EBR, state ink school deal
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After months of talks, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system and the state Department of Education have worked out an arrangement allowing four Baton Rouge schools to remain in the parish school system with close supervision.
The seven-page management agreement, signed on Thursday, clears the way for Banks, Capitol and Park elementary schools, as well as Capitol Middle School, to complete preparations for the 2009-2010 school year, starting Aug. 7, barely three weeks from now.
The management agreement lasts for three years, though the state can terminate it as soon as June 30, 2010, but has to first give 30-days notice.
Although the schools are under local control, the state-run Recovery School District has final say on hiring and firing, the school calendar, curriculum and student testing. The school system will pay the state’s administrative and oversight costs.
The per-school fee starts at $46,000 next school year and increases to almost $52,000 by the 2011-2012 school year.
To place the schools into the Recovery School District would require a vote by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Superintendent John Dilworth told the School Board on Thursday the agreement was long in the making.
He credits Charlotte Placide, who retired as superintendent June 30, for much of the progress. He said the agreements offer these schools necessary stability for this coming school year.
“That is so important,” he said.
School Board member Tarvald Smith, a critic of state takeovers, was suspicious. He asked Domoine Rutledge, the school system’s general counsel, several probing questions at the Thursday board meeting until he was satisfied.
“This is something to celebrate,” Smith said. “I want to thank everybody involved in those negotiations.”
Board member W.T. Winfield, who had threatened to call for a boycott if the state had taken over either Capitol Elementary or middle school, was happy.
“Thank you for convincing the state to trust us with the management of these schools,” Winfield told Dilworth.
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