Questions for CUEE —Etta Mims

Received today.
Updated 5PM 28 Sep 2011: Added preface and other changes to the document by Etta Mims. -jsq
I am attaching an 8 page document I compiled this week to show that CUEE and the Vote Yes supporters are not answering the questions being asked of them. They are dancing around the topics but these supporters are spending alot of money to put our children and the employees of both schools in danger of 4-5 years minimum of changes that will be detrimental to all concerned.

Another interesting note, if you go to the Vote Yes page, and

Continue reading

CUEE demolishes its own case

CUEE still doesn’t have a plan for improving education. When asked for any concrete examples of education improving because of school consolidation, not one person could come up with one: not CUEE, not the Chamber, not their invited experts. Their invited experts established that consolidation in Troup County not only didn’t save money, it required a bond issue. And it took four or five years of the hardest work they’d ever done, even though they couldn’t give any evidence that it improved education. It was like that on almost every point: the Chamber and CUEE either couldn’t answer the simplest questions, or even more frequently demolished their own case.

The last question asked to give an example of any company that had declined to come in because of multiple school systems. Not only could nobody give an example, but someone, I believe it was Walter Hobgood, stood up at the podium and said when he was working for a large company he had never encountered a case where they looked at the number of school systems.

Early on Chamber Chair Tom Gooding went on at great length about Continue reading

Local leadership nets $1.5 billion solar project

That’s 400 MW of solar power in twenty 20 MW PV plants, just across the state line in Gadsden County, Florida. Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment, and customers for the electricity.

According to SolarServer quoting a National Solar press release yesterday, National Solar Power chooses Gadsden County, Florida for 400 MW PV project

The company estimates that the 400 MW project will create 400 jobs during the five-year construction phase and up to 120 permanent operations jobs.
And that’s not all. According to Solar Energy News today, Plan to build $1.5bn solar farm in Florida, Continue reading

18 years later in Troup County

“Unification” of LaGrange City and Troup County schools was in 1993. Eighteen years later, it’s still a mess.

Natalie Shelton wrote March 2011 for LaGrange Daily News Online, Parents: Seek other options to school consolidation

In considering the change at West Side, officials noted in last year’s budget proposal talks that about 73 percent of its students are bus riders, brought from all parts of the county. The school posts a per-student transportation cost of $1,198, more than twice the zone average of $529.

“Why is West Side so important to the county?” parent Brandi Kennedy asked. “You have buses picking up kids all over the county to go to West Side.”

Because children are chosen to attend the magnet school through a lottery, Kennedy said she couldn’t understand funding the fine-arts focus of the school when it is not more prestigious than other county schools.

There are some unhappy parents and students: Continue reading

Detracking Troup County, according to Terry Jenkins

In Troup County, school “unification” was all about race and desegregation, according to the speaker our local Chamber is bringing in Tuesday evening.

Dr. Terry Jenkins, co-authored an interesting paper in 1997, Detracking Troup County: Providing an Exemplary Curriculum for All Students.

As series of decisions, not unrelated to race, made by the “white fathers” of the city of LaGrange, led the citizens of the city to vote their school system out of existence and to become a part of the county system.
The quotes around “white fathers” are in the paper.

Hm, back when I first encountered CUEE, they were speaking to SCLC in Valdosta late last year, Rusty Griffin among them, and the theme was desegregation. They did not receive a warm welcome. Funny how CUEE changed its tune to “unification” after that.

But the local “white fathers” are still insisting on making decisions for all of us.

-jsq

Chamber Punts for CUEE

Received today. Guess they’ve forgotten about CUEE’s Kick-Off event back in March, at which CUEE Vice-Chairman Rusty Griffin spoke. -jsq
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:36:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Rusty Griffin <chamber @valdostachamber .com>
Subject: School Unification Forum: 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday

SCHOOL UNIFICATION FORUM:

Make your plans now to attend the first Vote YES public forum on school unification, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at the Rainwater Conference Center.

Our guest speaker will be Dr. Terry Jenkins, who served as the Superintendent of Troup County Schools during the unification process of LaGrange and Troup County school systems in 1992.

Many of the same issues and rumors being discussed locally were also debated when LaGrange and Troup County were voting to unify their school systems. In his presentation, Dr. Jenkins will discuss how the school unification issue unfolded in Troup County, its impact to improving test scores and graduation rates, and how the decision to unify their school systems has transformed the community for the better.

Corrected T-SPLOST Southern Region Cost Changes

Received this morning. Many thanks to Corey Hull and SGRC for sending this correction. -jsq
John,

I reviewed your question, and that project had an error in it, I am attaching a new spreadsheet, that is slightly revised. It includes the TIA funding with inflation so that it matches the other project sheets that we have handed out at the public meetings

I am sorry about the confusion this has caused.

Sincerely,
Corey

Corey Hull, AICP
MPO Coordinator
Valdosta-Lowndes MPO

This corrects the earlier post.

The corrected spreadsheet he sent is on the LAKE website in Excel spreadsheet and HTML versions.

In the HTML version, I have added three columns. Name is taken from the Unconstrained Project Listing. Difference and Diff% were computed from the Original total Cost Estimate and the Updated Total Cost Estimate.

The project descriptions may be found in the unconstrained and constrained project lists. More later.

-jsq

Lowndes County Commission: presentations, appointment, resolutions, and contracts

No rezonings but a nomber of other things. Too bad this one is only in the work session; sounds interesting:
6. Community Wildfire Protection Plan Presentation (Buck Kline) — Work Session Only
Here’s a writeup about Chief Senior Ranger Buck Kline.

There’s an appointment to a relatively new (1994) board:

7. Appointment for Introduction – South Georgia Community Service Board-Sheila Wakeley

Here’s the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading

WordPress blog on animal protection problems

Susan Leavens has branched out from her facebook page, Georgia’s Regulatory Animal Protection Division the truth behind them, and has now created a WordPress blog, Georgia Department of Agriculture Animal Protection Problems

Among other things, she’s reposted a bunch of LAKE posts about animal shelter issues. That’s kosher, as long as there’s attribution, which she has included. I applaud Susan for starting her own blog!

-jsq

Tom Gooding and the Chamber rebuffed @ VBOE 20 Sep 2011

Tom Gooding, Chair of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce, asked the school boards to do the Chamber’s homework. He got no takers.

Reiterating the Chamber’s demand from its letter of 9 September 2011, Gooding asked VBOE superintendent Dr. Cason at the 20 September VBOE forum to commit to meeting about what to do if the “unification” referendum passes.

Dr. Cason said that should have happened two years ago, and

Now is not the appropriate time.
He said if the referendum passes, then the two school boards will sit down together. Dr. Cason didn’t say anything about inviting the Chamber or CUEE to such meetings, since, after all, neither the Chamber or CUEE would have any legal role.

Here’s the video:


Tom Gooding rebuffed @ VBOE 20 Sep 2011
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Forum at Valdosta Middle School, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 20 September 2011.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq