Category Archives: FVCS

CUEE you have done what you tried to do —Sam Allen

Sam Allen summed it up before the march:
CUEE you have done what you tried to do.
You have brought us together.
United we stand.

Here’s the video:


CUEE you have done what you tried to do —Sam Allen
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Although maybe this isn’t exactly what CUEE wanted FVCS, SCLC, NAACP, both school boards, the Valdosta City Council, etc. united about:

What are we gonna do?
Vote!
How we gonna vote?
No!

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

He who has the gold rules —Mike Hill

Finally, some truth from the Chamber! “Unification” has nothing to do with education, and everything to do with “He who has the gold rules.” Not any Realtors’ fault of course, “The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel and hits the gas.” So they’d rather destroy public education through a proven failed “unification” than deal with their claimed perception problem. -jsq

‘No’ Vote May Hit You Where You Live

By Mike Hill
Valdosta resident
Realtor

I’m not qualified to talk about the quality of school systems in Valdosta or Lowndes County, probably a rare admission these days. I am qualified to talk about the damage done to Valdosta residential real estate by the perception that one system is better than the other. It ain’t pretty and it’s getting worse.

I’ve been a Realtor since 1976, when newcomers couldn’t house hunt until they rolled in with the kids, dogs and all the furniture looking for yard signs and a local newspaper, which led them to agents and property managers, who then sold or rented them a home. Boy, has that changed!

I’ve got friends teaching or retired from both city and county systems who tell me that a good education is available from either system for students who want one. But newcomers concerned about their children’s education have consistently been getting a different message long before they ever see a “sale” or “rent” sign here.

Unlike even 10 years ago, Internet magic now allows newcomers to arrive armed with all the statistical knowledge our two school boards provide, plus state and federal statistics. And right or wrong, the perception those statistics create that one system is better or worse than the other travels like gossip between anybody anywhere in the world with an Internet connection who has or can create the slightest link to anybody in Valdosta/Lowndes County with one.

How do I know this? Because families walking into my real estate office to buy or rent “in the county school district” who have never been here before has been consistently increasing for years. Newcomers concerned about their children’s education will sacrifice a garage or fenced yard from the “wish list” for their new home, plus make higher payments, for a county location. It irks me that retired city school superintendent Sam Allen has publicly accused Realtors of adding to a problem that started well before he retired from the city school system. Realtors, he has publicly stated, avoid showing houses for sale in city school districts.

Space isn’t available to address the absurdity of that statement, except to quote the other side of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold rules.” The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel and hits the gas. The client started driving the car the minute he got into the passenger seat with his checkbook and knew where he wanted to go before he and his family came to town. Accurate or not, perceptions about differences in our split school system exist, with serious consequences in several different directions that aren’t going away. Industries may avoid us, for instance, and we’ll never know how many jobs we lost. In real estate, “perception” makes the value of a house on the city side of a street worth less than an identical house on the county side of the street.

Neither of those things are good and without change, it’s not going to get any better, either.

Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator

The VSU Spectator posted the most detailed traditional news media report of Occupy Valdosta, along with an excellently edited video. Desiree Thompson wrote 20 October 2011, Occupy movement inspires Valdosta,
According to Occupy Valdosta’s mission statement, the group exercises their right to “peacefully assemble, to nonviolently occupy public space, to create an open process to address the problems they face, and to generate solutions accessible to everyone.”

In an attempt to raise revenue, Bank of America Corp. plans to charge customers at the beginning of next year with a $5 fee every month they use their debit cards outside of withdrawing from the Bank of America ATM.

Protestors demanded an answer from the bank downtown, but employees refused to comment.

Here’s the Spectator video:


Occupy movement inspires Valdosta —VSU Spectator
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.

Extensive quotes from students: Continue reading →

A most educational meeting: VSU, Wiregrass Tech, CUEE, FVCS, et al.

Only Lemony Snicket could do justice to the peculiarity of last night’s most educational meeting at VSU’s Continuing Education building, about K-12 education even though neither school superintendent was there, most of the school board members were not present, and it was presided over by two very uneasy college presidents.

Who called it was unclear, who was invited even less, for what purpose there was no consensus, yet there was a decision by the pair of presiding college presidents. It was somehow about the general state of education in Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia, although the topic of consolidation was discussed only by the frequent admonitions that it was not to be discussed, and for that matter that nothing else related to educational improvements should be discussed until after the November 8th consolidation referendum. Both school system superintendents were elsewhere at a conference of school superintendents. A few Valdosta City School Board members were in attendance, although none of them said anything. I didn’t recognize any Lowndes County School Board members. There were no introductions to the group, other than self-introductions by the two college presidents. Maybe you can identify some of the attendees.


CUEE Vice-Chair Rusty Griffin near left, Chamber President Myrna Ballard far right, VBOE Member Jeana Beeland and CUEE Board Member Tom Kurrie near corner of the tables, SCLC President Rev. Floyd Rose to Kurrie’s right. FVCS President Sam Allen is near the far end of the left side of the table. CUEE Board Member Walter Hobgood is near the far end of the right side of the table.

