Tag Archives: consolidation

Three things to actually improve education —John S. Quarterman

People ask me why I oppose CUEE.
It’s because I’d rather actually improve education instead.

It seems to me the burden of proof is on the people proposing
to make massive changes in the local education system.
And CUEE has not provided any evidence for their position.
Sam Allen of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS)

pithily sums up CUEE:

“It’s not about the children. It’s about somebody’s ego.”



I don’t think the children should have to suffer for somebody’s ego.

CUEE’s unification push isn’t about education.
It’s about

a “unified platform” to attract industry.
That alone is enough reason to oppose “unification”.
It’s not about education!

As former Industrial Authority Chair Jerome Tucker has been
heard to remark on numerous occassions, “nobody ever asked me how
many school systems we had!”
The only example in Georgia CUEE points to for this is the Kia
plant that came to Troup County, Georgia.
It’s funny how
none of the locals seem to have mentioned any such connection in the numerous articles published about the Kia plant.
Instead, the mayor of the town with the Kia plant complains that his town
doesn’t have a high school.
That’s right: he’s complaining that the school system is too
consolidated!
The only actual education between Kia and education in Troup County
is

with West Georgia Tech, the local technical college.

CUEE has finally cobbled together an education committee, but

it won’t even report back before the proposed ballot referendum vote.
CUEE has no plan to improve education.

If CUEE actually did want to help the disadvantaged in the Valdosta
City schools,

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Tinkering with number of schools doesn’t improve education —John S. Quarterman

While I agree with most of
Karen Noll’s post,
especially the part about CUEE should come clean about why it’s spending
so much money on something about which it knows little,
I don’t agree that consolidating high schools would help.

I remember when Lowndes County consolidated two high schools into one, and the rationale was cost saving and more resources for science classes. What it was really about was football.
And it worked: Lowndes High School now often wins the state championship,
and Valdosta hasn’t in a decade.
While education lags behind.

I think the Lowndes County Board of Education is doing the right

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Why is CUEE so interested? —Karen Noll

Received today on
We’re here to save our schools. -jsq

To date CUEE has lead the discussion and they have no role in making the
solutions happen if consolidation should go through. CUEE consists of
folks very minimally involved in the city schools at this time. Why is
this group so ‘interested in Valdosta City Schools’? Until this issue
is clarified CUEE’s motives will forever be questioned.

At the same time, if this issue is on the ballot we (parents, teachers,
BOEs…)must begin the true discussion of facts and become informed on
the issue that we may be called to vote on in November. So, here we are.

CUEE has spent thousands (more than 100 grand) to get this

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“Maintain our focus on educating children” —Jeana Beeland

Leigh Touchton

mentioned that

I had
heard that some Board members were elected with intention to support
consolidation but that I hadn’t heard anything about that from any of
them when they were running.



They didn’t say much about it when they were running, either.
Back in 2009, the only one who got elected who was asked about this issue, Jeana Bealand, pretty
much dodged the question at AAUW’s

Lowndes County Political Forum on 15 September 2009.

This was the forum that was the day after the VBOE meeting that drew 400 people
because of Superintendent Cason’s decision about President Obama’s speech.
Very few of those 400 people showed up at the forum to ask questions of their
likely school board members.
Maybe more people should take an interest in who is going to represent them on their school board.

Here’s

the video:




Jeana Beeland answers a question about school system consolidation

Lowndes County Political Forum, AAUW, 15 Sep 2009

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Is VBOE allowed to take a position on school consolidation? —Leigh Touchton

This comment from Leigh Touchton,

President, Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP,
came in Monday on
This is not representative of the people:

Tonight I went to the VBOE meeting and delivered the offical NAACP letter


stating our branch’s opposition to consolidation. I asked Chairman Warren
Lee if he would discuss with VBOE attorney Gary Moser and let me know
whether they are “allowed” to take a position on this. The reason I
asked this is because one of my friends says that Dr. Cason told her
that “they are not allowed” to take a position on this. To my mind,
employees might not be able to take a position, but elected officials
representing voters ought to clearly state their position on an issue
as important as school consolidation.

After the meeting was over

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There’s a lot of info I don’t have —Jon Parris

A response to Leigh Touchton.
I’ve appended a couple of comments. -jsq

I said I wouldn’t reply… but I am! :-)

Ms. Touchton, your points 1-3 make plain what I mentioned witnessing
during my professional experiences. My feeling was that those facts
alone presented a strong case for dismantling the city system.

