Bogalusa School Board
Bogalusa, Louisiana
Special Board Meeting
March 28, 2011
Immediately Following The Committee Meeting -(6:10P.M.)
(Please note that the Committee Meeting convened at 5:30P.M.)
Proceedings Of The Bogalusa School Board Taken At A Special Board Meeting That Was Held On Monday, March 28, 2011
The Bogalusa School Board met in a special session at the Bogalusa School Board Office, in the Media Center, located at 1705 Sullivan Drive, Bogalusa, Louisiana on Monday, March 28, 2011, beginning at 6:10P.M., for the sole purpose of addressing the acceptance or rejection of bid(s) for the Bogalusa High School Auditorium ceiling. There was a presentation from the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB).
1.) Call to Order
President Paul Kates called the meeting to order at 6:10P.M.
2.) Pledge of Allegiance
Interim Superintendent Stephanie Hoppen led the Pledge of Allegiance.
3.) Prayer
Reverend Raymond Mims delivered the opening prayer.
4.) Roll Call
There were present: President Mr. Paul Kates; Vice President Mr. Adam Kemp; Members: Mr. Curtis Creel, Mrs. Eleanor Duke, Mr. Calvin Hymel, Reverend Raymond Mims and Dr. Brad Williams
There was absent: None
Statement from President Kates-"First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming to our Special Meeting; and I would like to give special thanks to our Mayor, Mr. Charles Mizell; and our State Senator, Mr. Ben Nevers. We thank them for being in our presence. Next on our agenda we will have a presentation by Mr. Scott Warren, from the Southern Regional Education Board," says President Kates.
5.) Presentation
SREB (Southern Regional Education Board) - Scott Warren
" tonight to talk to you about something I believe you’re fairly familiar with, because you had a group of folks go around to visit some schools, thanks to these gentlemen efforts. We had an opportunity to visit some High Schools That Work schools in Georgia, and South Carolina a couple of months back. I’m here tonight to talk to you a little about High Schools that Work and Making Middle Grades Work; and try to answer some questions you might have; and provide to you a rough proposal on how we might support schools in Bogalusa City School System."
"Before I begin though, I’d like to take a moment and talk about SREB. SREB is the Southern Regional Education Board; formed in 1948; by sixteen (16) southern states. The governors of those sates came together; and they formed a compact basically with a mission of improving the pride of the south by improving education, in the south. SREB has kept that same mission throughout time; up until 2011; and will continue. It has shifted to an extent, in that when SREB first started their focus primarily was on research for Legislatures, Department of Education; marketing and post secondary areas. In 1986, Dr. Gene Bottoms came to work for SREB; and it was our first effort working directly with high schools. He had a vision for what he felt high schools should be; and brought together directors from each of the sixteen (16) states; and formed what they called, High Schools That Works. It was really aimed at the other sixty percent (60%) of kids in school. In marketing education system, especially back in the eighties, those programs that were set up were really aiming at the top twenty percent (20%); and those federal laws and things; just coming down the pipes, aiming at the other twenty percent (20%), and other aims; or special needs; Language Arts, different groups like that; the middle sixties were kind of left to wonder through school. Now, the good news was, in the eighties those kids could probably wonder through school and still get a diploma; and still get a job. Back in the seventies and eighties, drop-out wasn’t a problem, it was a solution. They were able to drop out of school and go get a job somewhere. Those jobs were gone. Seeing that as changing, they came up with High Schools That Work. Basically, we started working with schools. It was a new way of working with schools. It wasn’t dictatorial; you must do it this way type of framework; it was framework that gave faculty; gave school leaders; gave School Boards ownership to take it and craft it in the direction that fits their need."
"The team that went and visited schools in South Carolina and Georgia got to see that in action; because they saw schools that look very different. Some were focusing on some things; others on others. The one common characteristic that had not been a part of school improvements were their emphasis on high schools are successful; and kids are successful, after high school; that mindset; and yes we’ve got all this testing going on; and it’s improved achievement; but ultimately our mission is to prepare them for success after high school; and they got to see that in a number of different ways, as they went around visiting schools. In 2000, we moved this effort down to the middle grades as well; and developed the Making Middle Grades Work initiative. This focus very much on the same mindset; the mindset being a middle grade school is successful, if the kids are successful in ninth grade; that mindset; and unfortunately as I get an opportunity to travel around the county, that mindset does not exist in very many middle schools. The mindset of preparing them for success on an eight grade assessment that may not match ninth grade readiness is a challenge."
