Bogalusa School Board

Bogalusa, Louisiana

Public Meeting

September 30, 2013

5:30 P.M.

Proceedings Of The Bogalusa School Board, Taken AT A Public Meeting That Was Held On Monday, September 30, 2013

The Bogalusa School Board met in a Public Meeting at the Bogalusa School Board Office Media Center, located at 1705 Sullivan Drive, Bogalusa, Louisiana, on Monday, September 30, 2013, beginning at 5:35 P.M., for the purpose of adoption of the Millage Rate for the tax year 2013.

1.)        Call to Order

President Paul Kates called the meeting to order at 5:35 P.M.

2.)        Pledge of Allegiance

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 Rev. Raymond Mims; Members:  Mr. Curtis Creel, Mrs. Eleanor Duke, Mr. Calvin Hymel, Mr. Adam Kemp, and Dr. Brad Williams

There was absent:  None

At this point President Kates asked for a motion to amend the agenda to add a presentation by Northshore Technical Community College Dual Enrollment.

It was motioned by Mr. Creel, seconded by Rev. Mims to amend the agenda to add a presentation from Northshore Technical Community College for Dual Enrollment.  The motion was carried unanimously.

5.)        Presentation

v  Northshore Technical Community College-William Wainwright, Chancellor

“Good evening Superintendent Breaux, President Kates, members of the Board, thank you so much for having us here this evening. I am here by April Nobles to talk about Dual Enrollment. This will be a brief and informative presentation.  I just wanted to take a moment.  First, of all I want to commend the school system, Superintendent Breaux and Mrs. Nobles for the work they’ve done to increase the Dual Enrollment, with our high school students this year.  We had a pretty substantial increase, and I’ll show you the actual numbers further on in the presentation.  We have more and more high schools students dually enrolled with the college, which is a tremendous opportunity, because they’re able to receive college credit at a reduced cost; and for those that are TOPS eligible, even at no cost, so what an excellent jump.  I want to thank those parents in our community as well, who see the importance of this, and really push for their children to have that opportunity, as well as our faculty, who are teaching in the high schools for city school system, who are teaching in the Dual Enrollment Program. The Workforce Commission in the State Department of Education has created a new structure of identifying what they call Four and Five Star Job Openings, looking at verses the amount of jobs and occupations by career cluster. It’s a complex chart.  The bottom line is when we look at dual enrollment, no longer are we looking at just offering Dual Enrollment courses in any given community or region, but we’re looking at aligning those dual enrollment courses with the occupational demands by region to insure that if a student leaves high school graduates, from a technical community college, or goes on to a university, at the conclusion of their Dual Enrollment Program, they actually have a job opportunity waiting for them. We want to create an awareness campaign through something called Jumpstart which is an initiative that’s going to begin by the Department of Education that will impact every school system in the state.  I’ll close with that, as we finish our Dual Enrollment discussion.  Currently these are the entire Dual Enrollment Offerings that we offer.  You’ll see everything from Health Sciences, to Industrial Technologies, to General Education. Transitional Course Work; we used to call it Developmental and Remedial, it’s now called Transitional.  You’ll see a variety, everything from Vet Tech, to Auto, to Drafting, and Phlebotomy. Many of those Dual Enrollment Offerings leads to what used to be called Industry Base Certification, now they’re called, Industry Recognized Credentials. The bottom line is it’s a registered certification that is recognized by industries; and students in Dual Enrollments have these opportunities.  These are just a few of what’s available to them through the college. We have fifty-seven (57) students currently dually enrolled between the school system and the Technical Community College in our Dual Enrollment in the Bogalusa City School System. For serving one high school in the city school system, that’s a very strong number. It’s an increase over last year, which was just over twenty (20); so we’re really excited about the growth that has taken place,” said Mr. Wainwright.

“I want to introduce a new program call Connect to Success.  It’s a partnership with Southeastern Louisiana University.  The bottom line is; students that are not admissible to Southeastern now have an opportunity to enroll with us to complete their transitional, as well as some of their general education, for a seamless transfer to the university; and that’s excellent if you look at many of our rural areas. We serve St. Tammany, Washington, Tangipahoa, Livingston, and St. Helena, and that’s an excellent reach. It’s called Connect to Success. You can go to our website to learn more about it.  These are the parishes we serve, Bogalusa City Schools, Washington Parish School System, Tangipahoa Parish School System, St. Tammany Parish School System, St. Helena Parish School System, Livingston Parish School System and Private Schools throughout the Northshore.  Our total Dual Enrollment at the college is just over thirteen-hundred (1,300 plus) this Fall.  Our Northshore Technical Community College has one of the highest Dual Enrollment participation rates of any two (2) year college in the state.

