Category Archives: Planning

Is consolidation inevitable? —David Mullis @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011

David Mullis, author of the most basic and comprehensive resource on school consolidation, the Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation, noted that the Chamber and CUEE had tried to paint Valdosta School Supt. Dr. Cason and Lowndes School Supt. Dr. Smith as saying school consolidation was inevitable.

Dr. Smith replied:

I use the word “may”. It may occur. I’m not like CUEE; I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future.
David Mullis asked for further clarification based on the data we have today.

Supt. Smith’s answer:

Now is the worst possible time to even consider consolidation or any other education innovation that’s going to cost more money that has possibly little or no return.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

And I feel like there’s somebody meddling in their affairs; I wish they wouldn’t have. —Ashley Paulk @ LCC 7 November 2011

As previously noted, Chairman Ashley Paulk last night told Matt Portwood he didn’t think the Lowndes County Commission should be meddling in school affairs. Here’s the part the VDT didn’t quote:
And I feel like there’s somebody meddling in their affairs; I wish they wouldn’t have.
That’s pretty interesting considering that Brittany D. McClure reported for the VDT 4 November 2011 that FVCS makes campaign contributions public:
Ashley Paulk, Lowndes County Commission chairman contributed $200
So it’s not like the public doesn’t already know Ashley Paulk’s opinion on this subject, and it seems he was reminding us of it: he contributed money to FVCS, a group actively lobbying to prevent the school consolidation promoted by CUEE.

Chairman Paulk also noted:

We do have county residents who live in the city.
Seems like he’s confusing two excuses for the Commissioners not speaking about school consolidation: Continue reading →

Bussing is a natural consequence of consolidation —Warren Turner to Roy Copeland @ LCBOE 4 Oct 2011

Two attorneys brought a point into the light that CUEE doesn’t like to talk about: bussing is a natural consequence of consolidation. That was stated by the attorney for the Lowndes County School System, Warren Turner, 4 October 2011.

Roy Copeland brought up some names from the past: Mrs. Copeland or Mrs. Adams, and the newscasters Huntley and Brinkley. He then asked about the consent decree on desegregation from back in that era:

Has anyone given any thoughts to the issues relative to the consentdecreee, desegregation, and the realignment of school districts relative to the Voting Rights Act 1965 preclearance, and all those other issues.
Lowndes County Schools Attorney Warren Turner answered the question, after Roy Copeland mentioned they were neighbors. The answer was basically that there would be a hearing before November 8th. Hm, I wonder what happened with that? As far as what happens if consolidation is approved by the Valdosta voters, he said, among other things:
So the concept of a neighborhood school, where everybody stays where they are, is not going to happen in my opinion, because the federal government is not going to allow that to happen.

Finally, Roy Copeland asked: Continue reading →

Double Lowndes County Commission tonight: Work 4:30 PM Regular 5:30 PM

Alcohol, rezoning, hospital, debt, and an election! Because Tuesday is Election Day, the Lowndes County Commission changed its regular meeting to Monday. Work sessions are usually Monday in the morning; today the Work Session is at 4:30 PM, just before the Regular Session at 5:30 PM. It’s a busy agenda, including two alcohol licenses, two rezonings, and an appointment to the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County (VLCHA); that’s the body that authorized South Georgia Medical Center (SGMC) buying Smith Northview Hospital, after which SGMC got the County Commission to have we the taxpayers guarantee $100 million in bonds for expansion. Hm, and “SGMC Revenue Certificates” is on this agenda, too.

Here’s the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
REGULAR SESSION, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

The Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs in public safety net use by low-paid employees

Interesting study from California whose results probably also apply to Georgia, showing that Wal-Mart pays about a third less than other retail companies, so little that Wal-Mart employees tend to use food stamps and public medical assistance and housing to stay afloat, which thus “creates a hidden cost to the state’s taxpayers.”