"In 2007, after all these years of work with schools, we saw that there was a need to develop leadership; SREB developed it’s leadership initiative; actually it started back in 2005; and it started rolling out to schools in 2007. In the left side of your packet, I have that information on each of those three (3) different ideas; the High Schools That Work; Making Middle Grades Work brochures; and the Learning Centered Leadership Program. The great thing about it is, we’re getting into the 2010-2011 time period and we’re moving all of that leadership work online; so it’s going to be available online for folks."
" governor, of one of the sixteen (16) southern states. The most recent sitting Louisiana governor to be chaired for SREB was Governor Blanco. Our mission is to improve education in the south. So, in essence, the state of Louisiana is part owner of SREB."
"I have put together a little proposal. I had talked to Mrs. Horne a while back, before she left the district; and I put together a proposal of how we might support the schools. Now, if you would turn to page two (2) of this proposal, you’ll notice that I talked about three (3) schools; I did not talk about New Tech High in the proposal; and that’s probably for two (2) reasons. Number one (1) being because the school is in the midst of growing; and because of its connection with the New Tech program, I didn’t know how much time they are going to have available. I know that as they are in the development stage they are involved in a lot; and I think that would involve a very specific conversation, to develop a specific plan, for that school. It may not mean a necessity with Northside Tech Middle School as well; but I included them as part of the proposal; that I have put together."
"Career Technical Education plays a vital role in our American high schools; and actually New Tech is a classic example; really emphasizing the technology aspects of it in project based learning, which is part of the work that we’re talking about. The idea that career technical education isn’t just about teaching kids a skill in a career area, it has to have a career value added academically. They have to read technical material; they have to write; they have to do math in those areas. The fact is we have a limited idea of what jobs will look like twenty (20) years from now, in most career area. The one thing we know is that in order for them to keep up they are going to have to read technical material. We don’t know what that technical material is going to be written on. It might be some type of digital pad; no telling what it’ll be twenty (20) years from now; and it probably won’t be a textbook anymore; so reading and writing for learning is integral in this work. Then leadership; the whole aspect is developing leaders for continuous improvement. Our design; our framework is based upon the idea that teachers have ownership. They build the plan with leadership guiding them; not directing them; not ordering it be this way; and that’s where the ownership of the problems and solution comes in."
"And lastly the use of data to monitor the progress, that’s the global idea. That’s what High Schools That Work; and Making Middle Grades Work really is, in their design. The process that we use to work with schools is one that involves several tasks. First and foremost, we assign a School Improvement Consultant to a school. The role of that person is to be the outside guide; that outside-in part, working with the schools. They’ll come in; they’ll conduct an orientation for the faculty, usually it happens where they’ll do an after school meeting with faculty; and the next day they’r;ll meet all day with teachers during their planning periods; so they can ask the 'What’s in it for me,' question that they have. We often meet in the evening with parent groups, sometimes the Board, share information with them about the design. The next is the most critical thing that we do. It’s called the Site Development Workshop. It is where we come and work with the school; a two (2) day workshop with the teachers; and all the leaders, to develop a plan. They look at where they’re at; and what they see their problems are, based upon the data; and they began the development of the plan. That’s the internal review; that’s the teachers’ part; this is where we see the problems corrected; leaders trained. Then we do an external review. The external review is called the Technical Assistance Visit; and our roll in that is to have an external team come and look at the schools. We have been doing these for twenty-five (25) years now. The external teams comes in and looks at the school and they say; through the lens of our design; our framework what we see is the needs of the school. The external team includes educators from other schools; other High Schools That Works sites; other Making Middle Grades Work sites. The Middle School Administrators are part of the High School visit. High School Guidance Counselors may be a part of the Middle School visit. Community members are involved. And from that point on it’s about addressing your needs. When Mrs. Horne contacted me, way back to come, she asked me to put together a proposal to work with you; and work with the schools; and she asked me to do so based upon, what she said what the Cadillac version would look like; and I actually like doing it that way, because I like to say the Cadillac is the absolute ideal version of support to help a school do so. What we typically do is, set down with a Board; with a Superintendent; with the school; so forth and develop a very specific plan for each of the schools, based upon this outline. This is why I was going to recommend to you guys a proposal that gives you an idea of what the ideal support would look like, with tremendous amount of support. We believe with that level of support we can dramatically improve students’ achievement; we can increase graduation rates; we would hope in a three year time period; getting them up above ninety percent (90%), up near the ninety-five percent (95%) mark, which is a goal that we think they need to establish, at least ninety-five percent (95%) graduation rate. We would work with the Board; the new Superintendent; whomever, to develop a very specific plan for these schools. I prepared for you the ideal plan of support for those three (3) schools; and the main thing I would like to mention on that plan of support is the priority intervention task that we think are absolutely essential; and they are described there; the orientation; the onsite coaching; the site development workshop and the technical assistance visit. Those are priorities. The amount of on-site coaching; the amount of professional development, will be based obviously on those needs of the schools; and that’s where we come up with that; but as I said I wanted to provide that to you as an example; and would recommend that the next step, if you’re interested in continuing with this, would be for us to literally sit down and develop a detailed plan for each individual school," concluded Mr. Warren. Mr. Warren then asked if there were any questions.
