Talking about kids

Terri Smith has three children. One attends Whitewater Middle School. One attends Whitewater High School. One attends McIntosh for reasons that are nobody's business but would be considered by anyone who knew them to be legitimate. These reasons have nothing whatsoever to do with trust in her district's schools or her other children wouldn't still be there. You might have some information, but you certainly haven't surmised the motives correctly.

I don't usually read blogs and I certainly don't post to them. But after being shown the comments posted here today, I felt that I had to respond.

My family is definitely affected by the recent redistricting decision as are many of our friends and neighbors. I did everything a concerned parent would do when faced with this type of situation. I signed a petition, wrote to board members and talked personally with Fayette County officials. Also, my husband attended the meeting with our neighborhood as I had a prior commitment that night.

In each case, we were clear: We believe that our neighborhood children should be going to our neighborhood school. It is unfortunate that the Fayette County School Board did not agree.

But each of these steps I took, I did so as a parent, not the State Superintendent of Schools.

As State Superintendent, I do not have the authority to decide local issues, such as attendance zones. It would be improper of me to use my office to influence these local decisions and I will not use my office in that manner.

I am saddened by the Fayette County School Board's decision, but like all parents, I must live with it. Regardless, as always, I am proud to call myself a resident of Peachtree City and Fayette County.

Kathy Cox
Peachtree City

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!

If you voted for her, you got what you asked for . . . deaf, dumb, blind and absentee representation.

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If you and I are always in agreement, one of us is likely armed and dangerous.

Why are you guys not digging into this one? We are treated to “Passion of the Parents” ledes (BTW spelling is correct for journalism) and absolute passes on Sweat’s outrageous public comments. “Nine elementary school feed.” WHAT? “AMLI Apartments moved from Flat Creek (under capacity) to Booth (overcapacity)” WHY? We are The Citizen’s readers, advertisers, the taxpayers, voters AND the parents.

I am disgusted by having to rely on the largess of Sweat and Campbell who are not elected and therefore, in no way accountable. The Citizen could be putting a lot more heat on these guys or if they are legitimate, clear the air for all of us. Here, at what could be the end game, we can only hope that the Board will step in and give this group of clowns oversight. Make no mistake, Sweat and Campbell are spending the public funds based on the wackiest numbers you’ve ever seen. These guys are CYA so hard it would be hilarious if the kids were getting scr@w#d in the process.

The meeting last Monday was full of:

“That can’t be right.”
“We’ve adjusted that number.”
“Check the back page for the corrected number.”
“We called the schools and got the real numbers last week.”
“Would you look into this, that can’t be right.”
“We’ll get back to you tomorrow morning with the corrected numbers.”

Geez, these guys are making multimillion dollar decisions with public funds and get mighty huffy when challenged in the least. You might think this would attract more of our local press’s interest.

First off, Kathy is a state official, not a local official. She can't do anything about school boundaries because it's not part of her job! It's a local matter unless the local school board does something illegal. Second, she lives in an affected neighborhood, and she has always been very careful to not ask favors, which is a GOOD thing for a politician. When her youngest was at Oak Grove, she went out of her way to make sure teachers and staff knew that her child should be treated like every other child there.

Mom to 3, plus the kids that hang out there all the time but don't live there (they like having an adult around that makes them feel welcome, and is just plain around!)

Remember when KC suggested that schools continue to teach the CONCEPT of evolution by natural selection but refrain from using the word "evolution"?

The clear solution here is to continue with the redistricting plan but refrain from using the word "redistricting."

"Outsourcing" is a good euphemism, though perhaps not quite accurate in this case.

If you didn't know, Kathy Cox lives in one of the Robinson Road Group neighborhoods. She choose not to support us in our effort to not be redistricted, instead stating that her son was eager to go to the new school. Odd, because this boy rode his bike to school slmost daily. She is a politician of the state, not a neighbor out for our best interests. If you drove through our subdivision before the election, you would have only seen two of her campaign signs.

You don't know much about Kathy. Did you know that she is personally being impacted by this redistricting? She has her own kids directly in the crossfire. She can't get involved because then it will look like she's using her influence to take care of herself. Besides, even though she lives in Fayette County, she is a STATE office holder. Do you really think she can intervene in every single county situation where there is some type of dispute? Give me a break.

I, too, thought about contacting Kathy Cox, if for no other reason than to bring more attention to the shenanigans of the BOE. From their self-serving proposed boundaries to their questionable policies on out-of-district students, to the lack of data released on how the proposed boundaries were drawn, this group needs to stop and re-think what they're doing. But, as dollaraday said, I doubt Ms. Cox would get involved. She's a politician now. For today, I think parents should flood the BOE members with another round of e-mails and tell them all to vote NO on the new maps tonight. They literally need to go back to the drawing board. Keep the public pressure on them.

I don't really know what the state school superintendent does, but rest assured she won't interefere in any way with Fayette schools. Won't even give an opinion! Anyway she would need to spend all of her time in Atlanta if she were allowed to interfere. That won't happen either.