Board develops plan for Ville Platte High

• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Oct 15, 2009 - Page: 1BA

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The Evangeline Parish School Board seems to be making headway in its effort to spare Ville Platte High School from forced closure in the parish’s long-running desegregation case.

Superintendent Toni Hamlin said Wednesday the School Board is crafting a plan for renovations and other improvements at the predominantly black Ville Platte High, where inadequate facilities and poor academics have been a sticking point in the parish’s desegregation case.

The Justice Department had been pushing to close the 1930s-era school and send students to other schools.

The School Board and Justice Department have been working on a possible alternative to keep the school open.

“We are ready to submit our plan to the court,” Hamlin said.

U.S. District Judge Tucker Melancon also has expressed cautious optimism about the prospect of keeping the school open, but he has made the board no promises.

During a telephone conference last week, the judge complimented attorneys in the case for working on a plan to “allow sufficient renovation of Ville Platte High School for the school to remain open and for the Evangeline Parish School System to be declared unitary,” according to court minutes.

A unitary declaration would end the desegregation case, meaning the school system would be freed from federal oversight.

Melancon also congratulated Hamlin for Ville Platte High’s 6-point improvement this year in its school performance score, rising to 65.7.

The new score pulls the school off the list of “academically unacceptable schools” with scores below 60.

Hamlin said the School Board is preparing to submit a facilities plan to the judge and the Justice Department by next month.

The board has spent about $3 million at Ville Platte High in recent years for upgrades, but more work is needed.

The School Board had planned to build a new school, but voters shot down three separate tax propositions since 2007 to fund construction.