Dear Editor,
Many have heard commentary from parents, citizens, community leaders, and candidates regarding the upcoming Greene County Board of Education primary election. Local papers, radio, and social media have been rife with statements, opinions, and partial truths, all with the intent of swaying voters’ opinions to one side or another. While open debate is a healthy part of our political process, the purposeful and consistent misrepresentation of the facts to intentionally conceal the truth is unacceptable. Recently, this paper published interviews with Perry Lee and Maggie Kjer. After reading their published statements implying many community school concerns are based on misinformation, I feel compelled to address some crucial points.
The article published in the Lake Oconee News, March 14, 2024, titled, “Lee outlines plan if elected to another term” states, “Lee commented on the rumors that he felt were unfounded regarding merging LOA with the Greene County Schools.” Perry Lee is quoted, “there was never talk about a merger.” Lee then goes on to blame LOA’s administration by saying, “Unfortunately, LOA sends out talking points to parents that help spread misinformation and dissent.” Any parent of a child at LOA who receives all official school communications will confirm the truth that there has never been a communication from LOA advising parents on talking points about a school merger. These statements by our current BOE chair do not align with the facts and illuminate a culture of hidden motives and agendas by the current board of education.
Correspondence among the current BOE obtained via open records requests discussed the merger of GCSS and LOA schools multiple times. An email dated April 10, 2023, from Superintendent Houston to BOE members Lee, Kilgore, Kjer, Gainer, and Bashore includes a comprehensive matrix discussing the pros and cons of merging LOA into GCSS. Notably, one of the pros listed for transitioning GCSS to a charter system was the potential to “go to a one-high school model right away or phase it in.”
The open records requests were prompted by a June 2023 BOE meeting, with an agenda to vote on/approve the 5-year GCSS strategic plan. Of note, this 5-year plan included the merging of LOA and GCSS, to “Move from a SWSS school system to a Charter School System, to grow a system of schools leading to one common high school…”. After much public outcry, BOE members Lee, Kjer, and Kilgore responded by blaming the consultants they hired, the UGA Carl Vinson Institute. Perry Lee said, “the consultants mistakenly put this in because it was a theme from the public meetings, and it will be removed at our meeting tonight.” Maggie Kjer said on the record, “I want to apologize to the general public who saw this on the agenda. It’s the first time I saw it.”
The fact is, this is not the first time any of the BoE members reviewed the topic of a school merger. School merger emails circulated among BOE members several months before the June 2023 meeting. Kjer continued to stumble on her words and said, “Somehow I think this came from something else, I think it was probably about going to have the paths at GCHS for advanced academics and advanced career academy, and somehow this got to look like this, I don’t know how else to explain it…”.
If this behavior was not inexcusable enough, the BOE has conspired to restrict LOA’s attendance through an arbitrary cap to prevent children from obtaining a better education in their home county. Consider BOE Chairman Lee’s own words during the BOE Special Called Meeting on 7/12/23: “There has to be a balance between the number of children that are allowed to go to LOA in one particular time, and the reason is, the best way to explain this, if you have a school that has 25 children that perform a 1, 25 children that perform a 2, 25 children that perform at a 3, and 25 that perform at a 4-level, it is an average school, and is rated pretty well ok, but if you take the 50 top kids out of that school, now the whole school is rated a 1 and a 2 and it is now a failing school. So, it’s our job to look at not only the students that want to get into LOA, but what happens is you increase the number of students that get into LOA in a short period of time what that does to the children that are left in the other schools. You cannot do, you have to find a balance to freedom of choice, and we are, in addition to not hurting the kids in the other school.” If you take away all the 3s and 4s, it is now a failing school and the state’s gonna take over. It guarantees failure.”
Chairman Lee’s own admission that the state will take over GCSS schools if he allows more than 2% of Greene County kids out of GCSS schools and into LOA is chilling. It appears Chairman Lee intentionally prevented children from attending LOA and receiving a better education because he did not want to expose the extent of failures within the GCSS. In this manner, the GC BOE created an artificial supply and demand problem around LOA admissions that they could leverage for political purposes. Chairman Lee has stated on multiple occasions, including a recorded CIC candidate forum in March 2024 that, “LOA asked for the cap.” All evidence points to the contrary as the cap and associated stress and anxiety on hopeful students and parents is exacerbated by a politician whose only focus is reelection and protecting failed policies to the detriment of Greene County education.
Further correspondence proves the BOE has conspired to limit LOA’s cap for more than a year to protect GCSS from failing as evidenced by the email below dated May 10, 2023. Superintendent Houston seems to imply to Chairman Lee and Mr. Kilgore that enforcing LOA’s cap to limit transfers from GCSS is a goal of the BOE.
These documents have been provided to this paper, whose duty is to publish them in the name of transparency, however, they are publicly available and have circulated the community for several months. When considering this evidence alongside other indicators, such as the 5-year strategic plan to merge schools, and former BOE Chair Mike Lynch’s public remarks regarding the necessity of a merger, it becomes apparent that discussions about limiting enrollment at LOA and the eventual merger of GC schools is a long-term plan orchestrated by the BOE to cover the failing policies of multiple administrations.
With the passage of GA Senate Bill 233 “The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act,” eligible students would qualify for $6,000 per school year for private school or home school tuition. This would allow top performing GCSS students to attend other schools, and further expose the leadership failures of the GCBOE. If Greene Co residents want to give all Greene Co kids the opportunity for a better education – the opportunity for change, then we need changes to the BOE. Dr. Tucker, Maggie Combs, and Mark Lipscomb represent the positive change needed for Greene County.
Matt Waterfield Greensboro