Question from Vice President Kemp-"In your detail plan, would that also include scheduling, as far as; I think high school is looking at a 4X4 verses a seven hour day?" "Yes, and we literally have schools of all schedules. The things I tell folks all the time when we work with scheduling is what are your problems and what are you trying to address with the schedule," replied Mr. Warren.
Question from Dr. Williams-"Do you think some reason that the classes, at least in our schools; we like nineteen to twenty-one (19-21) in a class better than twenty-eight or thirty (28 or 30), I feel that it was because of the discipline situation; the teachers were just getting over whelming having to keep dealing with that few problem student; but as the teacher knows it doesn’t take but a couple of those; and it just disrupts the whole classroom environment. Actually I think that helped us get our LEAP scores up, at least last year." "I agree. I guess my point in bringing up the class sizes issue was that; smaller class sizes allow you the opportunity to do some things differently, that improve achievement," replied Mr. Warren.
Statement/Question from Mrs. Duke-"We know that Louisiana students are going to have to take the LEAP no matter what; how does your system adapt to that?" "The closest school we have that is currently working with us; to you guys right now is Covington. Thai is the closest. We have a number of schools that we are working with in Louisiana; a number of high schools and Middle Schools that have been a part of state project. The state project provided them very, very minimal support. Most were very troubled schools; the majority of them; nine of the schools being in Caddo Parish, that we were providing support to. One of the things I think may happen; I have a meeting tomorrow with Louisiana Department of Ed. We may be able to expand some of our work in Louisiana through a partnership with the Gates Foundation, so we may be able to provide support to Bogalusa City Schools, through the Gates Foundation work as well. I’ll know about it in the coming week. I close by once again thanking you for the opportunity and thanking Senator Never for helping lead the group over there to visit those schools; and the mayor for helping organize and get everyone to come over. I count it worth while; and I hope you do too. We’re looking forward to working with you. Thank you," concluded Mr. Warren. (SREB information is on file wit the Auditors records)
6.) Approval of Minutes of Special Board Meeting-March 10, 2011
It was motioned by Reverend Mims, seconded by Vice President Kemp to approve the minutes. The motion was unanimously carried.
7.) Recess to Public Session
There were no cards submitted; but President Kates recognized Senator Ben Nevers; and Mayor Charles Mizell
Senator Ben Nevers-"I want to thank the School Board; the Superintendent, for sending not only two (2) School Board Members; but also your staff to visit really four (4) schools; two (2) in South Carolina; two (2) in Georgia. I want to really thank Dr. Horne for her service over the last few years and certainly her energy and her looking for new opportunities across our country. The New High School is certainly one of those that she visited along with others. It will work with the proper leadership; and the proper support; but I thank you for allowing that to happen; it would not have happened without your support. I want to congratulate those of you that are newly appointed to the Board; and those that were elected just recently; and returning back to the Board, for all the work that you’ve performed in the past and what you will do in the future. But, I also want us to realize that the decisions you’ll make in the next few months will determined the path for Bogalusa and much of the eastern side of Washington Parish will travel in the coming years. We’ll destine our area to poverty, to the many things we face for a number of years; declining population; higher crime; unemployment unless we make a change; unless we say we have a problem; and that we agree we have a problem and we have to fix it. Now, let me tell you the problem starts home. Many of the children that enters this school system as a four year old has many problems that’s going to take huge amounts of money to correct; and many of you’ve heard me speak on this; it’s going to take a whole community energized to reach that child that was just born to see that that child is ready to enter our four-year-old program; to see that it graduates from high school; and it has a future ahead of it. That’s easy to say; very hard to do. I want to call on every faith-based community; every leader; and every business in this community if we want a bright future for this community; and if we want our children not to leave to hunt better opportunities; but to stay here, then we are going to have to work together and much of our togetherness will mean that our local businesses needs to identify those great students coming out of high school and be sure they have a job; right here, while we have many leaving and we’re trying to attract others to come to our area, we need to look right here at home. We need to understand that it is incumbent upon all of us and especially those businesses that hire our people and other people that they consider people that come out of our school system; and my opinion first. Now, if they’re not qualified, and they cannot