I do understand the desire for a disenfranchised group to avoid becoming
even more marginalized… my hope was that equally shared resources and
a uniform administrative/infrastructure system would create more parity
and greater accountability.

There’s a lot of info I don’t have, perspectives I need; I must say,
being a native Valdostan, I was BAFFLED

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Some reasons our members oppose unification —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton, president of the
Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP,
responds to
a comment by Jon Parris. I’ve appended a clarification. -jsq

I can describe some reasons our members oppose unification.

  1. We believe VBOE has discriminated against black students with
    alternative school referrals.

  2. We believe VBOE has discriminated against black teachers in hiring,
    firing, promotions and demotions. I can’t describe the details of personal
    cases, but last year when the RIF directive came down, nearly 60% of
    those fired were black, and black professionals only represent 20-25%
    of the employees.

  3. The VBOE system is over 70% black students, yet the black students
    are not given equal opportunities to achieve. I can describe issues
    we brought to the Department of Justice, as well as issues about the
    Alternative school, and a very serious issue about how the Alternative
    school was given a different school code, which we believe was a ploy to
    artificially inflate the test scores at the students’ home schools. We
    have evidence that we gave to the DOJ that students were sent to PLC
    based on minor infractions.

  4. Many of our members went through the consolidation in the sixties and
    don’t want to see their children put into a situation where they will be
    even more of a minority. Our children are in the majority at Valdosta
    City Schools, but yet we still fight serious issues of discrimination
    and inequality in education.

  5. Many of us attended the CUEE education session at Serenity Church,
    and did not hear anything that changed our minds.

  6. Many of us distrust an “education” initiative brought forth from
    the Chamber of Commerce. Our branch is a member of the Chamber, and we
    support Chamber events and some policies, but we don’t support this
    one. I can’t remember a time when “business” thought it knew what
    was best for education except when school privatization was going on,
    and the studies indicated that there was no benefit to that direction
    insofar as student achievement.

Mr. Parris and Mr. Rowell, come to some of our branch meetings and we’ll
be glad to talk to you about it, so you can hear directly from us, I
am unable to completely explain the many different opinions that were
presented at the branch meeting when this came up for a vote. Also,
a former teacher named Dr. Marilyn McCluskey has written about many of
the issues we were involved in, and these descriptions can be found at
her blog TheNakedTruth4U.

-Leigh Touchton

Note it was

Alex Jones
who commented on this blog today; I’m pretty sure Alex Rowell has
a different opinion.

-jsq

Where was CUEE? —George Boston Rhynes

George Rhynes commented on
Jon Parris’s comment.
-jsq



I will be brief!

Where was CUEE and the people working to bring the two school systems
together when local citizens were fighting for change, and seeking
answers to the Hiring of Black Educators and the Federal Court Order
being complied with that was filed decades ago? Where were they then?

And why can’t we find certain people in our community until the blind
god seems to direct them from their hiding place from beneath the clay!

I have not seen these professionals take on

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I’m baffled —Jon Parris

A comment by Jon Parris on a comment.
My response is appended below. -jsq

Well-said, Alex. I’m baffled that this website and the local NAACP are
against unification… the status-quo has created a haves/have-nots
situation that is untenable if we are going to consider ourselves a
progressive area. A unified system would bring uniformity to curriculum
and scheduling, eliminate redundant administrative positions, and allow
(force?) everyone in the county to have a stake in the educational
development of all the children in the county. What basically exists now
is institutional racism… predominately lower-income minority (& some
white) kids attending resource-depleted city schools due to a shrinking
tax base, and predominately white middle and upper income kids attending
the resource-enriched county schools with an affluent tax base.

I can see the downside for an older,

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I understand what CUEE says —Alex Jones

This comment from someone named Alex Jones came in today on

Will school unification improve education?
My response is appended. -jsq

Someone pointed me to your blog on the Biomass issue, and I came across
your recent post on the school unification issue.

Just curious… have your ever examined the testing data for both school
systems? A quick look at the last report card, and you will see why most
people in this community believe our public education system is broken
and does not adequately prepare our children to either attend college
or enter the workforce.

Right now, we have two schools systems

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