Mrs. Ruth Council said CUEE needs “parents, administrators, business people,
everybody, city and county”.
Whether we unify or not, we need to improve our educational offerings for our boys and girls. … Will you please come to the meeting on the seventh and provide information that you think will benefit.The meeting is actually 7-10 PM 5 May 2011 at the Valdosta City Hall Annex.
Here’s Part 1 of 2: Continue reading
Speakers pro and con school unification assembled up front
to talk about procedures, and a listener took exception to that.
Dr. Lee Allen said the important thing was “the simple idea of what we want to do”
and then talked about the 1960s and what he didn’t want to hear about that.
He never did say what he wanted to do now.
Here’s Part 1 of 3: Continue reading
We have complaints that some people couldn’t understand
what Dr. Mark George was saying in
the previous post of his remarks at Monday’s Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting,
so here’s another version from a different camera.
Feedback, please.
He said the Chamber of Commerce said schools were not its issue. Dr. George pointed out that it was the Chamber and the real estate industry that largely produced the current situation by funelling people to the county schools.
He said the unification project started with a request from the Industrial Authority, who said it didn’t look good when potential industry saw there was a black school system and a white school system. (The timing of this is interesting, because it comes after Brad Lofton was hired as VLCIA Executive Director, and other people formerly associated with VLCIA say they were never asked by any potential industry how many school systems we have.)
Dr. George discussed many other interesting points, such as CUEE’s terminology drift from consolidation to integration to unification.
Here’s Part 1 of 2:
Camera 2: Dr. Mark George about CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011 Part 1 of 2:
Debate between proponents of school system unification (CUEE) and opponents,
at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), Gretchen Quarterman chair,
Videos by George Rhynes, Jim Parker, John S. Quarterman, and Gretchen Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2011.
In this second video from camera 2,
Dr. George noted
that the Valdosta school system is internally segregated.
He said both he and Rev. Rose asked to have somebody put on the CUEE council, and that that didn’t happen.
There’s more; you can watch it for yourself. Here’s Part 2 of 2:
Camera 2: Dr. Mark George about CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011 Part 2 of 2:
Debate between proponents of school system unification (CUEE) and opponents,
at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), Gretchen Quarterman chair,
Videos by George Rhynes, Jim Parker, John S. Quarterman, and Gretchen Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2011.
-jsq
Update: See other post for
videos from another camera with better sound.
Dr. Mark George pointed out that school consolidation didn’t solve some problems last time:
In 2011 our schools were more segregated racially than they were in 1968.He questioned why people should believe that consolidation, even if called unification, would solve those same problems this time.
Continuing the
debate between proponents and opponents of unification of the
Valdosta and Lowndes County School Systems, organized by
Gretchen Quarterman, chair of the
The Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP).
Here, speaking against, is Dr. Mark George.
Here’s Part 1 of 3: Continue reading
Rev. George Bennett stated what he believes:
I’m on the CUEE board because I believe a unified school system can better serve children of our community, and particularly children in the city of Valdosta.
Gretchen Quarterman, chair of the The Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), organized a debate between proponents and opponents of unification of the Valdosta and Lowndes County School Systems. Here, speaking for, is Dr. George Bennett, on the board of Community Unification for Educational Excellence (CUEE).
In the first video, Dr. Bennett talks about his history with the Valdosta schools. Here’s Part 1 of 3: Continue reading
However, at 7PM the Lake Park City Council meets. We can go see a city council that talks to its people during its meetings!
Help cover food, water, transportation, incarceration, solar energy, biomass, and regular local government meetings: you never know when news will be made!
If you follow the LAKE blog, On the LAKE Front, which you can also see through the LAKE facebook page, you know what we cover, from protesters to private prisons to gardening to schools, all of which turn out to be related. What else do you want to investigate? You can be LAKE, too! Continue reading
Q: HOW WILL UNIFICATION OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEMS IMPROVE EDUCATION?Unfortunately, CUEE didn’t stop there. Their FAQ continues: Continue reading
A: School unification, by itself, will not improve the quality of education for our children.
I ran across some interesting information at
The American Lung Association
web site about
the state of air quality.
There were several things that jumped out at me right away.
Do the leaders of our area really want us to be like the Atlanta area? Do we want to poison our children, our parents and our grandparents with dirty air? Dirty air leads to both lung and cardiovascular disease.
What are a few of things we could do to keep our air clean?
-Gretchen
While LAKE would be ecstatic if all elected and appointed bodies did their own PR so we didn’t have to, in the meantime, we’re here, and we do what we can, with a little help from everyone involved.
The member who hardly ever speaks at board meetings makes a strong case for openness.
Tom Call called me back about the biomass plant, and we talked about a number of other matters. He remarked that he was not an appointed spokesperson for the Industrial Authority, so this is just him talking.
I asked him about Ashley Paulk’s remarks in the 26 April 2011 Lowndes County Commission meeting. Tom Call said VLCIA was not standing behind any other body, and he clarified what had happened.
He said the biomass plant had been brought to the Industrial Authority by Continue reading