School Board hears report on takeover
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NEW ROADS — Opinions were aired, voices were raised, but little was settled Tuesday night during the Pointe Coupee Parish School Board meeting.
Superintendent Dan Rawls said the school district does not yet know how many students will opt out of attending Pointe Coupee Central High School when it becomes a charter school this fall.
Advance Baton Rouge, under control of the Louisiana Department of Education’s Recovery District, will be running Pointe Coupee Central High.
If enough students leave the high school, Rawls said, grade configurations could be changed at the district’s other schools, closed buildings might have to be reopened, and rooms such as libraries and computer labs may be converted to classrooms.
Rawls said he hopes to have some “real numbers” by July 4, but said he knows of only 31 out of 764 students at Central High who have signed up to attend classes there this fall.
A call to Advance Baton Rouge by The Advocate was not returned.
As emotions flared and voices were raised, board President James Cline said he thought disagreement was being fueled by the fact that the takeover means fewer jobs for the board to administer.
“The hogs have been feeding too long at the trough,” he said, “and now they’ve taken away the trough. It’s time to say, like Roberto Duran, ‘No mas’ and no longer have more emphasis on jobs than on educating children.”
A volley of accusations followed, with people in the audience saying children had been neglected, teachers and staff had not been assigned to schools equitably, and the state should not be allowed to “experiment” with Pointe Coupee Central.
Board attorney Bob Hammonds presented a report in which he disputed accusations that the school district is not in compliance with its desegregation court order.
Hammonds said terms of the court order are unlike any he had ever seen, but said he had been told that adjustments had to be agreed to by the plaintiff’s attorney and U.S. Justice Department, and submitted to the presiding judge. He said all that had been done.
Board member Tom Nelson said he did not believe the board would ever attain unitary status, thereby coming out from under the court order, until it creates one consolidated, parishwide high school.
He said such a plan might allow the board to “take back” Pointe Coupee Central.
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