Published: July 01, 2009 09:45 pm      

Our Readers Speak, Thursday, July 2, 2009

Building a new school isn’t the solution



Recently, I was going through some papers that were handed out during the 2008 Board of Education election period. I must admit that I found information much more interesting the second time around.

Leon Ivey and Leon Newman campaigned on the idea of keeping community schools and to replace then Board President, Peggy Farmer. One year later, Ivey and Newman are pushing consolidation — what a difference a year makes. Mr. Ivey and Mr. Newman are the best kind of politicians, promising everything, but giving nothing.

However, going back a couple of years, Mr. Newman declared in a 2006 Board meeting that he would not close any high schools.

Mr. Workman also ran on community schools and now pushes consolidation. These men lied to the voters of Fayette County and those lies caused the Board to lose a good board member. If these men lied about closing schools it is probably a sure bet that they are continuing to lie about this bond call that they are openly supporting. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Fayette County Schools do have educational problems but building a large new school isn’t going to erase those problems. It is like building a larger house because your family has increased but, the fact is, it is still the same family.

The Valley and Meadow Bridge areas should feel somewhat slighted in this decision. Students from four area high schools will be supposedly receiving a top-notch education to prepare them for the future. Your two high schools will only be receiving structural improvements to make your areas look good. By the way, who is to say that down the road Valley and Meadow Bridge won’t be included in some form of consolidation effort?

I don’t know about you, but I do have trouble believing this trio— Ivey, Newman, and Workman — once a person lies, their credibility is damaged and these men are responsible for doing just that.

We can’t bring back that May 2008 Board election, but we can take control and vote no to this bond call that these three board members endorse. Leon Ivey, Leon Newman and Jock Workman — fool us once, shame on you, but fool us twice, shame on us.



G. Ann Smith

Fayetteville