The recent Plaquemines Parish School Board meeting in Port Sulphur covered a variety of topics, including contracts and calendars for the next school year, a presentation from Belle Chasse High School’s Team 107, and updates for the Board’s computer system.

Recognizing Excellence
Boothville-Venice Elementary was recognized for the achievement, recently named as one of thirty-five “High-Poverty, High-Performing Schools.” President William Mertz congratulated Principal Maria Prout for being one of the principals honored in the state of Louisiana, and for her school having a School Performance Score (SPS) of 110.9.

All board members were recognized for completing the required Ethics Training of Elected Office.

Team 107
Jemi Carlone, newly promoted principal of Belle Chasse High School, made a presentation to the school board on Belle Chasse High School’s Team 107.

“It started with three emails,” Carlone said, after the school had received an eye opening SPS score. “We always knew we were a three star school,” Carlone said at the presentation, but the new SPS score of 102.4 is about a “C” on the letter grade scale now used. The new goal is “107” or a “B.”

“A lot more than GED scores go into this. We need to look at drop out rates, and duel enrollment,” which includes early college courses and vocational programs, she said. “We also look at suspension and retention rates [and] we call on the students failing two or more classes,” bringing them to a coach or teacher, letting them know about what help is available, Carlone continued.

The effort includes weekly volunteer committees of teachers and “blitzing” students with reviews and concepts to improve scores. Even businesses in the community have gotten involved, placing encouraging messages on signs.

“We want to create a state championship feeling,” Carlone said. “A commitment to excellence. Show [the students] that this is important.”

Compensation contract
The Director of Finance and Management, Ronald White, made a presentation before the Board on canceling the current Worker’s Compensation contract. White said that the School Board was legally required to give the current administrators sixty days notice.
“Our timeline has it so we could issue a request in the month of April, get results in May, and have a new company for July 1,” said White.
After the Board had given permission to cancel the contract, they immediately and unanimously granted approval to begin soliciting proposals for a new administrative service to be contracted before the next school year officially started.

iPads
Lucien Cusimano, Director of Information Technology for the School Board presented the options for updates to the council’s laptop technology.

“[We] were looking for a lighter way to use BoardDocs program at meetings,” said Cusimano. The BoardDocs program is an effective, paperless tool for these meetings, but the laptops were becoming cumbersome to lug around.

“We looked at iPads and similar units,” Cusimano said, who had an iPad with him for the presentation. BoardDocs teams assured him that the iPad works with the program, but made no such assurances about Android-based tablets. All board members approved the purchase of 10 iPad devices, strictly for meeting use, pending training of the touch-screen device.

Sports
Board Member Paul Lemaire recognized local athlete Bradley Sylve, of the South Plaquemines Track Team, who ran a 100m dash in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Tack & Field Championships in 10.2 seconds.
The South Plaquemines High Softball team was applauded for their record of 21-2 this year.

Ray “CC” Gallet, retired SPHS football announcer, also asked the Board when it would announce who the replacement coach was for South Plaquemines. Superintendant Rousselle said there are several candidates being looked at, and though one is heavily favored, no announcement could be made yet.

“We should have an answer in the next week or two,” Rousselle said.

Other items discussed were
Janel Mumme, the Director of Head Start for the parish presented the annual Plaquemines Parish Head Start Self-Assessment for board approval, and was passed unanimously. The school board also approved the Request to Carry Forward unused portions of funds from this year, and approved the 2011-12 school calendar.

The Board raised a motion to skip the first reading of the new and revised Board policies, and had the presentation considered as the second reading. That motion was passed by all members.

The Board approved the promotion of Jemi Carlone from Interim-Principal of Belle Chasse High to Principal, effective April 5. Carlone officially replaces former principal Leland Lee with the promotion.