VALDOSTA — A meager crowd of interested parents and community members gathered at the Valdosta High School Performing Arts Center Thursday night to ask pertinent questions about education.

The open forum allowed people to ask questions about the Valdosta City Schools to the people in charge — the administrators.

Superintendent Dr. Bill Cason directed the discussion and questions he couldn’t answer he fielded to various principals and administrators that were also in attendance.

Cason opened the meeting by discussing various changes going on within the system and he urged parents to be involved in their students education.

“There is not a child in this district that can’t learn,” Cason said.

“It is a failure somewhere either in the school or at home.”

After the brief introduction, Cason opened up the floor to those gathered.

Questions and comments from members in the audience both praised and criticized the school.

Ruby Chastain, who has grandchildren at the newly-opened S.L. Mason Elementary School, asked the administrators to address the traffic and safety issues at the school as soon as possible.

Cason said the school is working hard to put all the finishing touches on the school and that includes finishing up on how best to direct traffic flow and attend to the students walking to and from the school.

Dan Davis, whose son is enrolled at Valdosta High School, asked the school to begin working toward purchasing new uniforms for the high school band.

Davis said the uniforms were worn out five years ago. VHS Principal Gary Boling said he is working with the band director and other VCS administrators to assess the band’s budget and begin allocating funds to purchase new uniforms.

In the future, the band will set aside funds each year to purchase uniforms at set time intervals, he said.

While the school administrators may plead for more parent involvement, Nan Duckworth said she has been hard-pressed to find anyone who wants her involved with the school system.

Trying to find out the name of the president of the PTO has proved to be difficult and many people within the school system have been unable to tell her who that person even is, she said.

Boling said he would give her the appropriate information after the meeting.

Laurene Randolph, whose son is at VHS, said she has been unable to get in touch with anyone in authority at the school when she has called.

Sometimes no one even picks up the phone when she calls, she said.

Cason said that this is not a new problem but one that has been difficult to address.

A senior at VHS, who did not give his name, asked for the system to reconsider the amount of time students have to be quiet in the lunchroom and the length of time students have to eat.

Cason said the quiet time when students come into the lunchroom and when they leave is to cut down on the disruption the noise levels in the lunch room create in the classrooms surrounding the cafeteria.

Boling said the time students have to eat has not changed from the previous year.

People with questions that could not be answered immediately were directed to talk to particular administrators after the forum.

VCS will hold two more open forums this semester. The next forum will be held on Thursday, Oct. 16 at S.L. Mason’s gymnasium and the third will be held Thursday, Nov. 13 at Valdosta Middle School in the cafeteria. Both forums will begin at 7 p.m.