The Acadia Parish School Board held its regular meeting Monday with a couple of large items on the agenda, including the Pupil Progression Plan, considering participation in the Creative Placemaking Grant through OneAcadia, approving the audit/financial report for last school year and hearing a report on Head Start.
According to the Department of Education’s website, “The Pupil Progression Plan is the comprehensive plan developed and adopted by each LEA. The plan is based on student performance on the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program and is aligned to state laws and BESE policies.”
Therefore, if a student fails he can still be moved up into a transitional class if the school makes a decision to move said student forward. The plan goes into effect this year and is still awaiting approval. The board however, approved the 2017-2018 Pupil Progression Plan.
The School Board also heard from Laurie Suire, president and CEO of OneAcadia, before voting on consideration of the Creative Placemaking Grant. Although, some private sectors have donated money the board decided to table this issue possible participation until the police jury votes on it and the president of the police jury can make an appearance in front of the school board.
The deadline for application is March 1, according to Suire.
Next, the school board heard the audit/financial report for the year ending June 30, 2017, from a representative of Broussard Poche, LLP, certified public accounts.
he auditor’s report no audit findings over control of financial reporting and no findings for Internal control over major programs.
The deficit for the year was $836,827. The budget for the fiscal year 2017 was with in the 5 percent mandated by state. The original budget was $78,056,727 with the final budget of $78,450,755 and the actual budget was $78,373,911 the variance is negative $76,844.
The audit finds they were 2.25 percent off on expenditures and less than 1 percent off on revenue.
Finally, Superintendent John Bourque reported on Head Start.
Head Start Director Dr. James Easton retired at the end of December and the school board is currently conducting interviews to find a qualified replacement.
Bourque closed the meeting with the following comments: Supplements will go out Friday, not Wednesday, of this week and the school’s were very lucky with the recent cold weather — any pipe damage reported in parish schools was very minor.
