Harlan Kirgan
The St. Landry Parish School Board graded Superintendent Patrick Jenkins as Proficient in an annual evaluation presented Thursday.
Jenkins is in his second year leading the school district ranked 51st in the state in the state’s school performance scores.
The Opelousas native has led several changes, which most recently was assuming supervision over the parish Head Start program.
Jenkins’ tenure is also marked by a failure of two tax proposals in March. One would have funded employee pay raises and the other a capital improvement program.
Jenkins average score from 12 School Board members was 31.17. One Board member, Huey Wyble, was absent for the evaluation.
Jenkins received an average score of 33.4 last year.
The superintendent’s score by Board member was released after the meeting Thursday. The underlying scores by members were not released.
The scoring is Exemplary, 40 to 36; Proficient, 35 to 26; Developing/Needs Improvement, 25 to 16; and Unacceptable, 15 to 0.
Areas that were evaluated were: Mission, Vision and Goals; Planning and Assessment; Instructional Leadership; Organizational Leadership and Safety; Communication and Community Relations; Professionalism; and Divisionwide Student Academic Progress.
The most weight in the evaluation is given to the academic progress.
Two Board members, Candace Gerace and Anthony Standberry, gave Jenkins an Exemplary evaluation. Nine members, Charles Ross, Milton Ambres, Raymond Cassimere, Donnie Perron, Kyle Boss, Roger Young, Albert Hayes Jr. and Mary Ellen Donatto, evaluated the superintendent as Proficient.
Hazel Sias gave a Developing/Needs Improvement evaluation.
Board members and the scores they gave the superintendent are Standberry, 40; Ross, 30; Cassimere, 32; Perron, 32; Boss, 26; Sias, 21; Young, 29; Hayes, 35; Donatto, 30; and Gerace, 36.
“I’m satisfied,” Jenkins said. “Like everything else we have to continue to improve individually and as a district.”
Jenkins added, “I have to sit down and go through the whole thing and see what their comments were.”
Jenkins said he needs to work on communication and on academic success, particularly in the Opelousas area.
“We have to improve many of our schools. Even though we’ve had some great successes this year, we still have to improve what we are doing here in Opelousas,” he said.
“One of the things that the Board wants to see is how we can get those schools that are Ds and Fs and provide support to them,” he said.
A strategic plan for the school district is to be unveiled this month, he said.