perform the job they need, who can blame businesses for looking somewhere else. But, I can tell you, if you visited with me in Lexington, South Carolina; President Kates; Board Member Hymel; you would have seen the technology center that was there; ninth through twelfth grade (9th-12th); and had a high school sitting beside it and three (3) others feeding it; you would have visited that and you were going to choose whether you were going to locate a company in Lexington or in Bogalusa, I can tell you; you would be in Lexington; no doubt about it. Mayor, I want to thank you for sending your staff and two (2) Council Members. The first time in history that I know of that the City of Bogalusa, the Mayor and the City Council; and the School Board traveled together, along with our college from the western side of our parish; the Washington Parish School Board; first time in history that I remember. This is not the only school system that’s having problems; but you’re unique; with twenty-three hundred children (2,300). Seize this opportunity. I see you having four (4) options. One is to change this system; turn it around so it can become a model for Louisiana; the Southern Region; and even the United States. So, tonight I don’t know if SREB is the answer. I’ve known SREB since I’ve been a legislator. They are experts in education. I would hope we could take advantage of some of what they propose or all of what they proposed. I can tell you a new school building would be wonderful here; but a new school building with no better scores than what we have today is not worth building; we’re just delaying the inevitable. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, you are the people that will determine what courses is set for this community and for the future. I’m willing to support you in whatever direction you choose. But the four options I said; one, change this system, and change it now, we cannot wait. The second is to consider meeting with Washington Parish, opening up a dialog and talk about merging the systems. We’re going to change this system, and we’re going to do what’s right. Tonight is the time to make a change; and to break from the past and to move toward the future. Thank you Mr. Kates; and thank all of you" concluded Senator Nevers. (Only two options were stated).
Mayor Charles Mizell-"Senator Nevers is always a tough act to follow. I am so glad that we have a leader such as Senator Nevers to follow. His leadership; his dedication to the school system and of course to our area is tremendous; and I’m proud to work with the Senator. I want to thank each of you for the job that you do. One of the great things about it is I don’t have a real clue about what you do; except you have been chosen by the people of Bogalusa School District to lead us to the 'Promise Land.' When I was elected Mayor of Bogalusa, that was kind of a shock not only me; but to a lot of people, I think. I went in and started doing a little evaluation with people that own businesses in the city. As you well know, I’ve been blessed and fortunate to build a few businesses in the City of Bogalusa; during a time when according to the experts the economy had been on a downward trend for several, several years. I went to some people and I’m going call their name; it’s one of the businesses I went to them and asked their permission to mention them; back when I first visited them; a company called Sitel. I remembered the commitment that they had made back when it was Service Zone that they would one day employ three hundred (300) people. I asked the HR person there that day; I said, 'Why you don’t have the three hundred (300) people here; he have one hundred and ninety something employees at that time; and he said, 'I’ll hire one hundred people today; if they could qualify.' I said 'What you mean, qualified? What’s the standard by which we qualify?’ He said, 'First of all, you have to have a high school diploma or equivalency; next you must pass a drug test; and third you need to come to work each day.' I said 'Well, which is your biggest problem?’ He said, 'Coming to work everyday.' Evidently there is not a need. For some reason or another, if there is a need, normally we do something. I wondered about that so I asked myself, 'Well, why is this? Well, one of the biggest problems we have is we have a lot of young ladies in our area that actually do this work and do it very well, they’re educated; they’re computer literate; they pass the drug test; but they have one to five children; and they’re single parents. They don’t have proper child care. They can work one or two days a week. We are facing all kind of issues as far as employment in this city. I thought about that a lot of times. We need more than just education; but we need some real life education. Early Childhood Intervention; I’m not an educator but I’m smart enough to see that we have to start there. But, I want to give you a lesson in education. I want to thank you as the Mayor of the City of Bogalusa and being allowed to work with you; I can sell an educated society, I can tell you. I’ve been out there talking to some businesses; they’re interested we’ve always had a good work ethic; we need to tweet that with an education. You set the model and we’re going to work with you; I can guarantee you that. I appreciate what you’re doing; anything you need from me and Bogalusa call me. Thank you," concluded Mayor Mizell.
