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George Bowen Speaks Out

By Roger Allen

On March 13, 2006, Chief Operating Officer Colonel George Bowen turned in his resignation to Superintendent Dr. Thomas Lockamy effective March 31st. Lockamy, in turn, accepted Bowen's resignation with regret, stating, "George is an asset to the school system and an integral part of my cabinet." While George said he wanted to leave on a high note, and avoid recriminations and accusations, there are many who would say that ever since Dr. Lockamy was selected for the Superintendent's job, there had been an atmosphere of tension between them. Despite this, George developed a great deal of respect for Dr. Lockamy.

As such, he stated, "Dr. Lockamy is a good academician, and knows what must be done to succeed. However, when asked about Dr. Lockamy's plans to reduce the Central Office budgeted staff by as many as 50 more positions, he voiced his opinion that this would be a major mistake. George said, "John (O'Sullivan) and I had already cut the Central Office staff by some 100 positions and voiced his concern that staff was already at minimum operating levels. His relationship with Dr. Lockamy had experienced several such major disagreements for which there appeared to be no workable compromise. These impasses played a large part in his deciding to leave.

George said Lockamy's proposed cuts appeared to him unnecessarily draconian, and shouldn't be made until each and every position had been examined to see what its loss might cause. Furthermore, he worried that Dr. Lockamy is convinced that he can repeat what had worked for him in the Norfolk public schools in the Savannah-Chatham school system.

Savannah, George said, is definitely NOT Norfolk. First, the State of Virginia has totally different laws concerning school funding and asset management. Secondly, the support from local governments in Virginia is much greater than in Georgia. For instance, in Virginia the local government actually pays for school construction, while in Georgia the local School Board pays for the construction.

What does he think about Laidlaw?

The simple mention of that name causes George's gaze to harden and his natural smile to turn into a grimace. According to George, he spent far too many months trying to show Laidlaw ways to solve many of their problems using different business models. Upper-level Laidlaw management wasn't interested, and local manager Rufus Smith had his hands tied. George has lost all confidence in the ability of the bus company to do the job it was hired to do. He said that if he were to remain in Savannah the first thing he would do would be to get our school system a new transportation provider.

Although Bowen, Lockamy, and the School Board repeatedly discussed firing Laidlaw, at this time the most radical solution being discussed is opening the system's transportation contract for new bids. Unfortunately, it is probable that Laidlaw would be allowed to bid once again.

George said Laidlaw has never been 100% honest with the school board about the problems they've faced. They often failed to bring problems to the board when they first appeared and waited instead until they had become virtually unsolvable. Everyone knows how unreliable Laidlaw busses have become. It is George's opinion that one of the reasons the Laidlaw busses keep breaking down is that due to a shortage of drivers Laidlaw has been using their mechanics as substitute drivers. If they're driving busses, then who does that leave to repair those busses in the shop?

About SACS putting the school system on probation...

Concerning SACS putting our school system on probation, George had the following to say: "as a direct result of the probation, our School Board members started following the standards of the Georgia School Board Association rather than going it all by themselves." He gives new Board Member Attorney Greg Sapp the credit for many of the new policy revisions and changes.

When asked about former School Superintendent John O'Sullivan, he admits that John's departure was probably the best thing for all parties, as there was no way he could have repaired his relationship with the school board. His take on the School Board members after both the SACS probation and O'Sullivan departure was diplomatic. George simply said that they have made many changes since this time, and that they are definitely trying to turn things around.

New Schools on the Westside?

Asked about new schools for the West Side of Chatham County, he repeated his belief that the studies shows the immediate need is for more Elementary and Middle schools. There is one of each of these planned for the Highlands development area off of the Jimmy DeLoach Parkway. The need for a High School in West Chatham is there, and a new high school is at the top of the ESPLOST list of projects if Chatham County voters pass the measure.

George feels very strongly that the Savannah-Chatham schools are finally beginning to show the results of several changes made during the years he has worked for the school system. He always said that those changes needed two or three years before you could see the proof that they were working through better test scores and better writing scores. George believes that our schools? Principals are being called upon to handle too many tasks that pull them away from their schools. They can't be in two places at once, and therefore the Assistant Principals have in many cases been acting as defacto principals.

His Accomplishments...

His greatest accomplishments, he feels, were the development of his Preventive Maintenance Teams to repair many of the nagging problems at schools which somehow never seemed to get fixed over the years; his placing of waste compactors at schools to replace dumpsters, greatly reducing the amount of waste being generated at the schools; and gaining the support of Principals and teachers to implement a higher quality of instruction at the classroom level, using newer textbooks, classroom aids, and better training of the school staffs.

His greatest disappointment, he said, was that he was not able to focus the resources that were needed to solve many of the system's greatest problems. Instead, in order to be fair to all, he was forced to spread what resources there were around on all projects. Therefore, he wasn't able to produce the same very positive results he achieved in some areas all across the board.

About his future, George had this to say: he has several very lucrative offers he's considering, one of which is working for a United States government contractor in Korea. However, he still considers himself part of this community, and would consider returning at some point in the future to consider a job offer in Savannah.

George did say that not being selected as a finalist for the next School Superintendent's job had upset and offended him. He felt he had deserved a fair shot at the top job but believes that he was never given the chance. There are many in this community who share this belief. His unwavering dedication to ensuring that ?his? school children's needs were met and his unflagging determination to fight for what was right made him a common sight at each and every one of our schools. While Dr. Lockamy says he'll "be sorely missed", a man of George Bowen's caliber will be real hard to replace, and his act will be darn near impossible to follow.