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.     Read More