Arindrajit Dube and Ken Jacobs wrote for UC Berkeley Labor Center, August 2004, Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs: Use of Safety Net Programs by Wal-Mart Workers in California. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center:

This widely publicized report finds Wal-Mart’s wage and health benefits packages for its California workers to be below average as compared to the overall retail sector in California. The authors also find a greater reliance upon public assistance programs among Wal-Mart workers as compared to other California retail workers. Finally, the authors estimate the additional costs to taxpayers of “Wal-Martization”—the adoption of Wal-Mart’s wage and health benefits standards by retailers throughout California.
Here is an extract from the study: Continue reading →

How about as a first step the Chamber pledge… —Jim Parker

Received today on Why the Chamber Supports Unification. -jsq
So true, John. There was no meat in the whole letter. The last line sums it up, “We BELIEVE…” yada, yada, yada. Faith based thinking might fly in religious institutions, but in the education of our children, we have a pretty good handle on what is needed. Deferring to those trained and with years of experience in the education of our children, who have brought countless facts to the discussion, none of which the Chamber can or has bothered to refute, I will go along with both Boards of Education and vote NO to consolidation.

I did note that Mr Gooding offered to “combine our resources and our efforts and work together as a community to transform two average school systems…” Since he used the first person plural “our,”

Continue reading →

Schools serving children in poverty well —Karen Noll

Received yesterday. -jsq
From: Karen Noll
To: chamber@valdostachamber.com
Cc: [many other people]

Dear Mr. Gooding and Chamber of Commerce,

In response to your most recent correspondence, I dare say many ask why the Chamber has such a single focus on an unproven plan with little or no supporting data. Yet again your answers to the many questions about the reasons that the Chamber is acting in this manner are insufficient and demonstrate quite clearly that you are steadfastly working to undermine the very community you claim to support.

Maybe it is my academic background, but I will use data to support my assertions and hopefully rectify some of the misinformation that has been so disruptive to this community, a discussion of a very important issue: the education of our children.

According to the Chamber’s own study, education ranked

12th out of 16 factors in importance to businesses coming to our community. The Chamber’s own survey revealed that a low crime rate and the business friendliness of the local agencies were most important to businesses in 2009.

Our community sadly hosts a large population of children living in poverty, and education is the best avenue to future success. For this reason, I am very pleased to report that our economically disadvantaged students in Valdosta City Schools met or exceeded the expected CRCT scores for the district last year. This is no small feat and we have some very dedicated educators to thank for this achievement.

Furthermore, research shows that “larger district size has been shown to be negatively associated with the achievement of impoverished students” ( Howley, C. 1996). This means that the fantastic achievements of our most disadvantaged students will be reversed in a larger district and all of the hard work of VCS educators will be lost in order to create, as you claim, “one great public school system”.

Two years ago the city school district asked Chamber members to provide input on their Strategic Improvement Plan through an online survey. Only 5.2% of responses came from Chamber members. Valdosta City Schools encouraged input from all stakeholders, yet these Chamber members in large part did not respond. Now the Chamber claims to have THE solution for the schools they had no time for when asked for feedback.

Research consistently shows that bigger does not mean better in education. So, ‘combining our resources’ does not bring more money, better educational outcomes, or cost savings. According to the Lowndes County Board of Education consolidation would put a number of teachers out of work. That would mean fewer customers in local businesses and less tax revenue. In other words, school consolidation would negatively impact our local economy and its businesses.

The Chamber is acting irresponsibly toward this community and the children served by the Valdosta City Schools. I am again appalled by the callousness of this organization, the petty name calling and repeated misinformation. It is crystal clear that CUEE and the Chamber are not interested in what is best for our children.

As a positive and strong community we will rise above the bad apple that misbehaves and move forward because it is the right thing to do, and we will continue to model appropriate behavior to our children. At the same time, we as a community must remember the lesson we have learned today: ‘greed can blind’. We are called to reach out to and to help those in need. We will continue to work together as a community and work toward the brightest future for our children.

Thank you, Mr. Gooding, for reminding us again of the path we are called to take.

Vote No for our children!!