Statement from Senator Nevers- "I’ll be very brief. I told you you had four (4) choices, I only named two (2). The third choice is for your school to stay in Academically Unacceptable situation, the state will come in and take them over; take one at a time; take two at a time. You could enter into a Memorandum of Understanding for you to operate them. We just did that a few months ago in St. Helena Parish, we took over the Middle School; and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with them for St. Helena to run their high school and now we’ve taken over the high school. I do not think that’s the best option for you. I really certainly think the state’s got much more than they can handle with what they have. The last option would be for you the charter one or more of your schools. There are some charter systems in this state; and across the country that does an excellent job; but remember it’s only twenty percent (20%) of the charters in this country that’s doing an excellent job, others are struggling. I’m not here to promote them; but I’m here to say that it’s an option you should look at. I want you to look at every option. I want you to give our children the best chance to survive and do it as quickly as possible. Thank you," says Senator Nevers.
At this point President Kates resumed with the agenda.
8.) Old Business
A.) Accept or Reject bid(s) for the Bogalusa High School Auditorium Ceiling
Prior to any action, Mr. Conerly gave information to the Board regarding the bids stating, "The 15th of this month we met at the high school for a pre-bid conference. We had seven (7) firms. The 22nd we opened those bids and we had three (3) bids. If you’ll look on page one, we had a bid from Brunt Construction, Inc., of Independence, two hundred fifteen thousand, seven hundred dollars ($215,700). If you’ll look on page two, you have a bid from Reflect Tech, Inc.; two hundred thirty seven thousand nine hundred fifty dollars ($237,950); they’re from Picayune. The last bid is Sheridan Construction of Bogalusa; two hundred thirty thousand even ($230,000), with a certified expiration date. At the bottom of page one you’ll see Kevin Smith, he arrived three minutes late. The bid was accepted, but never opened and returned. The second tag is the Architects recommendation for the low bid. I hope you’ll consider accepting this," says Mr. Conerly.
It was motioned by Mrs. Duke, seconded by Reverend Mims to accept the low bid of $215,700 from Brunt Construction of Independence, LA. The motion was unanimously carried. (Supporting documents are on file with the minutes)
9.) Interim Superintendent Comments-Stephanie Hoppen
Interim Superintendent Hoppen stated that she had no comments.
10.) Board members Comments
Mrs. Eleanor Duke "I would just like to thank the three gentlemen for coming in and bringing all this to us. I think they did an excellent job."
Vice President Adam Kemp-"Again, to mirror what Mrs. Duke said, thank the gentlemen for coming. We do have great things going on in this system. One of the things that I see is; and it’s not to put down on any of the schools; is our Tech Middle, I am constantly hearing good things coming from that school; and it’s not just the students, they have a variety of students; from special needs to high achievers, but they are still; the entire faculty is a family unit. I appreciate what you’re doing."
President Paul Kates "First of all I would like to thank Senator Nevers, Mr. Scott Warren and our Mayor for being present tonight and we all know that it’s time for a change in Bogalusa School System. From the top down, we all have to be accountable for what we do, because we’re talking about our children’s lives. We know that there are internal problems in some of our schools and maybe be all of them; but it’s time for our Supervisors; our Principals, it’s time for us to start doing the correct evaluation where we weed out our teachers that are mismanaging their classes and not able to perform the duties that they are suppose to perform, because we are talking about educating children. We just had four (4) options. We can either turn our schools around and do what’s right; we can let the sate come in and take us over; we can ask for a charter to come in; I’m not condoning it; I’m for turning Bogalusa School System around. I want our Board to get on board with me; and I think we need to bring in SREB to help us so we can get support into our schools; train our staff, so we can turn our system around. We are in need now; we are in much need. I feel that our businesses want to work with us; I know our Mayor will work with us; I know our Senator will work with us. I think it’s time for us to do the right thing and make a decision. I know we have internal problems; there’s no since in saying we don’t; and it’s time to correct these things. We have to do it, starting at our Board Office and channeling on down. I hope everyone get on Board. I hope our community; I hope our system can accept change because that’s what we need to do; make changes.”
Mr. Calvin Hymel-"It’s going to be hard. We’re going to have to make some decision that’s going to hurt a lot of people’s feelings but hey, we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do it for our kids. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here; what your job title is; we’ve got to do what’s got to be done; and we’ve got to do it; can’t worry about, oh I’m not going to be re-elected; I don’t care about being re-elected, I want to do what’s best for this school system; and best for our kids."
President Kates asked if there were any more comments. There were none, and he adjourned.
11.) Adjourn
There being no further comments or business to address, President Kates adjourned at 7:35P.M.
______________________________________________ __________________________________________________
Stephanie Hoppen Paul D. Kates
Secretary to the Board Board President