Consolidation in the works?

Rabyn Ratliff
The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA April 08, 2008 11:51 pm

— As the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce looks to prepare Valdosta for a new and progressive future, work has now begun to execute the Chamber’s Impact 2012 Business Action Plan, starting with education.
Developed by the Chamber’s leadership team and more than 70 leaders from local business, education and government entities, the plan’s projected goal is to raise the local economy by $95 million over the next five years.
Under the tier of expansion, workforce development and education is listed as a top priority.
As the committee looked into developing separate initiatives to fulfill this goal, the topic of school system consolidation and its effect on the local economy was a recurring question among the group.
“This plan was developed by those 72 people from our community, and they said this is what our Chamber needs to be working on over the next five years,” said Chamber president Myrna Ballard. “One issue that kept coming up is the fact that we have two separate school systems affecting our economic development. Everyone seems to have an opinion, but no one knows for a fact rather it really does have an effect.”
In an effort to fully study the issue, a task force of eight community individuals, led by Rusty Griffin, was organized in January of this year.
“We believe and the community believes that the Chamber of Commerce is in fact the proper platform to do this study because, they of course, bring unbiased opinions and perspectives of what can be done to improve our community and make it more viable economically,” Griffin said.
Since its organization, the task force has worked to secure the services of outside professional institutions, for the purpose of conducting a study to determine the impact of school system consolidation on economic development.
“One of the things that came out of that study was to evaluate the organizational structure of the school system in our city and county if we continue on the current route that we’re on, and what is the likely economic impact on our community,” said Griffin. “The task force has engaged Carl Vinson Institute and the Fanning Institute out of the University of Georgia to conduct this study, which will include an evaluation in contrast of the economic impact, if we had a consolidated school system. This is really a scientific evaluation of the economic impact of both.”
The task force includes representatives from the professional, business, and ministerial sectors of the community, selected by the Chamber’s Board of Directors.
“These are people in our community that the Chamber felt had the experience, background, judgment and perspective to accomplish this task,” Griffin said. “It is a diverse group that I think well represents the demographics of our community.”
Of those members, none are involved in education directly, according to Griffin, but the task force is making a concerted effort to keep both systems informed of the work and developments of the study.
“We’ve approved the basic scope of their research and they are in the process of conducting research as we speak,” said Griffin. “Hopefully, by mid-year, we should have a report back from them as of their findings.”
While the purpose of the task force is not to endorse any particular direction regarding school consolidation, the Chamber does intend to support the report findings which promote the best economic development plan for Valdosta-Lowndes County.
“There have been some misunderstandings in our community that this task force was formed to consolidate the schools and that’s really not why we are in existence. Our entire thrust is to oversee the study, which is why we hired credible institutions such as Carl Vinson and Fanning,” said Griffin. “If the study finds the city will be better economically if consolidation occurs, the Chamber will absolutely push for that. I think the Chamber has made it known that they have the responsibility to respond to the study.”
And if the study finds otherwise, Griffin says the Chamber pledges the same support.
“It might be that we come back and realize that what we’re doing for our community right now is the best thing economically,” Griffin said. “And if so, the Chamber will be supportive of that, and from a community stand point, they will play a role in making sure the community is aware of the research and findings on this.”
While certainly not the first time the community or Chamber have visited the idea of school system consolidation, this effort will be the first scientific and unbiased research approach on the issue.
“There was a volunteer group of Chamber members who looked at this issue back in the early 90’s, but this is the very first time that there’s ever been an independent, objective, scientific study of the pros and cons of different school system organizational structures,” said Ballard. “That study was not an objective third party study because the people involved had very strong ideas about what should happen.”
Now, having a task force to oversee the research process and the dissemination of report findings to the community, the Chamber is hopeful about moving forward with this and other elements of the Impact 2012 Initiative.
“This is the first major initiative out of the 2012 plan, but not by far the only one,” said Griffin. “Additionally, school consolidation is only one aspect of education, but there are many other aspects of education that the Chamber believes are very pending which are imbedded in the 2012 plan.”
While in past years, the idea of consolidation — or “The C word,” as referred to by Ballard — has yielded some strong feelings and passionate debate from local residents, community support of the Impact 2012 Initiative could be a sign that people are ready to consider community benefit, whatever that may be, over tradition.
“Having reached this point, I think it says ‘Maturity,’” said Ballard. “It says that this is a mature community that wants what’s best for its citizens, and that the community has the courage to take on these big issues.”
More than supporting words, a number of community businesses, organizations and individuals have stepped in financially to support the 2012 Initiative, bringing $2.3 million investment dollars to the table to help the Chamber accomplish these five year goals.
“I believe the community needs to be commended for stepping out and looking at what we can do to make this a better community for our children and our grandchildren,” said Griffin. “And with this initiative, our main thrust has been to outline things that we as a community could do to improve the quality of living and standard of life in our area.”