Central schools bursting with students
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CENTRAL — Louisiana’s newest school district, the Central Community school system, is growing so fast that school and community officials are scrambling to keep up.
Carved out of the northern part of East Baton Rouge Parish in 2006-2007, the district encompasses 66 square miles and includes nearly 30,000 residents.
The community voted recently to approve a sales tax to build a new middle school, a property tax to build a new elementary school and another property tax to improve the district’s five current facilities they received from the East Baton Rouge system and a private school they are leasing.
“It’s been very challenging, but the future looks bright,” said Superintendent Michael Faulk, who oversees the district’s 305 employees — including 250 teachers and instructors — and manages a $33 million budget.
In the two years since its birth, the district has mushroomed from 2,650 students to 3,535 according to last fall’s count, and they’ve had to add 64 classrooms. They will be adding at least eight more temporary buildings over this summer, Faulk said.
The majority of the first rush of students came into the system from nearby private or parochial schools, Faulk said, but new students are moving into the district all the time with families seeking a friendly and prosperous community to live in.
Having only two years of LEAP test scores makes it too soon to compare them to other districts, Faulk said, but officials did see what he called “significant progress” in 21 of the 32 areas tested. By next year the district will have established a baseline for score comparison, he said.
“This is a close-knit community, and we have a close-knit staff,” Faulk said. “This is a very involved community, and they are really interested in the schools. They want to see them do well. They are really proud of their community and their schools.”
Sharon Browning, a retired East Baton Rouge educator and president of the Board of Education, is one of those community residents who is proud of the school system.
“We are excited. We have high expectations for our schools,” Browning said. “We are growing by leaps and bounds.”
“We have a low student-teacher ratio of 20 to one in the elementary schools, and you can’t even find that in a private school,” Browning said. “People are seeking a place where they feel safe where they can educate their kids in a public school setting, and Central seems to be the place to be.”
Phone: (225) 262-1919
On the Net: http://www.centralcsd.org
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