School situation could wreck Dalton, Whitfield merger plans

Published 7:28 am Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Local officials say efforts to merge Dalton and Whitfield County into a single government could grind to a halt if the city and county school systems are brought into the merger.

Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Babb said if merging the city and county would force the school systems to merge it would effectively end the push to form a consolidated government.

“If this comes down to a referendum on combining the school systems, I’m not sure the county or the city voters would support that,” Babb said. “People don’t care who paves their road as long as it gets paved. They don’t care who shows up to give them fire protection or police protection as long as someone shows up when they call 911. But when it comes to their children, it gets out of the numbers and into emotions and perceptions.”

The City Council and Board of Commissioners voted in February to ask members of the local delegation to the state Legislature to introduce a bill forming a commission to study consolidation of Dalton and Whitfield County and to draft a charter for a new metropolitan government if the commission’s members thought it viable.

At the time, the council and commissioners did not believe the merger would affect the school systems, but last week City Attorney Jim Bisson said after researching the issue and talking to experts from the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute he believed a merger could dissolve the city school system.

“We’ve asked the legislative counsel to review this matter. If the city and the county merge, the city’s charter expires,” said state Rep. Roger Williams, R-Dalton. “The state constitution says you can’t create any more independent school systems. So we have asked them if there is some way we can maintain Dalton city schools if the city merges with the county.”

Williams said he’s asked if there is some way to “transition” the provisions of Dalton’s creating the school system to the school board, so the existing school system is maintained, and a new one is not created.

Williams said he hopes to have an answer to that question by the end of the week.

So what happens if the legislative counsel says there is no way to merge the city and county without dissolving Dalton Public Schools?

“We will have to go back to the city and the county and say ‘This is what it is,’ and ask them if they still want us to go forward,” said Williams.

Rep. Tom Dickson, R-Cohutta, said if the merger would affect the school systems — if the city system is dissolved then Whitfield County Schools would have to absorb the city students — the bill could still go forward but lawmakers would make sure the city and county school systems are represented on the commission that studies consolidation.

“Our goal is to get everybody to work together and come out with what will work best for all four entities,” Dickson said.

Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, said if consolidation affects the school systems both school boards would have to sign off on any commission before the Senate would vote to approve it. He said the Senate requires all local governments, including school boards, that are affected by any local legislation to support that legislation before the Senate takes it up.

“It doesn’t mean that every elected official has to support it, just that all the local bodies support it,” Bethel said.

He said that doesn’t mean the school boards have to support merging, but they must support the idea of creating a commission to study consolidation.

Dalton Board of Education Chairman Steve Williams said he wants to keep Dalton Public Schools independent, but he said he would not oppose forming a consolidation commission as long as the school boards are represented on it.

“If we could potentially be impacted, we want to be on the commission without agreeing we want to merge,” said Williams. “We are more than happy to participate in the commission.”

Whitfield Board of Education Chairman Louis Fordham said if the legislative counsel does report that consolidation would affect the school systems he would like for the City Council and Board of Commissioners to meet again and decide if they still want to pursue the merger.

“To me, their plan has changed. They went into this thinking the school systems would not be affected,” Fordham said.

He said if the school systems would be affected, and if the City Council and Board of Commissioners still want to go forward with the commission, he would then like all four governments to meet to discuss the issue.

Dalton Mayor David Pennington said even if the push for a consolidated government grinds to a halt the city and county governments will continue to look for ways to combine services. Over the past three years, the two have combined road paving and their building inspectors offices. They are now discussing combining recreation departments.

“The problem is that with four separate taxing authorities, it is hard to come together and form a single, unified plan,” Pennington said.