My best wishes to you,
Karen Noll

Why the Chamber Supports Unification —Tom Gooding, Chairman, VLCoC

My opinion is appended. -jsq
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 11:17:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Tom Gooding <chamber@valdostachamber.com>
Subject: Why the Chamber Supports Unification

Dear Chamber Members:

Some ask why the Chamber supports school system unification, instead of focusing on poverty. The answer is very simple: The Chamber’s mission is to build a strong and healthy community, resulting in job opportunities for our citizens, which addresses poverty. Improving public education is the single most important thing we can do to build a strong community, grow jobs, and reduce poverty.

Valdosta’s business community consistently ranks

Continue reading →

What can we do as a community to better cooperate? —Dr. Noll

Update 3:45 PM 3 November 2011: Better transcript and pictures. See also what happened after the meeting.
Dr. Michael Noll, longtime opponent of the Industrial Authority’s formerly proposed biomass plant, asked that same board at their most recent meeting:
What can we do as a community to better cooperate, to better communicate?
He also referred to the school consolidation issue and to the nuclear vs. renewable energy issue among the reasons he gave, along with some suggestions on how to proceed, and said he would take the same message to other bodies.

Here’s the video, and a transcript is appended.


What can we do as a community to better cooperate? –Dr. Noll
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, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Dr. Noll sent an edited transcript removing some of the repetition to clarify what he was trying to say: Continue reading →

T-SPLOST Lunch and Learn report by Matt Portwood

Received this morning. -jsq
Today’s [yesterday now] T-SPLOST Lunch and Learn was the final event in the city’s
community planning month. The event was hosted by Corey Hull who taught the basics of the state’s 1% transportation sales tax. Hull’s powerpoint presentation was apparently the same one he’d spoken on several times before. As a result there was no new information. However, the presentation was revealing to me, as I’ve not been following the state’s T-SPLOST plans.

Hull spoke for roughly 40 minutes then opened the floor for Q&A. The audience quickly split between enthusiastic supporters and opponents. One supporter, a member of the Berrien County Chamber of Commerce vented her frustration over the number of businesses that will be leaving her county due to crumbling roads and out of touch freight centers. As she argued, T-SPLOST would allow a smaller community like Nashville to reduce the need for its citizens to travel to Valdosta to shop, providing a much needed boost to the local economy. One man, a strong opponent of the tax plan, described it as simply a “redistribution of wealth.” As he explained, if the T-SPLOST plan were to pass following the July 2012 vote it would only hurt local business owners. Furthermore he claimed that if local municipalities were to take responsibility for state and federal highway management, local governments would retain the costs in the long term.

Hull seemed reluctant to challenge either audience member. Instead he focused on highlighting the basics of the plan. This included explaining the basics of the 75% regional revenue pot and the 25% local discretionary pot. The approved project list that Hull passed out included plans for improvements to the Five Points intersection, a St. Augustine Road overpass, and widening of Jerry Jones Road. Hull explained that this would include both Jerry Jones and Eager Road. I asked Hull about Larry Hanson’s statement concerning the City of Valdosta’s rule that all road widening projects include a bike lane. Corey Hull explained that the road improvements to Jerry Jones would include a bike lane which would link to the lanes already on Melody Lane and Lankford Dr. This would create a bike lane from St. Augustine Road to N. Oak Street.

-Matt

Corey’s slides are on the SGRC web pages. The problem with T-SPLOST is that it forces communities like Nashville and Valdosta to all vote on projects that don’t have much relation, with penalities for not voting yes. The mayor of Nashville is the chair of the steering committee, and even he complained that if they didn’t turn in a list of projects by a given time, there was a penalty for that. These penalties are reductions in state transportation funding for other existing projects. For that matter, why should the Jerry Jones bike lane be tied to the Old US 41 N widening boondoggle that went from $8M to $12M in two months? No one will tell us who raised it or why, nor who made all these other wild swings in estimated costs. Meanwhile $7.5M for a bus system from Wiregrass Tech to southside, from Moody to the Mall, by way of VSU, VHS, and LHS, has vanished from the list.

Anyway, regarding yesterday’s event, according to Corey Hull, the City of Valdosta was going to video it and Corey will advertise when it will appear on the City’s TV channel. For those of us who don’t get that channel, there is some unknown level of possibility the videos may be on the web.

-jsq