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Mr. Cal Beverly’s Editorial is Built on
a False Foundation
“If you don’t read the newspaper; you’re uninformed. If you read
the newspaper; you’re misinformed.” Mark Twain
I strongly disagree with Cal Beverly’s
“editorial” published in the Citizen News today, July 25th,
2012 on several points.
FACT 1:
Mr. Beverly has the audacity to call me a “stealth candidate”
when he is the one who is suppressing information about my
campaign. Mr. Beverly emailed me a list of questions on July
12th, 2012 and I sent my responses on July 13th.
PROOF:
Below is an excerpt from the email dated July 13th
from Beverly and I quote him:
“For the record and for publication, please answer
the following questions:”
Yet to date,
none of my answers to Beverly’s questions have been published.
FACT 2: Mr. Beverly admonishes me in
his “editorial” not to be “slippery” or “evasive” when,
despite multiple attempts to engage him in conversation or
interviews, he never returned my calls.
PROOF:
Below is an excerpt from an email dated July 25th
from me to Beverly addressing his “editorial”:
“I left 2
messages for you when I announced I was running so we would have
a chance to get to know each other and you could ask me
questions about my vision for the school system. You can confirm
with John Munford. That is hardly the actions of an evasive
candidate.
Let’s talk about
this.
I can be reached at 678-788-6009
Cheers!
Scott Hollowell
School Board Candidate”
I never heard from Mr. Beverly. I
have never spoken to Mr. Beverly. To do so would be
inconvenient to Mr. Beverly and the narrative he has constructed
in his mind.
THE WHOLE STORY
Mr. Beverly has long been a champion of
transparency except when he doesn’t want to be transparent. A
democracy works best when voters can examine the issues and make
their own decisions. Mr. Beverly wants to usurp the role of
the voter and just tell you what you should do.
To the best of my knowledge,
·
no sitting School Board member has said what
schools they want to close and which ones they want to open and
·
No School Board candidate has said which schools
they want to close and which ones they want to remain open.
It is hypocritical for Mr. Beverly
to apply this litmus test to me and not to the other candidates
and especially to the current School Board members.
THE REAL SCOTT HOLLOWELL
I am the candidate in this race who has a
proven track record of supporting public education and my
regular attendance at FCBOE meetings over the past three years
is due to my children, both of whom I have entrusted to the
Fayette Public School System.
I know that my children have benefited
greatly in the public system’s care and while there are
significant challenges ahead, I promise to you that I will
continue to work to improve our schools so that people who
have sought out other educational routes, be it private or home
schooling such as Dr. Barry Marchman, will feel confident in
entrusting their children to our care.
Vote Hollowell for School Board July
31st
I am including the entire email dated
July 13th below with all of my responses to Beverly
and have added one clarifying comment at the end.
Cal,
Regarding your
questions – here are my responses:
Scott, last
night I received (and participated in) a telephone political
survey that asked only three questions about support for the
T-SPLOST, Rep. Westmoreland and you.
That naturally got me curious. For the record and for
publication, please answer the following questions:
I am also
curious about the poll and I have to say I do not appreciate my
name being attached to other campaign issues. I do not know who
is conducting this poll but it is certainly not us. I would ask
you to please share information on who has put together this
poll as I have a few questions for them.
Your first two
questions are moot points – it isn’t my poll.
1. What did you or your
campaign pay for this poll and who suggested it to you?
2. What implications should
I draw from this interesting confluence of you plus a
congressman plus a regional sales tax? Are you all getting your
backing from the same pool?
3. Rumors abound
that you are the Smola-backed replacement on the BoE, intended
to carry on Smola-like policies and positions in the future.
So I ask you, flat out, no
slippery evasions, (1) how long have you known Janet Smola, (2)
have you and she or anybody connected with her had any
conversations about her decision not to run again and your
subsequent decision to run in her place, (3) did you vote for
Smola the last election,
I have heard
this before. It is reasonable to conclude people who would like
to see Barry elected are spreading the rumor, using the Citizen
blogs, as their preferred method of communication. It is a
malicious rumor with no foundation in truth.
