If TV cameras show up for football, why don’t they show up
“when the people come together on issues such as this,
not just black folk, not just white folk, but all Americans
are here tonight because of our concern”?
George Boston Rhynes made three points: Continue reading
The school consolidation referendum is already having ill effects more than
two months before anybody gets to vote on it.
The Valdosta School Board has had to postpone further work planning
for a new elementary school.
Valdosta School Superintendent Cason made what probably would have been a routine report about 11. A. Selection of architect for Southeast Elementary – Dr. Cason – information only:
However, since the referendum for consolidation made the ballot, it would be impossible for us to sell bonds at this time.because who would buy them, knowing the selling school board might not exist come this November? Or, if the consolidation referendum passes, for some unknown time after that? So the board decided to postpone even selecting an architect until the consolidation question is resolved.
Here’s the video:
“It would be impossible for us to sell bonds at this time” —Dr. Cason @ VBOE 29 August 2011
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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In CCA’s 2010 Annual Report to the SEC:
CCA doesn’t like community opposition, because it reduces CCA’s ability to site prisons, which adversely affects their bottom line. Funny how that happens because a private prison company’s main goal is profit, not rehabilitation, public safety, or justice.We may face community opposition to facility location, which may adversely affect our ability to obtain new contracts. Our success in obtaining new awards and contracts sometimes depends, in part, upon our ability to locate land that can be leased or acquired, on economically favorable terms, by us or other entities working with us in conjunction with our proposal to construct and/or manage a facility. Some locations may be in or near populous areas and, therefore, may generate legal action or other forms of opposition from residents in areas surrounding a proposed site. When we select the intended project site, we attempt to conduct business in communities where local leaders and residents generally support the establishment of a privatized correctional or detention facility. Future efforts to find suitable host communities may not be successful. We may incur substantial costs in evaluating the feasibility of the development of a correctional or detention facility. As a result, we may report significant charges if we decide to abandon efforts to develop a correctional or detention facility on a particular site. In many cases, the site selection is made by the contracting governmental entity. In such cases, site selection may be made for reasons related to political and/or economic development interests and may lead to the selection of sites that have less favorable environments.
We don’t have to accept a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. If we tell the Industrial Authority and CCA no, CCA will probably go away.
And the more communities that tell CCA no, the less profitable they will be.
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After dancing around the issue and muttering about “ugly turns”, the VDT finally gets to the point in its editorial of today:
Most of those questions do have answers: Continue readingWe still believe in school unification, but we can no longer support the current effort.
For the past several weeks, readers have asked us how unification would work. Would it change millage rates? Would students be bussed cross-county? Who would lose or keep their jobs? When would Valdosta City Schools dissolve its charter and the Lowndes County School System take over? What are the estimates on cost savings? Would it be more efficient? What happens Nov. 9, the day after the election?
We’ve asked these questions, too. No one can answer them.
The organization that worked to place the issue on the ballot has not offered satisfactory answers. Community Unification for Educational Excellence has admirably spent time proposing ways to increase academic performance if the systems are unified. But CUEE has yet to present a recommended plan for how the merger would work.
If the referendum passes, the school boards will decide how unification would proceed. And both school boards are opposed to unification.
It is this prevailing sense of the unknown that has spurred The Times to oppose the Nov. 8 referendum.
There are too many unanswered questions. There are too many uncertainties at this point. There has to be a better way to present this to the voters.
A vote for unification in this climate is a vote for chaos.
There’s no need to speculate that private prison companies have incentive to keep more people locked up: CCA says so. Kanya D’Almeida wrote for IPS 24 August 2011, ‘Profiteers of Misery’: The U.S. Private Prison Industrial Complex:
What’s this got to do with Georgia? Continue readingCCA’s 2010 annual report states categorically that, “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws — for instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.”
CCA continues, “Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some non-violent crimes and make more inmates eligible for early release based on good behaviour, (while) sentencing alternatives under consideration could put some offenders on probation who would otherwise be incarcerated. Similarly, reductions in crime rates or resources dedicated to prevent and enforce crime could lead to reductions in arrests, convictions and sentences requiring incarceration at correctional facilities.”
are trying to prevent the damage to education
CUEE is trying to cause through its
“unification” referendum,
CUEE had a meeting of its educational committee yesterday.
Sharah Denton wrote for the VDT, CUEE focuses on academics:
Anyone attending the CUEE meeting expecting a plan for how unification of the city and county school systems would work left disappointed. Instead of discussing how the school systems might merge if CUEE’s campaign to dissolve the Valdosta school charter succeeds during the Nov. 8 election referendum, the Education Planning Task Force focused on its primary objective: improving academics for area students.So they have no plan, and of course they also have no control over academics. If “unification” passes, that control would lie with Continue reading
The Flatlander Fall Frolic, today and tomorrow in Lakeland, Georgia,
9-5 today, 10-5 tomorrow.