There was no agenda. There was a document to be presented, but it was not handed out to the attendees, and the principal presider, VSU interim president Dr. Louis Levy, refused Continue reading →

Why CUEE turned shy

So why did the list of community supporters disappear from CUEE’s website? After a most educational meeting this evening so peculiar only Lemony Snicket could really write it up properly (more on that later), I found the answer to that question.

First I asked Lee Henderson, who was on that list. He admitted he knew, but he wouldn’t say. He suggested I talk to CUEE.

Tom Kurrie walked up at that point, and I asked Henderson if Kurrie was CUEE. Henderson said I would know that better than he would, which caused me to refer to Black Crow’s Mr. Henderson as very modest and humble.

Tom Kurrie remarked that he always saw me with a camera, and at a previous event I’d asked him what was in unification for him. He reminded me he’d answered there was nothing in it for him, and I observed that was a good answer. Anyway, I asked CUEE Board Member Mr. Thompson Kurrie, Jr. what went with the list of supporters. He allowed as how he didn’t really visit the web site very often, since he wasn’t good with computers.

So I asked who would know? He said that fellow over there at the table with the sign-in sheet, Daniel Storey. Continue reading →

VDT announces anti-consolidation march

Brittany D. McClure wrote for the VDT today, Consolidation opponents to march Saturday
Organizers expect hundreds to gather this weekend in front of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce for a march opposing the consolidation of city and county school systems.

Scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, the march takes the stand that “our children are not for sale.”

“We intend to put hundreds of people in the streets,” said the Rev. Floyd Rose, president of the Valdosta-Lowndes County chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “We know and they know that this has never been about consolidating the school system.”

Interesting that the VDT neither contradicts that nor finds a counterview to publish. Maybe since the VDT did an about-face about consolidation, it’s been able to see more clearly….

The march will be led by Rose, Sam Allen, former Valdosta City Schools superintendent, and Leigh Touchton, NAACP president. Other community leaders and representatives from both Lowndes and Valdosta high schools will be present.
9AM Saturday at the parking lot across from the Chamber of Commerce.

-jsq

Valdosta graduation rates

In his updated Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation David Mullis included as new material a revised response to CUEE statement #2 for graduation rates, which contains these percentages:

He then asks:

Therefore, one must ask, "Why would CUEE say the graduation rate for Valdosta High School is in the low 50% range for all students and below 50% for African Americans? The answer is simple. CUEE wants to mislead the voters into believing that the graduation rate for Valdosta High School is lower than it actually is. Therefore, not only does CUEE make false statements, it also fails to state that the graduation rate has improved significantly over the past 5 years for all students and for African American Students. Again, this is an attempt by CUEE to give the appearance that something other than what is being done must be done. They do not tell us what should be done other than to consolidate the school systems. The logic is frightening to say the least.
Here’s a suggestion on what to do about that.

-jsq

Update: The Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation —David Mullis

Received today. -jsq
Dear Media:

I am sure you are aware that the vote of whether or not to consolidate the Valdosta City Schools into the Lowndes County School System will be held November 8, 2011. The City only is being asked to vote on whether to dissolve the Valdosta City School charter. The proponents of the referendum had a choice between putting the referendum in front of the county and city or the city alone. The Lowndes County Board of Education asked

Continue reading →

Vote No March —Floyd E Rose

Seen yesterday. -jsq
Never before in the history of Valdosta have its citizens been met with a greater challenge. The most powerful business interests in our city have conspired to deceive us with a scheme to dilute the black vote, and thereby rob our community of the political and economic benefits to which we are rightly entitled.

We make up 55 percent of the city’s population. However, we are only 34 percent of the county’s population. If the city and county governments are consolidated, which is the real goal of the Committee for Educational Excellence (CUEE), we will lose forever the opportunity to have access to the millions of federal dollars that will come to Valdosta, with which we can rebuild our community; monies that we are now going to the North side.

This is, and never has been, about school unification. However, legally

Continue reading →

Vote NO March & Rally

Text received Monday, poster received today. -jsq
From: JC Cunningham

Please read the message by Rev. Rose and then mark your calendar for Oct. 22, 2011. On that day we will have the largest March/Rally in the history of Valdosta. This will be the March that will show everyone in Georgia and America that we the Citizens of Lowndes-Valdosta, know how to come together and we will no longer stand for the Lies, Greed, and Disrespect from Cuee. We will for once and for all tell Cuee and the Chamber that “Our Children are not for Sale” This March will show Cuee and the Chamber that when we all stand together; Democrats, Republicans, NAACP, SCLC, White, Black, Hispanic, Rich, Poor, Young and Old we show what true democracy is all about. Cuee has tried everything to break our spirit with negative campaign ads and misleading information, but they did not. They cannot break the solidarity that has grown throughout this community over the past two months.

To watch Republicans and Democrats set aside their

Continue reading →