Ben Nelms has
seen me attending School Board meetings for the past 3 years. I
have children in the school system and am a strong advocate for
an excellent public school system. I have also been concerned
about the financial issues impacting the school system from both
the state and FCBOE. So I attend meetings, became an informed
citizen and am running for School Board. Also I view the health
of the FCBOE as a keystone for the community. I want to do
everything possible to ensure we have a strong school system.
I am active in
the community and frankly enjoy being a viable citizen of
Fayette County. Fayette County is my home - I want to see it
flourish and I want to serve as a member of the School Board.
Having served on a number of committees and active in the
business community, I know a lot of people – including Janet. I
have no idea what “Smola-like policies and positions in the
future” are – nor am I interested. I have my own viewpoints on
ways to address challenges facing the FCBOE. As far as I’m
concerned, Janet served her time as an elected school board
member and has chosen to step down which opens up her seat. I
am running for it and hope I get elected.
I have my
opinions on the issues you listed below. What I am not privy to
is the information the school board had to make their
decisions. You certainly have more information per Ben Nelms
expertise and FCBOE insider contacts – so I’m taking your
questions as you simply asking for my “opinion” not on you
dissecting a “right or wrong answer” but rather you’d like to
get a sense of how I view these issues. Fair enough?
(A) Settlement
of the NAACP lawsuit;
Philosophically,
I am in favor of at-large voting. I would have like to have seen
the School Board coordinate a defense with the County
Commissioners. However, I have not been privy to legal counsel
provided to the School Board or to the County Commissioners.
(B) Appointment
of Leonard Presberg to the BoE;
Dr. Tolbert’s
death created a disruption to the school board and a new
representative from his district needed to be chosen by the
school board members.
I heard the
candidates speak at a school board meeting and thought there was
good representation of citizens who had qualifying backgrounds.
I do not have the information the school board had to make their
choice so I really can’t say if Presberg was the best
candidate. The school board voted unanimously for Presberg -
clearly they felt he was the most qualified.
(C) Selection of
Presberg as chairman;
The elected
school board members chose him. You’d have to ask them.
The important question for me is – do I think I can work with
him. And yes, I do. I believe an important quality to being a
good community leader is the ability to work with people with
different viewpoints. I believe I can work with Leonard Presberg
as well as other current school board members.
(D) The future status of
Tyrone Elementary School?
I am concerned
for the welfare of Tyrone if Tyrone Elementary School closes. I
think there is an important community tie into Tyrone Elementary
that can’t be callously underestimated. There is also a costly
septic tank issue, costs of running Tyrone Elementary and new
school sitting vacant down the road. These are exactly the kind
of problems I want to be elected to resolve.
It’s easy to
look at Tyrone Elementary and see a financial liability but I
look beyond that. I see a community that is deeply rooted into
Tyrone Elementary that will be badly hurt by its closing –
because I am committed to Fayette County I want to find
solutions to challenges that will benefit the growth of our
County. I’ve got some ideas on this – but it would be premature
to discuss them without having all the facts – and those will
only be available to me if elected.
ADDED FOR CLARIFICATION
I am now adding some clarifying comments
about criteria I would use to base a decision on school closings
and the facts I don’t have.
1.
Classroom Size: I stated at the GOP debate on July
18th, Ben Nelms can confirm, that classroom size
is an important criterion to me in regards to school
closings. If schools are closed and students are integrated into
the remaining school, how will that impact student-teacher
ratios? This is of utmost concern to me because that can
negatively impact the quality of our children’s education.
We won’t have
good enrollment numbers until after school starts.
The number of students obviously impacts the resulting classroom
size.
2.
A
Final Proposal:
Superintendent Bearden, who must make the proposal to the Board
for a vote, has not presented his final proposal.
I can’t
comment on something that doesn’t exist.
GET TO KNOW THE REAL SCOTT HOLLOWELL
Even though I’ve been denied publication in
The Citizen, I have been at meet and greets, debates and events
throughout this county. I am the candidate in this race
who has a proven track record of supporting public
education and both of my children benefit from the Fayette
County Public School System.
Again, I know there are significant
challenges ahead and I promise to you that I will continue to
work to improve our schools so that people who have sought out
other educational routes, be it private or home schooling such
as Dr. Marchman, will feel confident in entrusting their
children to our care.
Vote Hollowell for School Board July
31st
Sincerely,
Scott Hollowell |
