Bogalusa School Board Office-Media Center
Bogalusa, Louisiana
Regular Board Meeting
September 13, 2012
5:30 P.M.
Proceedings of the Bogalusa School Board, Taken At A Regular Meeting That Was Held On Thursday, September 13, 2012
The Bogalusa School Board met in a Regular Board Meeting at the Bogalusa City School Board Office Media Center located at 1705 Sullivan Drive, Bogalusa, Louisiana, on Thursday, September 13, 2012 beginning at 5:30 P.M. The purpose of the meeting was to address matters of concern regarding the district’s plan of operation for the 2012-2013 Fiscal School Year. The agenda included two (2) recognitions of achievements in the Business Department.
1.) Call to Order
President Paul Kates called the meeting to order at 5:30 P.M.
2.) Pledge of Allegiance
Acting Superintendent Willie “Toni” Breaux 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
5.) Presentation: Business Department-Deloris Walker, Director of Finance (Prior to the meeting, Mrs. Walker asked Vice President Kemp to make the presentation instead of herself)
v Recognition of Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting-Government Finance Officer Association Comprehensive Annual Finance Report (CAFR) for June 2011.
v Recognition of Certificate of Excellence from Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) for June 2011.
At this point Vice President Kemp read the achievement certificates for achievement in Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2011, issued by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada Government Unit and Public Employment Retirement System for achieving the highest standard in government Accounting and Financial Reporting. Mrs. Walker then asked that her staff come forward to commend them for their contribution to these achievements. According to Vice President Kemp, this was the first time to receive these awards. “I just want to say on behalf of the Business Department I want to thank my staff for a job well done. I want to thank the School Board for the support you have given, also our new Acting Superintendent that just stepped in. She has been so supportive and our former Superintendent was very helpful to the Business Department and supportive of the daily task that we put forth. I just want to thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, my co-workers, the supervisors, principals, secretaries on down, I appreciate all the staff of Bogalusa City School District for helping us and working with us. We couldn’t do this alone, it takes you all to help us get our job done, so thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” says Mrs. Walker.
6.) Board Officers and Committee Reports
There were no reports or updates at this time.
7.) Recess to Public Session
There was no one to come forward to address the Board or public. President Kates proceeded with the agenda items as follow:
8.) New Business
At this point President Kates asked for a motion to amend the agenda to add line item “J” –Adopt Plan B of City of Bogalusa Ward 4 School Board redistricting Proposal based on 2010 Census Data as presented and recommended by Marshall O. Buddy Jenkins, Washington Parish election Commission, Chairman.
It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Reverend Mims to amend the agenda to add line item “J.” The motion was carried unanimously.
It was motioned by Reverend Mims, seconded by Dr. Williams to add line item “J.” The motion was carried unanimously. President Kates at that point proceeded.
A.) Adoption of Bogalusa City School District Personnel Evaluation Plan
Prior to voting, Ms. Jenkins came forward to make a correction regarding the plan, stating “What I wanted to say is that we had in there, that when we gave feedback to our observations of teachers, in the copy that I gave you, it said forty-eight (48) hours. We have changed that to seventy-two (72) hours, instead. That’s the only thing that has changed in there. That was just a typo. We put it in, and then we changed it. It will be that when principals or anybody observe a teacher, they will have seventy-two (72) hours to give them the feedback instead of forty-eight (48) hours. That was in the one that I gave to you all.”
It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Mr. Hymel to adopt the plan. The motion was carried unanimously.
B.) Grant permission to travel for Veronica Powell to attend Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Convention scheduled for March 19-23, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. This will be paid through Title III Funds.
It was motioned by Vice President Kemp, seconded by Reverend Mims to grant permission. The motion was carried unanimously.
C.) Approval of 2012-2013 Budgets for General Fund, Food Service and Special Revenues
It was motioned by Rev. Mims, seconded by Mrs. Duke to approve the budgets. The motion was carried unanimously.
D.) Approval of Resolution for the Bogalusa School Board to authorize Willie “Toni” Breaux, Acting Superintendent, to execute the approved State of Louisiana Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Injury Coverage Form and State of Louisiana Uninsured Motorist Property Damage Coverage Form.
It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Mr. Hymel to approve the Resolution. The motion was carried unanimously.
E.) Approval of Compliance Questionnaire Audit 2012.
