Jeannine Lejeune/Crowley Post-Signal
During the Acadia Parish School Board’s Personnel, Insurance and Curriculum meeting this week, it made two recommendations after failing to hear from Student Transportation Specialists for its monthly report.
Though on the agenda, no one from STS was on hand Monday night to deliver the monthly update. The monthly updates were an answer to the communication issues between the board and the contracted company last year when the contract with STS was renewed for three years. In the initial three years of its contract with STS, the board hardly heard from STS, but it did hear plenty from parents, schools and drivers alike. To avoid another situation like that, when STS officials visited Acadia during contract discussions, the group promised to keep the board informed.
Turning to items it could hear and take action upon, Antoinette Pete, coordinator of parent involvement, was on hand to present the proposed school calendar for 2017-2018.
Under the draft, school would begin on Aug. 9 and end May 24, 2018, which, while early, is in line with the past few school years with school starting on the second Wednesday of August and ending Memorial Day weekend.
Built-in make-up days are also in tact once again: Oct. 20, Jan. 16, 2018, and Feb. 14, 2018. Of course, a fourth day is built-in with the final Monday of the school year once again being a contingent in-service day once again.
These make-up days are built-in to help prevent extending the school year in case of school closures like this year’s one-week closure for August’s historic flood event.
A calendar for the fifth ward, which is under a four-day school week was not presented as it is typically just adapted.
“What we do is, once we get it approved, Mrs. Jean (Mayard, Midland High School secretary) is wonderful and she will adapt it to fifth ward,” said Pete.
Bourque urged board members to look at the calendar and talk to their constituents between the committee meeting and full board meeting.
The committee recommended the draft to the full board for approval in April by unanimous vote.
Finally, representatives from Church Point Middle and Iota Middle schools’ Junior Beta clubs were on hand to discuss their requests to travel out of state for the National Junior Beta Convention in June. Several students at each school placed at the Louisiana Junior Beta Convention in February or the Leadership Conference in Baton Rouge and earned the right to compete at the national level.
In the case of Church Point, seven students qualified via the Leadership Conference’s Rapid Response competition. The school’s team was one of the top ones selected to qualify to compete in Orlando.
and they will participate in two exhibition categories there.
Church Point requested the trip for the seven students and three adult chaperones. In its request, the school, represented Monday night by Assistant Principal and Junior Beta Sponsor Timmy Jones and Junior Beta Sponsor Leisa Delafoisse, the school outlined that it will pay for the trip’s remaining costs with fundraisers and parent/student funds. That cost was greatly defrayed by learning that a mother in the area donated her time share property for usage on the trip to club for this trip. The letter requesting the trip explains that the club will travel via Southwest Airlines and will use the airport shuttle to connect to Disney World (where the convention is held). The shuttle and the time share are helping the school defray costs for the trip. Jones also assured the committed that the club is taking every safety precaution imaginable as safety is the “number one concern.”
Estimated cost per student in Church Point is roughly $346. Church Point Middle is planning a full week trip from June 23 through June 30.
Representatives from Iota Middle’s Junior Beta Club, Atlanta Doucet and Jody Boone, joked that they are not lucky enough to know someone with a time share and thus cost per student in Iota will be around the $450 mark. Iota Middle’s trip is from June 24 through June 28.
Iota saw its four students qualify via the Louisiana Junior Beta Convention in jewelry, color photography, wreath and digital photo competitions. Iota plans to travel by vehicle to its destination and will be staying on Disney property at the World Wide Sports Hotel. The trip’s funds, not being paid by Beta will also be via fundraising and parents/student.
Both schools are of course pushing the fundraisers, but parents of the qualifying students are fully aware the cost could be the current high costs if fundraisers are not successful.
The trips’ requests were recommended to the full board unanimously and members of the board urged both clubs to report back their results after wishing them the best of luck in June.
Though it is rare for a school to have representatives on hand for field trip requests, Bourque thought it especially important in this case due to the length of travel for the trip and the way it was earned.
“I wanted the board members to see these trips are earned by kids, it’s not just given out to take a fun trip,” he said. “Every time we turn around (it seems) there’s a fundraiser, but when you hear what these kids have done, it’s easier to answer to the general public (regarding another fundraiser).”