Lafayette board OKs discipline plan

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Nov 6, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette Parish school system’s new discipline plan, which mandates more parental involvement and interventions like counseling, will take effect in January after the school board’s unanimous approval Wednesday night.

The action came a month after the board deferred a decision about the discipline plan changes to allow teachers more time to review the new plan.

The interventions in the new plan are expected to reduce the number of suspensions and ultimately expulsions in the system. As of Monday, 3,402 students had been suspended and 190 students had been expelled, according to figures provided by the system.

Board member Rae Trahan questioned how the system planned to hold disciplinarians accountable to the changes. Trahan said she’s heard too many complaints from parents who say that school disciplinarians don’t follow the plan.

“One of the reasons for this matrix is to make sure we have consistency throughout the parish,” assured Katie Landry, deputy superintendent of instructional services. “In the past, we’ve given a lot of them latitude, this narrows it down.”

The system worked with the 15th Judicial District to develop the interventions. Juvenile court was becoming overcome with school-related simple batteries, Judge Thomas Duplantier said.

“Don’t pull it off for more discussion,” Duplantier urged the board. “We were having 150 kids on a docket and almost 40 percent of them were school-related. We selfishly came to the school system and said, ‘We need some help.’”

Duplantier said he expects the parental involvement to “make a big difference.”

The January implementation allows time to tweak the plan before the start of the 2009-10 school year, said Superintendent Burnell Lemoine.

During the meeting, Bill Samec, transportation director, gave a status report on the system’s plan. The parish is running 27 fewer buses compared to last year since moving from a two-bell to a three-bell system. The parish had cut the total number of buses by 57 in an effort to save money, but added a total of 30 since school started in August to alleviate issues of late and overcrowded buses.

Parents of students at Our Lady of Fatima School filed a lawsuit challenging the system’s changes. On Jan. 20, a hearing will be held to determine whether the system violated state mandates that would require approval from the Board of Secondary and Elementary Education when transportation services are eliminated or reduced for economic reasons.

Overcrowded and tardy buses remained a problem weeks into the new session. Board member Ed Sam asked if the system should anticipate similar problems at the beginning of next year.

“I don’t anticipate making the changes that I made this year,” Samec said, laughing.