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The runoff is over,
and Mike Byrd will be your Commission Chairman next year. For this column,
I'd like to show you why the voters need to pay close attention to the
policies and performance of the Commission Chair and his Board.
I believe the issues most important to you
are traffic congestion, schools, water supply, and taxes. All of these
issues are directly impacted by development, particularly residential
development. Homes put cars on the road and children in the schools. Household
and lawn care water use usually exceeds business use. In Cherokee, taxes
and fees on residences never pay (proven by a UGA Cost Study) for even
half of the services their occupants use. The proportion of residential
to non-residential development is important, as we all know. But the absolute
amount and rate of residential development is most important.
Now, to the point. Some homebuilders have
opposed my policies on residential growth. I have not welcomed them with
open arms. I have promoted higher development standards like increased
stream buffers and a tree ordinance, and impact fees to fund new infrastructure
for new development. The development community felt my slow growth stance
was about to hurt their business, as soon as they completed homes approved
in zonings during the last administration. They were determined to find
a candidate to remove the constraints on homebuilding in Cherokee County.
Four years ago, the contributions to my opponent
by the local development community were widely advertised. With that backing,
the public saw that residential growth would only accelerate. I was elected
to slow it down and manage for quality. I believe the citizens that read
this column and follow local issues recognized my policies were good for
Cherokee County. Development pressure has since intensified because we
were succeeding.
A campaign disclosure was required, by law,
six days before the runoff. I filed mine on the day it was due. Mike Byrd
filed his late, the day before the election. His runoff disclosure shows
a total campaign contribution from the development community of over $26,000.
Made public, this strong support would have clarified that Mr. Byrd's
idea of economic development for Cherokee is homebuilding, or, at least
his contributors think so. But, filed too late for the presses to roll,
the runoff voters were unaware of the level of his support by the homebuilding
community before they went to the polls. Illegal? Yes. Concealment of
facts of value to the electorate? Absolutely.
Yes, I am disappointed by the election results,
not only personally, but especially because I believe the voters of Cherokee
were not aware of critical facts they needed to make the best decision
for the future of our County. Campaign tactics like this are a great disservice
to the County, in that they deceive the voters and also discourage good
people from running for office. Who knows? One day, one of you good people
might decide to take on the development machine as I did! For the sake
of the County, someone will need to!
Thank you for the opportunity over the past
four years to share with you in this column the issues facing the County.
I hope you keep reading and asking questions. An educated voter is the
best voter!
P.S. By the way, my campaign received a total
of $12,200 from the development community, primarily from the developers
of Woodmont and Hawk's Ridge (two high quality subdivisions), two Fulton
County commercial developers, and the chairman of Post Properties, which
now develops high quality mixed use projects.
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One of the school
board's primary functions is to write policy that governs the day-to-day
activities of our school system. If you have ever had a chance to read
our policy manual, you'll see that we have been very busy! We have hundreds
upon hundreds of policies covering every topic imaginable.
One of those policies deals with the issue
of overcrowding in our school buildings. The policy, simply stated, asks
the Superintendent to do an evaluation of each school 20 days into the
new school year and determine which schools are "critically overcrowded."
The definition we use for critical overcrowding
is any school which exceeds 140% of their enrollment capacity. While we
don't consider portables as permanent housing, we do take them under consideration
when looking at overcrowding. Unfortunately, there are 15 schools this
year that are at or over 100% capacity with portables. At this point,
there are no schools at critical overcrowding status (taking portables
into consideration); however, there are several that could reach that
point in the next two years.
How do we deal with overcrowding? The first
and most long-range solution is building new schools. Thanks to you, our
Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) was renewed last fall
and brought much needed funds into our building funds. Because of this,
a new Woodstock Elementary School, a new Tippens Elementary School and
two new middle schools will open within the next two years. In addition,
a new high school, opening in the fall of 2005, will relieve overcrowding
at Sequoyah and Cherokee High Schools.
In accordance with our policy, what happens
when we just can't build fast enough? While "Plan B" is not the most desirable,
we do have other options.
Plan B includes:
1. Additional portables.
2. Enrollment capping (sending newly enrolled
students to less crowded schools once a school reaches critical overcrowding).
3. Flexible scheduling (including but not
limited to extended day, double sessions, year-round school, dual enrollment
for high schools in local colleges and vo-techs, etc.)
4. Boundary changes.
5. Managing the overcrowded situation to
reduce any negative impact and ensure student safety.
Please remember that building and managing
are our top priorities. The other options were approved by the board in
case we needed them in the future.
Why are we overcrowded? There are two trains
of thought: Growth and unfunded mandates.
Cherokee County is a wonderful place to live
and, despite our growth, the school system has managed to uphold high
standards and above average test scores. Because of this, people are moving
into Cherokee in record numbers. The schools slated for construction over
the next eight years will just hold the number of students we know are
coming into the system.
Secondly, Governor Barnes's "educational
reform" called for smaller class sizes but no money to deal with the need
for more classes. In addition, the state education budget was slashed
in January and probably will be again in January 2003. Simply put, we
have more responsibilities and less money.
We will continue to keep a close eye on the
overcrowding and other issues that effect our children. As always, your
opinion is valued and I look forward to hearing from you.
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