That’s the Arts and Crafts show. Other things are also going on.
Arts and Crafts is at Threatte Center at the corner of GA 37 and US 221 and US 129.
Go to Lakeland and follow the signs.
There’s usually music after the Arts and Crafts show closes.
| “South Georgia’s Premier Community Festival” –VDT |
The Frolic is among South Georgia’s longest running community festivals. The event was started by the Lanier County Lions Club on Labor Day, 1971, as a one-day event. Through the years the Frolic has grown to include diverse entertainment over as many as seven days. The 40-year-old frolic includes the Country Music Show, Miss Fall Frolic Beauty Pageant, the Dawg-Gone Good Race (5k and 1-Mile Run), and Flatlanders Arts & Crafts Show. The Lions Club continues as the overall sponsor of the frolic. Flatlander Arts & Crafts Show attracts artists and craftsmen from across Georgia and other nearby states. Now produced by the Lakeland-Lanier County Chamber of Commerce, the outdoor exhibition features special activities for children, a variety of food and beverages, and stage entertainment at intervals.See you there.
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| Mayor |
Brooks D. Bivins !
John Gayle Gary Minchew |
|---|---|
| At Large | Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton * |
| Council 1 | James R. Wright * |
| Council 3 | Joseph Sonny Vickers * |
| Council 5 | Tim Carroll* |
| Council 2 | Bruce Cain * |
|---|---|
| Council 3 | Ralph Clendenin *
Sherry Parham Brown |
| Post 2 special election |
Donald J. Bryan
James (Jim) Dew ! Becky Rogers (was held by Rodney Lieupo) |
|---|---|
| Post 3 |
Albert Hall !
Edwin R. Smith * |
| Post 4 | Anita Armstrong * |
| Mayor | Walker Keith Sandlin *|
|---|---|
| City Council At Large (Vote for 4) | Eric Schindler *
Ronald Carter * Paul Mulkey * Cathi Brown ! Russell Lane ! Sandy Sherrill ! |
|
Special election
voting now |
Cathy Brown
Sandy Sherrill Whoever wins will also have to run again in November. |
| Mayor | Cornelius Holsendolph *! |
|---|---|
| City Council At Large (Vote for 5) |
Alexander Abell !
Sam P. Flemming, Jr. ! Steven Koffler ! Jasen L. Tatum * Bill Wetherington * |
| District 4 | Dean R. Rexroth * |
|---|---|
| District 5 | Julian Carol Sherwood III * |
| District 6 | Bill Love * |
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| Mayor |
Brooks D. Bivins !
John Gayle Gary Minchew |
|---|---|
| At Large | Matt Flumerfelt
Ben Norton * |
| Council 1 | James R. Wright * |
| Council 3 | Joseph Sonny Vickers * |
| Council 5 | Tim Carroll* |
| Council 2 | Bruce Cain * |
|---|---|
| Council 3 | Ralph Clendenin *
Sherry Parham Brown |
| Post 2 special election |
Donald J. Bryan
James (Jim) Dew ! Becky Rogers (was held by Rodney Lieupo) |
|---|---|
| Post 3 |
Albert Hall !
Edwin R. Smith * |
| Post 4 | Anita Armstrong * |
| Mayor | Walker Keith Sandlin *|
|---|---|
| City Council At Large (Vote for 4) | Eric Schindler *
Ronald Carter * Paul Mulkey * Cathi Brown ! Russell Lane ! Sandy Sherrill ! |
|
Special election
voting now |
Cathy Brown
Sandy Sherrill Whoever wins will also have to run again in November. |
| Mayor | Cornelius Holsendolph *! |
|---|---|
| City Council At Large (Vote for 5) |
Alexander Abell !
Sam P. Flemming, Jr. ! Steven Koffler ! Jasen L. Tatum * Bill Wetherington * |
| District 4 | Dean R. Rexroth * |
|---|---|
| District 5 | Julian Carol Sherwood III * |
| District 6 | Bill Love * |
CUEE has lost its framing. Nobody calls it “unification” but CUEE.
Everybody else calls it consolidation, same as for the last thirty years.
And Sam Allen is turning the tide against it.
Sam Allen, president of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) and former Valdosta School Superintendent said:
I promised myself three years ago when I left this place, that one thing I would never do, and that would come and attend another board meeting.He said he came for a good cause this time.
And that’s the point, isn’t it? Continue readingThe CUEE group is calling this unification all of a sudden. And I think that’s just a play on words, and a play on our intelligence. Because for thirty years we’ve called this process consolidation. Now all of a sudden we’re calling it unification.
We’re calling it unification because the only thing that we want to change is the central office. We want all the schools to remain the same. The only thing we want to change is what goes on right here at 1204 Williams Street.
Well if you’re going to unify a community, something has to change. This group has failed to put together a plan that we can follow.