has had a positive outcome for a
charter-positive ballot initiative

So even one of the major proponents of charter schools admits
no other state’s voters have thought they were a good idea.
Their slides
lay out a pair of statewide major money campaigns to push the referendum anyway.

We know about this because these slides fell into the hands of
the AJC, and
Jim Galloway published them today, saying:

Continue reading →

Want knowledge-based jobs? Welcome gays and lesbians



The Chamber, the Industrial Authority, and various other local leaders
say they want knowledge-based jobs, or creative jobs.
We won’t get those just by teaching students to show up on time and
do what they’re told: that’s how you train factory workers,
not knowledge-based employees.
For creative jobs we also need Technology, Talent, and Tolerance.
How do you measure Tolerance?
One key component is the concentration of gays and lesbians.
So today’s

South Georgia Pride Festival
is a good sign for creative jobs in south Georgia!

Richard Florida wrote 16 July 2012 for The Atlantic,

The Geography of Tolerance,

The map above shows how metros across the U.S. score on the
Tolerance Index, as updated for The Rise of the Creative Class,
Revisited. The chart below shows the top 20 metros. Developed by my
Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Kevin Stolarick, it ranks U.S.
metros according to three key variables—the share of
immigrants or foreign-born residents, the Gay Index (the
concentration of gays and lesbians), and the Integration Index,
which tracks the level of segregation between ethnic and racial
groups.



Do you recognize that shape in the middle of south Georgia?
That’s the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area,
consisting of Lowndes, Echols, Lanier, and Brooks Counties.
Looks like about 0.4 on the Tolerance Index.
So sure, we’re no Austin, Texas, but we’re in the same range as oh,
Charlotte, NC.

If you want to help promote creative jobs in south Georgia,
there’s a festival going on today:




South Georgia Pride Festival

noon until 6PM

John W Saunders Park

1151 River Street

Valdosta, Georgia

food and music all day

Who knows,

the Mayor of Valdosta might even be there; what do you think?
He certainly gave the festival

plenty of earned media.

-jsq

Citizens plead for Strickland Mill, then a surprise offer @ RCC 2012-09-10



Haley Hyatt videoed
yesterday’s Remerton City Council
decision about Strickland Mill.
Citizens pled, unsuccessfully, for it to be saved.
Then the owners made a surprise offer.

Here’s

Part 1 of 3:



The final plea

was made by Celine H. Gladwin.

Continue reading →

Charter school bait and switch

Proponents of the state-forced charter school constitutional amendment

Mr. Moneybags
on the November ballot have a

website
that is full of bait and switch.
Most of it is about what they claim are the benefits of charter schools.
But that’s not what the referendum is about.
Local school boards can already authorize charter schools,
and many of them have.
The referendum would change the Georgia Constitution to authorize
an appointed state board to force charter schools on local elected school
boards that don’t want them,

granting more money per student than in public schools,
with

the difference to be made up from local property and sales taxes.
The most substantive thing I have found on the proponents’ website
says that last is not so, but unconvincingly.

Tony Roberts, President of Georgia Charter Schools Association wrote
to All Charter School Leaders and Board Members
7 August 2012,

Response to Letter from Herb Garrett of Georgia Superintendents Association,


Tony Roberts
One final, but important point, local school superintendents and
board members were adamantly against any local dollars going to
charter schools that were denied by a local school board. The final
version of HB 797 was negotiated to ensure that was the case —
the language is written right there into the law. So, to recap, they
insist on no local money going to state-approved charters, and then
get upset about the state money going to charters.

Curiously, he doesn’t cite that purported language.
The closest thing I can find in

HB 797
is

a paragraph I already quoted:

Continue reading →

Remerton City Council votes today @ RCC 2012-09-10


Strickland Mill For Sale
Tonight the Remerton City Council votes on

the old Strickland Mill at

1853 West Gordon Street,
same item as

discussed 4 June 2012
and

postponed 11 June 2012.
Also, Remerton doesn’t play mysterious about
the Haven.
All that plus signs, water, and alcohol.

I will be there for about half an hour, after which I have to go video
something else.
Could someone else video the rest of tonight’s Remerton City Council meeting?


City Clerk Rachel Tate
Here’s

the agenda,
which for some reason (I’m guessing City Clerk Rachel Tate not being available)
is a scan instead of a text-extractable PDF.
I’ve transcribed it below this time.

CITY OF REMERTON

REGULAR SESSION AGENDA

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

COUNCIL CHAMBERS

5:30 PM

Continue reading →