of the Hahira City Council.
Rumor has it they had a, uh, polite discussion about waste disposal at their work session Monday and they will make some sort of decision about that tonight.
I would post the agenda if it was online, but it’s not. They do have minutes online, but the most recent ones are from April.
-jsq
Land Development Regulations (LDR) that people ought to pay attention to,
scheduled for tonight’s Valdosta City Council (VCC) meeting.
But the one many people are going to see is this one:
6.a) Consideration of a Position Statement on School Consolidation.Some people are confused, because VCC has no formal authority over any school system. They didn’t have any formal authority to decide whether to put the school referendum on the ballot, either. According to the Lowndes County Board of Elections, once Continue reading
Everyone please note the usual LAKE blog submissions policy. Also, if you like what LAKE is doing, please go to the LAKE facebook page and Like that page.Hey John, I appreciate your summary of the latest meeting on consolidation. I was on the Chamber sponsored consolidation committee back in 1993-94. The same folks pushing the effort then are pushing it now. Back then, nothing about improving education was ever mentioned; it was all about banking and real estate. Only two educators back then were on the committee, the two superintendents from the school systems, and we were never asked our opinions on anything. We were totally ignored.
Yes, we educators were ingored back then and there is no doubt in my mind that this group pushing for consolidation is ignoring opinions of educators now. I believe the “dollar bill” mentality of a handful of folks is the driving force behind this effort, and I don’t mean the tax payers. Of course, this is just my opinion; I could be wrong.
We have two excellent school systems now in one county. Here is the method that I propose for a merger: if and when one of our school systems gets to a point where it cannot provide quality education for it’s students, let that school system’s school board approach the other school board and begin discussions on consolidation or some other remedy. Why should some bank or real estate company be the driving force behind consolidation. Maybe kids should be put ahead of lining the pockets of a few business owners. And the most important thing to remember about this action is: once Valdosta gives up the charter for it’s school system, it’s over and done with; good or bad, it’s over; Valdosta can never get it back. Think about that!
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showed it to us all, and could answer questions,
all demonstrating that school consolidation would not improve education,
would increase expenses and taxes, and far from bringing in more industry
would probably drive some away by reducing the quality of education.
Tuesday evening, going beyond
the research it had already published,
Dr. Troy Davis 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.
Jerome Tucker, on fire as a cheerleader, spelled out his life-long Continue reading
Continue readingPerception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio) is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information
– WikipediaI have sat on the sideline for a while on the issue of consolidation. Perhaps I am still on the sideline since I am not going to tell you how to vote. Regardless of the decision on November 8th I will continue to support education in one or two systems. In any event I feel compelled to at least provide some words for consideration. Here is my perspective from the sideline.
It is very apparent that we have pride in our schools. Pride is both
Lowndes County Schools will be hosting a forum entitled Why We Oppose Consolidation on October 4, 2011 at 7:00pm in the Lowndes High Cafeteria. All community members invited to attend.Some people have been confused by LCBOE’s image version of this meeting announcement:
The meeting starts at 7PM on the fourth of October, which is Tuesday.
They’ve also put the LCBOE resolution
online in plain text.
Here’s the earlier LAKE transcription from our
video of Supt. Smith reading the resolution.
Here are
videos of that entire LCBOE meeting,
including
the unanimous vote to adopt the resolution.
-jsq
I know that there are many “newcomers” to the area which supported consolidation until they connected the dots and realized this has nothing to do with improving our children’s education.
See also Valwood, CUEE, and the Chamber.
-jsq
If Mr. Paulk was a “normal citizen” he would know if you call the sheriff’s department for a animal problem he would know they call animal control! And it is up to the animal officer if they want to give the dog back to the owner… Officers have done it many times. It is under the discretion of the animal control officer. Poor Ashley should know what the ordinance says I mean he was the sheriff for many years as he has indicated many times and since he is the County Chairman now one would think he would know what the orinance says. This poor guy was given wrong information by the County Chairman on how to fix the problem… perhaps if the man caught the dog and brought it to the shelter he would be better off. The owner would have to show proof of rabies vaccination and pay impound fees. $25 impound fee, $12 for a voucher if the dog does not have proof of current rabies vaccination. The prices are not much but it is incontinent. If it is not sterilized (spay or neutered) it doubles on each impound… fees can rack up pretty fast $25, $50, $100 and so on. The sheriff’s office is not going to handle owner involved cases, if the dog was returned to the owner it was not a stray. Sorry Ashley Paulk you’re so wrong on this one!
Nolen Cox seems to think CHIP grant recipients don’t work.
Chairman Paulk declined to let Mrs. Cox speak because he said in a letter to the Commission she called them idiots. When he let Nolen Cox speak, Cox said:
I think it’s interesting that the comments about the CHIP grant comes after the vote. Y’all must be an all-wise group.Chairman Paulk referred to that as sarcastic. Cox disagreed. Paulk said it was in his opinion and he decided such things there.
Cox asserted that:
to get a $300,000 grant it takes about $420,000 of tax money accumulated from citizens.He didn’t cite any source for those figures. He did claim the Commission was luring people into homebuying while home prices are going down.
Somebody had to work for the money that they didn’t get to give to somebody who didn’t work.Sounds like he was saying CHIP grant recipients don’t work. I wonder how they pay their mortgages then, since CHIP grants as near as I can tell only help with down payments?
I guess he didn’t hear Carolyn Selby’s point that CHIP grants turn renters into property tax-paying owners. Seems like that would help keep Nolen Cox’s property taxes low.
Here’s the video: Continue reading
Judge rules prison privatization plan unconstitutional Dara Kam wrote for Post on Politics yesterday, Judge Rules Florida Prison Privatization Unconstitutional,
The order doesn’t say Florida can’t privatize prisons, rather that it can’t do it by hiding it in the budget process. But alleged budget savings are the only reason privatization backers are willing to admit to, so that’s no small matter.The privatization of 29 prisons in the southern portion of the state from Manatee County to Indian River County to the Florida Keys should have been mandated in a separate bill and not in proviso language in the budget, as lawmakers did in the must-pass budget approved in May and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, Fulford ruled.
“This Court concludes that if it is the will of the Legislature to itself initiate privatization of Florida prisons, as opposed to DOC, the Legislature must do so by general law, rather than ‘using the hidden recesses of the General Appropriations Act,’” Fulford wrote in her order issued Friday morning.
And if prison privatization is such a money-saver, why did the prison companies’ cronies in the statehouse try to do it like this: Continue reading