Staff Writer
A $12,458 "team-building" retreat for Lucy C. Laney Comprehensive High School staff at the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Oconee on Thursday and today is drawing sharp criticism from Richmond County school board members.
File/Morris News Service
The Ritz-Carlton Lodge on Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro was ranked No. 7 on a list of the top hotels in the United States.
Patsy Scott summed up her reaction with one word: "Mercy."
The two-day, one-night visit is tied to a more than $1 million federal school improvement grant the school received last month through an Obama administration initiative.
The Richmond County school board agreed earlier this year to apply for the grant, but several board members said Thursday they weren't aware a portion of the grant was being used by Laney for the Ritz retreat.
"If I had known this, I wouldn't have approved the grant," said school board Vice President Alex Howard upon first hearing from The Augusta Chronicle about the trip.
Calling it a "poor choice," Howard said that even if the school got a good rate the Ritz trip sends the wrong message in a time of budget cuts.
He said he understands the need for a retreat, but it could have been held locally to save money.
"There's no excuse for this," he said.
The retreat involves 85 Laney faculty and staff. The site -- where country music star Carrie Underwood recently got married -- was named among the World's 500 Best Hotels in Travel + Leisure Magazine in 2008, according to the hotel's Web site.
School system spokesman Louis Svehla was quick to note that the school got a reduced group rate and its retreat cost fell well below a budgeted amount of $35,000 that the grant had allowed.
"The grant proposal budgeted up to $35,000 for this retreat, which was approved by the state," Svehla wrote in an e-mail. "In negotiation with several sites, the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia, offered the best hotel rates, acceptable food service costs and room meeting rates."
Board member Jimmy Atkins, who also hadn't heard of the trip, noted that for the past several years the school board has held its retreats at its own central office.
"I'm very disappointed to hear that they would take off and go somewhere that extravagant to hold a retreat," he said.
Scott said the money should've been spent in Richmond County.
"If this is true, especially when we're asking everybody to cut back, to me it's just very, very unfortunate," she said.
Svehla said the normal room rate for this time of year at the Ritz-Carlton is $244 per person. "However, for this training session the discounted room rate will be $70 per person or $140 for a room for two people (double occupancy)," he said. "The hotel is waiving all meeting room rentals."
The retreat comes as part of a turnaround reform model Laney is having to undertake this coming school year in accepting the federal school improvement funds. The turnaround model requires the school to replace half its staff and have them reassigned to other schools. Several of those positions have been accounted for through attrition and some teachers being reassigned from an eighth-grade academy that Laney won't have this school year.
"Now that the selection of staff is nearing completion, the staff will be required to attend the retreat," Svehla said. "At this retreat, there will be an agenda and various activities designed to enable the newly selected and returning faculty and staff members to become fully oriented with the vision and mission of the school relative to the implementation of the Turnaround Model of the School Improvement Grant at Lucy C. Laney High School."
The retreat cost, Svehla said, includes lodging, several meals and meeting rooms for the 85 faculty and staff, equaling a per-person cost of $147.
"Accordingly, while the name of the hotel carries a perception that there may be some added expense, in reality, the rates are very reasonable and discounted after thorough negotiations," he said.
Two other Richmond County schools also received more than $1 million each from the school improvement grant, but Svehla said those schools -- Glenn Hills and Josey high schools -- are staying locally for their retreats. Svehla said the decision about where to hold retreats was up to each school's principal.
Glenn Hills Principal Wayne Frazier said he chose to keep his school's retreat at his school because he'd rather use the grant money in the classroom and in professional development of teachers.
"My leadership style does not lend itself to that type of retreat, with the present economy crisis," Frazier said.
Frazier did confirm, though, that in June there was a school-system initiative where some leaders from his school and several others in Richmond County in Needs Improvement status attended training at Calloway Gardens. He said he thinks it was tied to the reform plan as well.
As for the Ritz trip, Svehla said Laney's situation is unique because it's the only school having half of its staff reassigned and the only one going through America's Choice and college board training for the first time.
"It's a way to get away with each other and really form a team," he said of the need for Laney's retreat.
Columbia County school officials said they can't recall ever sending a group to a Ritz-Carlton for training or a retreat, and lately have been trying to keep retreats and training local unless it's only offered at an out-of-county location.
Richmond County board member Jack Padgett said of the Ritz retreat: "There's a lot of other places you can have them," noting that although it seems the school got a decent per-room rate it probably shouldn't have booked "the fanciest name in town."
"I just think the image is not good when we're having furloughs," he said.
Board member Helen Minchew said that when broken down to individual workers the cost doesn't seem exorbitant, but "it just would have been prudent to have stayed here."