It was motioned by Vice President Kemp, seconded by Dr. Williams to approve the questionnaire. The motion was carried unanimously.
F.) Approval of Fixed Assets, i.e. General Fund.
It was motioned by Mr. Hymel seconded by Mrs. Duke to approve the assets. The motion was carried unanimously.
G.) Approval of General Fund, Capital Project, Sinking Fund, Special Revenue and School Food Service for June 30, 2012.
It was motioned by Mrs. Duke, seconded by Mr. Hymel to approve. The motion was carried unanimously.
H.) Accept/Reject the proposed school district Re-Configuration/Renovation plans for 2013-2014 School Year.
It was motioned by Reverend Mims, seconded by Dr. Williams to accept the plans. The motion was not carried unanimously, at this point.
Question from Mrs. Duke-“I just want to ask something. Now is this just to do the planning for reconfiguring, because I realize the land across the street is going to be an issue that we’ll have to solve, if we can use that.” “For parking…I am going to try and talk to the resident manager. He was out in the Mill, but he was on another mission; I couldn’t talk to him today. He told me to come by his office, and I was going to ask him about that. Now you’re talking about the parking area,” asked President Kates? “Mrs. Duke continued, “Yes, I’m thinking on Sparta Drive, across the street. Curtis has found out who owns some of that land.” “Can we still park on the North Avenue side; even with using the Sparta side; would that be feasible,” asked Reverend Mims? “They are doing that now. Some people park on the Sparta side and some people park on the North Avenue side. We were thinking that we needed more parking spaces because we will have more employees,” says Acting Superintendent Breaux. It was also noted that this was a one-way street.
Statement from Mr. Creel-“I tried to see the mayor today, but I wasn’t successful. I did talk to James Hall and he assured me that the city would help us any way that they could to get whatever property we need. I discussed with him the possibility of widening Sparta Drive.”
Statement from Mrs. Duke-“Mrs. Breaux you said this is ready to go into construction or whatever.”
Response from Acting Superintendent Breaux-No ma’am this is just Phase I. We didn’t want to move to Phase II, because if you don’t approve this, there is no reason why we need to go on.”
Question from Mrs. Duke-“What does Phase I mean?
Response from Acting Superintendent Breaux-“It means that we are just giving you the design we are proposing to set the schools; the number of teachers; the schools that will be closed; and the number of employees that we will have at those schools. When we go to Phase II then we will be working on finances, the cost saving. We will be working on exactly how much money we will be saving. But, nothing is just final, and I do want you all from the Board input.”
The motion was carried unanimously, at this point.
I.) Grant permission to add sixteen (16) minutes per day to classroom instruction and Central Office personnel office of operation, beginning Monday, September 17, 2012, continuing through Monday, January 7, 2013, returning to the original time schedule on Tuesday, January 8, 2013, due to Hurricane Isaac.
Prior to voting there was a statement from Acting Superintendent Breaux, stating, “We had talked about it; the administrators and the supervisors. We had two (2) days that we had to make up. We had two (2) days that were built in. The reason we had to go with this plan was, Deloris and I are on that committee with the renovation of high school, and we had met with them prior to the hurricane, and told them that they could get into the school on those days, because there are some things that they cannot do with kids on campus period; and those would be the days that they could do that. I did not want to push them back. They have already sent us a letter saying that they are going to be behind about seven (7) days because of that, and we just can’t keep going back. The only other alternative that we had was to do this, add the sixteen (16) minutes. The reason we have to do it that way is because secondary has to have so many minutes for every semester; and the semester will end in January. That’s why we had to do it in that timeframe.”
Question from Dr. Williams-“You all didn’t want to take off any holiday time?”
Response from Acting Superintendent Breaux-“Well, we were going to take off holidays. We were going to take of Monday and Tuesday of the Fair; but all the holidays that are scheduled, we‘ve already promised for the renovation at the high school, that they could have those days.”
Statement from Mr. Creel-“They already have things on their calendar. That was part of the original plan to use those holidays to expedite the completion.”
Question from Dr. Williams-“Have you decided mornings or afternoons?”
Response from Acting Superintendent Breaux-“No we haven’t decided that. We wanted you all to approve this. We’ll talk about it.”
It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Vice President Kemp to grant permission. The motion was not carried unanimously, at this point.
