Tag Archives: Work Session

Hamilton Co. TN is high priority school district —David Mullis @ VBOE 29 August 2011

I didn’t catch his name, but he David Mullis talked about his children and said:
All of my children have fourished in the Valdosta School System.

The special ed program they have here is second to none.
Then he got to the night’s topic:
When I look at these things when people talk about consolidation, I have to ask the question: why do they want to consolidate two school systems? The things that they say sound good. I think everything they say would be agreab What do they mean by them? And I have a little bit of a problem; whenever somebody wants to combine two groups together, it almost looks like they want to control the whole.
And this little bombshell:
It seems like the group that is most pushing this thing is referring to the Tennessee Hamilton County system, which if you read their site, sounds like their statistics are good and everything’s working good. Except that there’s some data that came out a month ago that says that they are, the first time, the entire district is high priority.

That means they had two years of bad results.
There’s more in the video:


Hamilton Co. TN is high priority school district @ 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.

-jsq

The most damaging useless thing —Craig Cardella @ VBOE 29 August 2011

Craig Cardella said his wife Anne was a current Valdosta City Schools teacher and former Teacher of the year, and he was a former city manager who had done community development all his life.
I can tell you without doubt this is the most damaging useless thing I’ve seen proposed in many many years. This will do more damage to our community than just about anything I can think of short of a hurricane running through the middle of town. It will damage both the county and the city school systems severely. It will hinder the growth of the education of our children. It will cause chaos among the city and county school staffs, both of which are like this, because a lot of times they’re the same people.

Here’s the video:


The most damaging useless thing —Craig Cardell @ 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.

More transcription; he’s just getting to the best parts: Continue reading

Consolidation won’t improve education so I see no need for it ever —John S. Quarterman @ VBOE 29 August 2011

I see nothing in consolidation that would improve education, so I see no need for it ever.

I got to the VBOE meeting really early, so I was the first to sign up to speak. My main topic was to praise the Valdosta Board of Education for putting their agendas online in web-readable form (rather than entombed in PDF as so many other organizations do).

Here’s the video:


Consolidation won’t improve education so I see no need for it ever —John S. Quarterman @ VBOE 29 August 2011
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 August 2011.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I.

Later I also complimented the chair for having one of those rare objects, a clock on the wall where everyone can see it so they can know how long they’ve spoken already.

Thanks, George, for the compliments in the information on your YouTube video. You were blogging long before LAKE. Everyone please look at George’s blog, K.V.C.I. Keeping Valdosta Citizens Informed.

-jsq

1PM (confirmed) today LCBOE to vote on school consolidation

The Lowndes County Board of Education has put up an agenda for today’s called meeting at 1PM, which includes these items:
VI. a. Resolution Regarding Consolidation
VII. a. Resolution Adoption
Hm, another school board that puts its agendas online in web-readable form. Maybe the municipal elected and appointed bodies could adopt this format.

On the other hand, would you want to merge with a school board that doesn’t know when its own meetings are? I went to the Lowndes County Board of Education at 11:30, and the woman (Terri) who previously told me that was the time of today’s called meeting now says it is 1PM. She apologizes for the confusion. She says it was previously 11:30, but they changed it to 1PM.

Here’s the video:


1PM (confirmed) today LCBOE to vote on school consolidation
education, referendum, consolidation, statement,
Work Session, Lowndes County Board of Education (LCBOE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 30 August 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

FVCS @ VBOE 29 August 2011

You can see them inside during during the reading of the statement and after the vote. Many of them spoke during Citizens to be Heard; video to come of that. Here they are outside afterwards:

-jsq

VBOE voting to oppose school consolidation 29 August 2011

The Valdosta Board of Education voted tonight 8 to 1 for a statement opposing school system consolidation.

As she said she would, Jeana Beeland voted no. That’s eight to one for the statement against school consolidation.

Here’s the video:


VBOE voting to oppose school consolidation
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.

-jsq

Lowndes County School Board meeting 11:30AM 1PM today

Update 12:15AM 30 August 2011: It’s really at 1PM and an agenda is posted now.

I called the Lowndes County School Board number just now at (229) 245-2250 and asked if there was a school board meeting today. They said yes, at 11:30. (That’s different from the rumored time of 1PM.) It’s a called meeting for the purpose of discussing school system consolidation. The woman who provided this information said:

Not sure there’s a resolution. They may say their stands.
They meet at 1592 Norman Drive in Valdosta.

There is at this writing nothing on their web page and no notice in the newspaper that I can find. Of course by state law all they have to do for a called meeting is to post a notice at their meeting location and send a notice to the newspaper of record; the newspaper doesn’t have to publish it.

-jsq

Why I’m going to vote against the motion —Jeana Beeland @ VBOE 29 August 2011

A motion and a second were heard on the statement just read by Vanassa Flucas. Jeana Beeland spoke up, talking about how proud she was of the school system and how it has grown; she went to VHS; her children are in the system, and “I know it’s serving them well”.
And my greatest fear is that I will come to you so biased because I know that the school systems not consolidating for the next few years is what’s best for my child….

More transcription after the video:


Why I’m going to vote against the motion —Jeana Beeland @ 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.

But there are so many people involved in this issue…. And I
Continue reading

Valdosta School Board statement against school consolidation

Chairman Lee asked Vanassa Flucas to read the statement the board was about to vote on regarding school system consolidation:
The Valdosta City School Board opposes consolidating the Valdosta City and Lowndes County school systems at this time. The board feels that a decision to merge the two systems should be a collaboratively planned effort between the two school boards, the citizens of both the city and the county, along with those who have the best interest in educating all the children of our area.
Statement text continued after the video:


Valdosta School Board statement against school consolidation
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.

The Valdosta City School Board is proud of our school system. We have an organization that
Continue reading

VBOE voted to oppose school consolidation

The Valdosta Board of Education voted tonight 8 to 1 for a statement opposing school system consolidation. Here are some still pictures.
Update 10AM 30 August 2011: Video to come of the board statements and vote is now available (see below).

Chairman Lee asked Vanassa Flucas to read the statement.

The statement Ms. Flucas read is on the VBOE website LAKE video is now available.

The Valdosta City School Board opposes consolidating the Valdosta City and Lowndes County school systems at this time. This Board feels that a decision to merge the two systems should be a collaboratively planned effort between the two school boards and citizens of both the city and county, along with those who have the best interest in educating all the children of our area.

The Valdosta City School Board is proud

Continue reading