“I’ll close with this piece.  On October 11^th, I sent an invitation to all of our superintendents in all the parishes we work with.  We’re going to embark on a regional application for the Greater Northshore for Jumpstart.  Jumpstart is a new state initiative to build a series of programming where high school students are able to graduate, at not only Technical Diploma completion, but even in some instances, graduate high school with their Associate Degree.  There is a lot of work involved.  We’re going to host the first meeting here in Bogalusa, with our superintendents in the coming week, and their key people that are going to help us do this.  I’m very excited because all of our public school systems in the Greater Northshore, hire faculty on, that could certainly meet qualifications to help create this opportunity.  That’s some of the future opportunities for students in our area.  And, with that, I will close. Again I commend everybody for their support of Dual Enrollment, Mrs. Nobles, the team, our Superintendent; it takes everybody to believe in it; and encourage it, for it to happen.  Thank you,” concluded Mr. Wainwright. 

6.)        Recess to Public Session

There was no one to come forward to address the public or the Board.  With that, President Kates continued with the agenda items.

7.)        New Business

A.)        Adopt the Millage Rate for the tax year 2013.  

Prior to any actions, President Kates read the document regarding the Millage for the tax year 2013.  It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Rev. Mims.  The motion resulted in a Roll Call Vote as follow:

YEAS:              Dr. Brad Williams, Mr. Adam Kemp, Vice President Rev. Raymond Mims, Mr. Curtis Creel, Mrs. Eleanor Duke, Mr. Calvin Hymel and President Mr. Paul Kates

NAYS:              None

ABSENT:          None

The motion was carried unanimously 7-0.

B.)        Approval of “Revised” financial statements for June, 2013

Prior to any actions, Mrs. Deloris made a state stating, “In your packet, you’ll find the financial statement revision.  Those were some of the audit entries that the Auditor asked us to correct.  It’s just some minor changes on it. 

It was motioned by Rev. Mims, seconded by Mr. Creel to approve the statements with the Auditor’s requested revisions.  The motion was carried unanimously.           

C.         Grant permission to pay all full-time professional employees of Bogalusa City School District the sum of six Hundred ($600.00) dollars; and all full-time support staff of Bogalusa City School District the sum of three hundred($300.00) dollars, on Friday, October 4, 2013.

Prior to any actions, Mrs. Walker stated, “In your packet, also you will find what the state had proposed.  I did speak with the state today, and they did say that it was just a proposal, but in calculating the numbers of full-time equivalents, I had in the District, it would equal about six-hundred ($600); about the same. I asked about this, and she said that they didn’t put it out.  I was like, ma’am I have it on your document from the state.  So we’re going to do six hundred ($600) dollars.

It was motioned by Rev. Mims, seconded by Mrs. Duke to grant permission.  The motion was not carried unanimously, at this point.

Question from Mr. Kemp-“And, the three-hundred ($300) for the support personnel?”  “Comes out of the additional…

(Pausing and not completing this statement).   If you look at that document you can see that we’re going to get two hundred-thirty seven thousand ($237,000) additional.  We had to spend fifty percent (50%) of that on certificated; and the Board decided; I mean we decided I think you all wanted us to give the support, so in this motion we are asking for three hundred ($300), which the Superintendent told me we could, for support,” said Mrs. Walker.

The motion was carried unanimously, at this point to grant permission.

D.         Grant permission to distribute Sales Tax to all full-time employees on Friday, November 1, 2013.

It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Mr. Hymel to grant permission.  The motion was carried unanimously.

8.)        Personnel

There was no personnel agenda.

9.)        Superintendent Comments-Mrs. Willie “Toni” Breaux

Superintendent Breaux stated that she would make her comments at the end.

It was motioned by Mrs. Duke, seconded by Rev. Mims to enter into an Executive Session, regarding personnel matters.  The motion was carried unanimously.

10.)       Executive Session-Personnel

Returning to the Media Center, President Kates asked for a motion to resume.  It was motioned by Dr. Williams, seconded by Mr. Creel to resume to regular session. “We went into Executive Session to take care of some serious matter.  The Superintendent will take care of it.  We thank you for your time.”

At this point, President Kates asked if there were any more comments.  Ms. Adams asked that the Board be reminded to go over the 2013 Policy Updates, that they received on that night, and that these policies would be approved/adopted at the November board meeting.

11.)       Board Members Comments

There were no comments.

President Kates asked if there was anything else.  There was nothing, and he adjourned.

12.)       Adjournment

There being no further business to address, or comments, President Kates adjourned at 7:05PM.

_______________________________                             ______________________________

Willie “Toni” Breaux                                                        Paul D. Kates

Superintendent/Secretary                                               Board President