Questions from a gentlemen in the audience-“I am not part of the schools, but my question is, how you are going to add this in to each of those classes? How is it going to affect the classes, alright? Is it just going to be one class that’s going to get an extra sixteen (16) minutes, or everybody?”
Response from Acting Superintendent Breaux-“It’s the whole school system. It would have the same period of time. If we add sixteen (16) minutes to the morning all of them will have that. If we add eight (8) to the morning; and eight (8) to the afternoon, they’ll all have that. If we add the sixteen (16) minutes on the end, the school system, they’ll all have them. The system is going to be uniform, so we’ll all be doing the exact same thing.”
The inputs continued, regarding where the minutes would be added.
Statement from Ms. Phlesher Mingo, Principal of Byrd Avenue-“Mrs. Breaux that’s what the teachers wanted me to ask if we could add them in the morning instead of the afternoon.”
Response from Acting Superintendent Breaux-“I’ll take your suggestion, but I have to talk to my Board. I appreciate that Ms. Mingo. Always be supportive of your teachers, because I’ve always supported them.
Statement from Mrs. Walker-“I want to inject this as we’re discussing. As you all know, Principals you’re always complaining about the buses; the buses get there too early, so you know what’s going to happen. We’ve got to really look at that, because that’s going to put some kids to be picked up at 6:30 now; once we decided that. That was something I was told.”
The discussion continued. Acting Superintendent Breaux ended the discussion stating, “I’m saying that your suggestion isn’t good, we’ll consider it, but we’re going to consider everything.”
The motion was carried unanimously at this point, to accept the proposed plan of Re-Configuration/Renovation of schools for 2013-2014.
J.) Adopt Plan B of City of Bogalusa Ward 4 School Board Redistricting Proposal based on 2010 Census Data as presented and recommended by Marshall O. Buddy Jenkins, Washington Parish Election Commission, Chairman.
Prior to any action, there was a statement from Mrs. Duke saying she thought it was Plan E. Mrs. Adams stated that she had talked to Mr. Jenkins personally about the plan and asked if it was “B” as in boy and he confirmed that it was Plan B. With that being said, this line item would be tabled for clarity of the plan. President Kates asked for a motion to table this line item.
It was motioned by Reverend Mims, seconded by Vice President Kemp, to table this line item, until October’s meeting. The motion was carried unanimously.
At this point Acting Superintendent Breaux asked that the agenda be amended to add an Executive Session.
It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Reverend Mims to amend the agenda to add an Executive Session. The motion was carried unanimously.
It was motioned by Reverend Mims, seconded by Vice President Kemp to enter into an Executive Session. The motion was carried unanimously.
9.) Executive Session
Returning to the Media Center, President Kates asked for a motion to resume to the regular session.
It was motioned by Reverend Mims, seconded by Dr. Williams to resume regular session. The motion was carried unanimously.
“We just came out of the Executive Session. We had a discussion on a few issues and I feel the Acting Superintendent have taken care of them. It’s left up to her. I just wanted to let you all know that we did take care of business in the Executive Session,” says President Kates.
10.) Acting Superintendent Comments-Willie “Toni” Breaux
“I just want to commend the Business Department again. I think that’s superb, with her awards and everything. Mrs. Walker and her staff do a very good job taking care of the Business Office.
ACTING SUPERINTENDENT’S APPOINTMENTS
TEACHERS
1. Lisa Davis-Byrd Avenue Elementary-Effective September 11, 2012
2. Steven Sumrall-Bogalusa High School-Effective September 13, 2012
SUBSTITUTES
1. Oscarleen Carter-Teacher
2. Julia DeCoursey-Teacher
3. Mark Gonzales-Custodian
4. Courtney Loubat-Teacher
5. Gregory Mangrum-Teacher
6. Kimberly Mullenix-Teacher
7. Mary Myers-Teacher
8. Valincia Nichols-Teacher
9. Darrell Self-Custodian
TRANSFERS
1. Rebecca Thomas-Teacher-Byrd Avenue to Bogalusa Middle School-Effective-September 10, 2012
11. Board Members Comments
There were no additional comments at this time. President Kates adjourned.
12) Adjourn
There being no further business to address or comments, President Kates adjourned at 6:50PM
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Willie “Toni” Breaux Paul D. Kates
Acting Superintendent/Secretary Board President