Everett said she believes consolidation of the Thomas County and Thomasville City school systems into one system is a bad idea.

“Two school systems give our students twice the opportunity to participate in sports, twice the leadership opportunities and more chances to be known as an individual instead of just a number in a large crowd,” Everett said. “On any given Friday night, you have two quarterbacks, two bands, two sets of fans,and two sets of homecoming queens. If you have one consolidated school system, you split those opportunities for students.

“Competition between the systems make both systems better.”

Everett pointed out that it would cost basically the same to run a consolidated school system since there would be the same amount of students, teachers and facilities needed. One of the only costs that would change would be for administration, she said.

Several pieces of legislation also threaten to impact the Thomasville City School System and schools across the state, Everett said. One involves mandatory class size reduction, which will require school systems to hire more teachers and possibly create new facilities.

The other is known as the “65-percent solution,” which requires schools to spend 65 percent of their overall budgets on instruction in the classroom. However, that mandate fails to clearly define what counts as instructional spending, and leaves out support staff such as media specialists and bus drivers.

“We feel that every staff member impacts instruction,” Everett said, adding that the school system currently spends more than 68 percent of its budget on instruction.

To contact reporter Brewer Turley, call (229) 226-2400, ext. 226.