A parent (didn’t get her name; sorry) who said her children were
in Lowndes County schools and she had gone to Valdosta City schools
wanted to know if CUEE had collected any data to compare parental
involvement between the two school systems.
Parental involvement is not as high as it should be… and the first step will be to start in everyone’s home….(Oh, and I can hear Continue reading
[applause]
George Rhynes complimented Ashley Paulk for having provided
information about people in jail when Paulk was Sheriff,
and noted that unfortunately that had not been the case since.
He asked if someone could point him to where he could get such
information.
Chairman Paulk reminded him that the Sheriff is a constitutional
officer, and the Commission did not direct him.
George Rhynes responded:
Everywhere I go, I hear that. I go to Brooks County, and they inform me of the same thing.Chairman Paulk noted:
… by state law.They agreed on that, and George said he thought nonetheless:
Seems like somebody in the state of Georgia would know how to get that information, if it is open.
George also said: Continue reading
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 $200So 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
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:
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: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.
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
He must be a lot older than he seems, since LCHS closed about
1968 when it was combined with Hahira High School to create
Lowndes High School.
He did have a good point, though (paraphrasing): 80% of prisoners are less than 30 years old.
Are you gonna get the parents involved?Lowndes County Schools Supt. Smith responded that they are working diligently through Community Partners in Education to do that. He also talked about Valdosta and Lowndes schools already improving their graduation rates. And school, home, and community as three legs of a stool.
We’re striving to do better every day.
Here’s the video: Continue reading
Here’s the agenda:
Continue readingLOWNDES 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
George Rhynes tied together parents, jobs, Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act, and local education at the
VBOE 25 October 2011 open forum.
His question:
If we are concerned about our children really getting an education, better be concerned about equal employment and getting federal funds, so these parents get their equal share of the jobs, in the community…. I’m talking about the qualified parents that apply for jobs in this area and some of you know they don’t get them.
[applause]
Here’s Part 1 of 2: Continue reading
I was approached after the meeting and informed that theIndustrial Authority intends to invite communal leaders like myself to brain storming sessions in the future, although I do not know yet the design for such a forum, nor have I received any invitations as of today. Still, if there is one thing that has again become clear in the context of the consolidation issue, our community desperately needs structures that a) allow for more transparency and b) forums in which we can take advantage of the creative energy that exist in our community, INSTEAD of trying to shut people out, to hide information from them, or to push through divisive agendas.
It is my hope that the leaders of the Industrial Authority, as well as the City Council, the Lowndes County Commission, and the Chamber of Commerce for that matter, understand the opportunity we have: to turn a weakness (as exposed by the way we handled biomass, and are currently handling the consolidation issue) into a strength … via communication and cooperation … as is appropriate for a true community.
-Michael.
Video of the open forum Tuesday night at Lowndes High School
where the Lowndes County Board of Education thoroughly addressed
new evidence found by both them and CUEE.
Partly through the information they presented at
their previous forum of 4 October,
they provoked dialog with CUEE in the form of several email
messages from consolidation proponents distributed by the Chamber of Commerce.
At Tuesday’s forum the Lowndes board and staff took CUEE’s messages
as questions, looked up the answers (for example, how much did
taxes rise in places where there was school consolidation recently?)
and worked the result into their own computations.
The general answer is still that consolidation wouldn’t improve
education and would raise property taxes to near the state-mandated
cap, yet that wouldn’t be enough to preserve all the existing
school programs, and teachers and staff would also have to be
let go.
So the Lowndes Board and the Valdosta board (several VBOE members plus Supt. Cason were present, and one repeated point was that the two school boards and staff talk to each other all the time) used CUEE’s questions to improve the case against consolidation while promoting community dialog. They even managed to criticize specific named individuals for specific messages Continue reading
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