VALDOSTA — The Lowndes County School System may eventually have a community service project that incorporates the entire system.
At Monday’s work session at Moulton Branch Elementary School, Jason Wisenbaker, District 4, related a story he had heard at a recent Rotary meeting.
The executive director of Habitat for Humanity, Stuart Mullis, said that when he visited a homeowner who had recently paid off his home, the man credited the house with putting his three children in college.
Before the Habitat home, the eldest child, then in middle school was ashamed to come home, Wisenbaker related.
The child began skipping school and hanging out with the wrong crowd. When the family began living in the Habitat for Humanity home, the child began coming home and going back to school, eventually graduating and going to college, Wisenbaker said.
The oldest child’s actions encouraged the younger children to also go to college, he said.
“That is what we are about,” Wisenbaker said.
He suggested the school system work with Habitat for Humanity to build a home either for a staff member or a parent within the school system.
Habitat for Humanity has never built a house out in the county, Wisenbaker said.
“It would be a great thing for the system to get behind especially if it is somebody that works for us that needs a home,” he said.
Superintendent Dr. Steve Smith said the idea would tie in nicely with having high school students perform community service before graduation.
Wisenbaker, Smith and Lowndes High Principal Wes Taylor, among others will meet next week to further flesh the idea out, Smith said.
Fred Wetherington, District 2, suggested the home near Lowndes Middle School the system has been trying to move and sell as a possible starting point.
In other news:
• Smith presented the board with a resolution that was sent to all school systems regarding the Georgia Charter Schools Commission. The resolution is not against charter schools, but is against the Commission itself which has bypassed local school systems to create charter schools.
The resolution, if passed, would mean the Lowndes County School System “unanimously states its support of those locally elected boards of education that have been required to go to court in an effort to stop this unconstitutional usurpation of power and local tax funds, and its continued commitment to the constitutional doctrine of control and management of local public schools and local public school tax dollars by elected local boards of education.”
The commission has the right to endorse a charter school, approve it and subsequently remove funds from the county school for the charter school to operate, all without the local board’s involvement, he said.
Smith said the school system is not against charter schools.
Two state charter schools have been approved by the commission, one in Gwinnett County and one in Bulloch County.
The board will vote on the resolution, Tuesday, October 13 at 6 p.m. at the central office.
• Irvin Green updated the board on the energy savings the system has made in the year since cost initiatives were implemented. Green did not have a total savings for the system but used Lowndes High School as an example on the money and energy saved.
In September of 2008, the high school used 700,075 kilowatt hours at a cost of $64,490.90. In September of 2009, 598,800 kilowatt hours were used at a cost of $56,578.70, with power adjustments increased, he said.
The decrease in usage has allowed the system to absorb the increase in power adjustments, Green said.
• Smith presented the board with the official AYP report. Lowndes High School made AYP, which means the entire school system has made AYP three out of the last four years.
• Mike Powers, executive director of facilities, presented the board with a change order for Pine Grove Middle School. The work, blasting the rock on the school, was previously approved by the board but no documentation was presented.
With the change order the price of the school is still below the initial contracted cost, Powers said.
• Westside Elementary School fifth grade math teachers were presented with an award from Georgia Department of Education State School Superintendent Kathy Cox.
The school was recognized for Distinguished Achievement in Math.
Local News
Lowndes BOE member suggests working with Habitat
- Local News
-
-
The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
It’s a bleak scenario. A massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault kills or injures 60,000 people in Tennessee. A quarter of a million people are homeless. The Memphis airport — the country’s biggest air terminal for packages — goes off-line. Major oil and gas pipelines across Tennessee rupture, causing shortages in the Northeast. In Missouri, another 15,000 people are hurt or dead. Cities and towns throughout the central U.S. lose power and water for months. Losses stack up to hundreds of billions of dollars.
-
Preparing South Georgia for a disaster
A pair of specialized urban rescuers shed some of their protective gear for a moment and exchange relieved smiles because, on the roads across the swamps of residential rubble, a caravan of Lowndes citizens returns to a county that, according to Lowndes officials, was able to repair its wounds in the aftermath of a Category 5 storm due to a dynamic package of disaster plans.
-
Valdosta police honor Moody security force
Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress awarded a set of challenge coins Friday to 12 members of Moody Air Force Base’s security forces. The coin ceremony served as a thank-you from the Valdosta Police Department for the base’s operational support in handling bomb threats and helping in community matters.
-
Charges filed in bomb threat made from jail
A pair of inmates received additional charges this week when they reportedly phoned a bomb threat from the Lowndes County Jail to South Georgia Medical Center Tuesday, according to the Valdosta Police Department.
-
Echols deputies seize a half-million in pot
A public indecency call late Friday afternoon led to the seizure of a marijuana grow house, 38 mature plants, and the arrest of an Echols County man, according to the Echols County Sheriff’s Office.
-
Weekend Update: Morven Peach Festival
News reporter Caitlin Barker speaks to representatives Sandy Rentz and Dawana Nunnally from the Morven Peach Committee, about the Peach Festival taking place this Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. The band Trailer of Tears will play from 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., followed by a parade taking place at 2 p.m.
-
Just Peachy
Peach tarts, peach ice cream, a peach parade and the Peach Queen — it’s time for the 26th Annual Morven Peach Festival.
-
Boys and Girls Club prepares for smooth transition
When longtime Boys and Girls Club of Valdosta Chief Professional Officer Robert Soper officially retires on June 1, his successor will already be in place, ready to take the reins of the organization.
-
Lowndes Middle student charged in school fire
An 11-year-old has been charged with arson after reportedly starting a fire in a Lowndes Middle School restroom on a dare earlier this week, according to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office Thursday.
-
Kingston taps Hahira teen for Air Force Academy
Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston announced Thursday a Valwood student has received an appointment to a United States Service Academy.
- More Local News Headlines
-
