Lake Park Chamber of Commerce wrote 21 Oct 2011, Lunch & Learn: What is Lowndes County Extension:
Where: Lake Park Civic Center
123 N Essa St.
Lake Park, GA 31636
When: Wed 9 Nov 2011
from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EST
Don’t miss out on this Lunch & Learn!The Lowndes County Extension Service is a program dedicated to educating our future workforce and getting the local community involved.
-jsq
Sam Allen summed it up before the march:
CUEE you have done what you tried to do.
You have brought us together.
United we stand.
Here’s the video:
CUEE you have done what you tried to do —Sam Allen
No school consolidation,
Vote No for Consolidation March, Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Although maybe this isn’t exactly what CUEE wanted FVCS, SCLC, NAACP,
both school boards, the Valdosta City Council, etc. united about:
What are we gonna do?
Vote!
How we gonna vote?
No!
Here’s the video: Continue reading
A letter last week asked, “Do you have solar energy yourself?” Why yes, I do.Continue readingWhen we installed solar panels on our farm workshop in 2009, the closest certified solar installer was in Marietta. There were only four in the state. Now there are forty. Georgia may yet catch up with North Carolina and even New Jersey!
Hannah Solar had all the paperwork ready when Okra Paradise Farms applied for a USDA REAP grant for more solar panels a few weeks ago. Much to our surprise,
To the people of Valdosta and South GeorgiaContinue reading
We, the local citizens occupying Valdosta, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; to nonviolently occupy public space; to create an open process to address the problems we face, and to generate solutions accessible to everyone.
Our issues are varied, yet related.
We seek
The first question Kent Bishop asked at the Chamber’s Candidates Forum,
where he got eight minutes to speak for school consolidation while
each of the candidates for Valdosta Mayor only got five,
still hung in my mind at the end:
What qualifies you to come talk about education?Like so many CUEE speakers, he isn’t an educator and he hadn’t done his homework.
You know, what I hear is that, from the other side, is that our taxes would go up because of consolidation. The facts just don’t point to that. Generally what you’d see is some blending of the costs. And if we do that and average it out, we’re gonna find the two millage rates will come out somewhere in the middle. It makes total sense.Well, maybe it makes total sense if you like just making stuff up. Or you can see, hear, and read the extensive research by the Lowndes County Board of Education that demonstrates if consolidation passes taxes will go up and public school services will go down.
The speaker went on about ongoing white flight, without ever mentioning that consolidation would cause bright flight to head out of the county to Lanier and elsewhere.
He did come right out and admit something I’ve been saying: Continue reading
Here are extracts from a timeline by PBS’s Frontline, The Long Demise of Glass-Steagall,
66 years later, after numerous weakenings: Continue reading“In 1933, Senator Carter Glass (D-Va.) and Congressman Henry Steagall (D-Ala.) introduce the historic legislation that bears their name, seeking to limit the conflicts of interest created when commercial banks are permitted to underwrite stocks or bonds. In the early part of the century, individual investors were seriously hurt by banks whose overriding interest was promoting stocks of interest and benefit to the banks, rather than to individual investors. The new law bans commercial banks from underwriting securities, forcing banks to choose between being a simple lender or an underwriter (brokerage). The act also establishes the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), insuring bank deposits, and strengthens the Federal Reserve’s control over credit.”
If I were Superintendent in the Lowndes County School System on November 9, 2011 and I had 7700 additional students and a potential $10 Million Deficit this would be my starting list:
Winners:
- Bus Drivers (ALL – NO supervisors, trainers or mechanics)
- Lunchroom Staff (Until we decide which schools to close)
- Custodial Staff (Until we decide which schools to close – no supervisor)
- Media Specialists (Until we decide which schools to close – then I would move you down to the Losers section)
- 2 Maintenance Workers (Heating/Air – no supervisor)
- Academic Teachers (with good evaluations) – NOT ALL because I would raise teacher class size to the max and ask for a waiver for an additional child or two 1 Asst. Superintendent
- 2 Technology support staff (no Supervisors)
- School Secty (Until we decide which schools to close)
- 1 Finance staff person (Payroll)
- Principals (Until we decide which schools to close – except Southeast, will not rebuild)
Losers:
- Teachers (especially ones that do not have tenure)
- Assistant Principals (at Elementary Schools that have more than one)
- Media Specialists (Until we decide which schools to close)
- 3 Curriculum Directors at Central Office
- Technology Supervisor
- Special Education Director
- 2 Assistant Superintendents
- Director of ESPLOST Projects
- Superintendent
- All Central Office Support Staff
- Food Service Director and Staff
- Ticket Manager
- Community Relations Director
- 1 Social Worker
- VECA Staff (ALL)
- Pinevale Learning Center Staff (ALL)
- Personnel Director and Staff
- Title I Director and Staff
- Director of Testing
- Mail Courier
- Vocational Teachers due to change in direction (Not All)
- Elective Teachers (Some)
- Parent Involvement Coordinators (Title I $ will be cut)
- Instructional Supervisors
- Para Educators (except for Special Education)
- Valdosta Police Department Dare Officers/SRO’s and Football Games (taken over by the County if funding is available)
- 1 Band Director at VHS – student fees will increase and school will not furnish as many instruments
- Performing Arts Center Mgr. – public will be charged a higher costs to use
- Director of Purchasing and Staff
- 1 School Psychologist
- 9 Board of Education Members
- 2 @ Asst Principals at VMS and JLN
- 2 Asst Principals at VHS
- No Swim Team staff
- IB Teachers would be relocated if positions are available
- 5 Furlough days for the first year
- School Board Attorney
School Closing:
- Southeast
- Pinevale Learning Center
- VECA
- JL Lomax ???
- Parker Mathis
- Old Pine Grove
- Moulton- Branch ????
Sell:
Now it took me about 15 minutes to come up with this list and it’s not near what my actually happen during the 2011-12 school year if we don’t get people out to vote against this misguided attempt to dismantle our schools. If I didn’t include you don’t thank for one second that you are safe. Remember I didn’t hire you and I don’t owe you anything, so pay your bills on time and keep your credit ratings high because you may need to rent for a while.
- Bazemore Hyder Stadium and Central Office to VSU at Fair Market Value – Wildcat Museum would be housed at the Historical Society
- Southeast School
- VECA to VSU at Fair Market Value
- Pinevale Learning Center
-Samuel Allen, Superintendent Emeritus
photograph) that appeared in the Valdosta Daily Times in response to my
earlier piece on
“Solar: Infinite and Clean”. The Valdosta Daily Times
seems to enforce a quota of sorts at this time, so they won’t publish
my additional information for Mr. Blankenship and other “skeptics”.
At the state level you can contact the “Georgia Solar Energy
Association” (www.gasolar.org/)
to learn more about the viability
of solar power in 2011, which is quite different from the situation
in 2001. A larger solar firm our community
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!
-jsq
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