Superintendent of WBR schools reviews scores

• By EMILY HOLDEN
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Oct 23, 2009 - Page: 2B

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PORT ALLEN — West Baton Rouge Parish school performance scores increased by 4.1 points last year, Superintendent David Corona told School Board members Wednesday night.

The district’s score was 87.5 for the 2007-08 school year and 91.6 last year. Statewide, the highest district performance score was 116.8 in the Zachary Community School District and the lowest was 54 in the Louisiana Recovery School District.

West Baton Rouge school performance score increased 10.5 points since the 2005-06 school year, and the district’s ranking rose from 34 out of 66 districts to 33 out of 70, Corona said.

Corona said he is happy with the scores, but expects the district to continue to improve.

“Over a period of time, we’re going to see continued growth,” Corona said.

School performance scores are largely based on standardized test scores, but include other factors such as attendance and dropout rates.

Among parish schools, Brusly High School and Brusly Middle School received the highest growth scores of 101.6 and 101.7, respectively.

Port Allen Middle School received the lowest growth score in the district, 70.2.

Four schools did not achieve their target growth: Cohn and Brusly elementary schools, and Port Allen and Devall middle schools.

Corona said the addition of new school districts in Baker, Central, Zachary and Orleans Parish are the primary reason West Baton Rouge has not moved higher in the rankings.

He said some districts’ scores have increased because of state takeovers of low-performing schools. Also Wednesday, the board decided that full-time employees would receive salary bonuses in December, and the district plans to participate in a child health study through the Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Corona said all full-time employees would receive $400 midyear supplement checks in mid-December. He said the funding for the supplemental pay will come from the Educational Facilities Improvement District, the general fund and a 12-mill property tax.

Employees who have not worked the full school year would receive less supplemental pay, Corona said.