Bogalusa School Board Office-Media Center
Bogalusa, Louisiana
Regular Board Meeting
Thursday, November 21, 2019
@ 5:45 p.m.
Proceedings of the Bogalusa School Board taken at the Regular Meeting that was held on Thursday, November 21, 2019
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 November 21, 2019. The purpose of the meeting is to address information received from Department Supervisors, on November 21, 2019, during the Committee Meeting, regarding updates and approval requests.
1.) Call to Order – President Curtis Creel
2.) Pledge of Allegiance – Superintendent Lisa Tanner
3.) Prayer – Paul Kates
4.) Roll Call: X President Creel, X Vice President Kates, _X_ Mrs. Breaux, X Mrs. Duke, A Mr. Kemp, A Mr. Killingsworth, X Dr. Williams
5.) Approval of Minutes of Regular Board Meeting October 28, 2019. It was motioned by Mr. Kates. A second was made by Dr. Williams. The motion passed with unanimous approval.
6.) Board Office Committee Report – None
7.) William Wainright of Northshore Community College presented an update on Bogalusa High School is working with NSCC
8.) Lazette Watterson spoke regarding the overall school issues she sees as a mentor in the system. She began by saying since her last attendance at the board meeting she has met one on one with Superintendent Tanner, board members and Principal Pittman at BHS. She touched base on all the positive things she sees happening and she is very happy with these measures. Mrs. Watterson stated that even though there are positive things happening there is a lot of work to be done. The following is a list of concerns.
A. Hiring & placing teachers that have zero experience or teaching back ground in EOC classes is unfair and unacceptable.
B. We need to have teams to go out to job fairs who will try to groom graduates to come work for us.
C. School Personnel needs to refrain from negativity on social media.
D. Students failing because Odyssey Ware has been down for 6 weeks.
E. ACT Scores are low
F. Dual enrollment for 2 year, as well as 4 year college students
G. We need to fix communication skills regarding school/parent meetings. We need to use the all call system to inform parents about meetings
H. Everyone, supervisors, parents, all employees need to be more respectful to each other and set higher expectations for themselves and others.
I. Board Members need to attend functions and have more transparency. Parents and community need to know their Board Members are on board.
J. Negative behaviors need more mentoring.
K. Mass punishment is not fair for all students.
L. Minutes need to be added between classes to allow students time to get from one class to another and we need to go back to morning recess, lunch and afternoon recess.
M. Conference scheduling is a problem.
N. Grades need to be put in on a weekly basis. Parents do not want to find out student is failing when they receive progress reports.
O. Teacher/Parent communication has got to improve it is so very important.
P. Front desk privacy at the schools needs to beaddressed.
Q. Staff Drug Testing needs to be addressed.
R. Need to implement positive things for positive behavior.
S. BHS PTO meeting will be held 12/5/2019 at 5:30 p.m. in the BHS Library.
In closing Mrs. Watterson shared her experience that she and the LA Retired Teachers Association had this week when they went to Northside Alternative School. The children were so happy and thrilled that someone was doing something nice for them.
9.) Public Session
1. Tameka Jones, 120 Ponderosa, Bogalusa, LA - spoke regarding the bullying her child has been experienced at BHS. She has followed all policies and procedures and everyone has been very helpful but she believes that our bullying policy has a very lax atmosphere and it needs to be addressed immediately before something really bad happens. She thanked Mrs. Walker, Mrs. McGehee, Mr. Minarik and Mrs. Day for their attention in this matter but if things do not change she will have to make the La Board of Education her next stop.
2. Christine Moses, 19590 Torrence Drive, Bogalusa, LA - spoke regarding her child asking to see the nurse and being excused to go and then was marked tardy. BCS has dropped the ball in education. Teachers & Educators are not communicating with parents when parents call, text or email. Unacceptable to have 7 different subs for one teacher being absent. Website is not updated.
3. Chassidy Magee – 691 Greely Road, Bogalusa, LA came to speak on behalf of her mother, Edna Brown. Explained she was unable to speak on behalf of someone who is not in attendance. She was also thanked for her attendance and welcomed to come back any time.
4. Vanessa Tyson, 1410 A Mack Street, Bogalusa, LA – spoke regarding multiple issues with the computer email system. She stated she had sent multiple emails to the board members and has gotten zero responses. Upon further investigation she was told the email she had sent was a generic email and we would have our IT Department address this. She expressed her concerns regarding bulling, JPams, and poor communication with parents. She also expressed concerns regarding in school suspensions not working.
10.) New Business
a. Approval of October, 2019 Financial Statements, General Fund, Food Service, Special Revenue and School Activities and Revised Budgets Special Revenue It was motioned by Dr. Williams. A second was made by Mr Kates. The motion passed with unanimous approval.
b. Approval of discard system wide fixed assets. It was motioned by Mrs. Duke. A second was made by Dr. Williams. The motion passed with unanimous approval.
c. Approval of Student Fees Policy – Stricken from the record. It was motioned by Mrs. Duke. A second was made by Dr. Williams. The motion passed with unanimous approval.
d. Approval of BCS travel policy update. It was motioned by Mr. Kates. A second was made by Mrs. Duke. The motion passed with unanimous approval
e. Approval for BJHS Basketball to travel to Dexter, MS on 12/16/19, Columbia, MS 12/19/2019 & Tylertown, MS on 01/09/2019. It was motioned by Dr. Williams. A second was made by Mr. Kates. The motion passed with unanimous approve.
11.) Superintendent Comments – Thanked everyone for coming and let everyone know that she has written down every concern and she will be addressing each and every one of them. December Committee will be held, Monday, December 16, 2019 and Board meetings will be held Thursday, December 19, 2019.
12.) Board Members Comments – Mrs. Breaux began by thanking everyone for coming out and stressed the importance of attending all the meetings. She told Mr. Creel he could call on her to pray sometimes she likes to pray too. The following is a breakdown of her concerns.
a. Drug and alcohol use amongst the staff needs to be addressed.
b. Our board has racial board members and she wants this address immediately
c. Wants a written plan of improvement
d. Communication and transparency from Superintendent to Board members needs to be addressed. She did not receive 2 pages that all other board members received. Her trust in the Superintendent and board president are not there. President Creel visits with Mrs. Tanner often and he never came to see her he only came to see her Adm. Asst. There are supervising employees with HS diploma’s making $40K
e. School Board members are not informed of what is going on.
f. There is no vision for improvement
g. Policies & procedures are not followed and implemented
h. Our Superintendent is not effective and the poor academic performance proves it.
She stated that she has a right to express her remarks during Board Member Comments and she is merely asking for open communication and transparency in getting the job done. She stated that her next step will be to go to Baton Rouge, LA.
Dr. Williams – Thanked everybody for coming and ask Mrs. Watterson for her opinion for a solution and would like her continued help and mentoring with our children. Mrs. Watterson stated that she believes one of the main issues is to get teachers, coaches, pastors and all employees vested in the school system again. She assured she would continue working with her people because she knows she can communicate and have relationships with students and say things to students that others can’t say. She also believes making our campuses more welcoming says a lot.
Mr. Kates – Thanked everyone for coming and presenting their concerns. He stated the corrections need to be make and he agrees we need more caring teachers and accountability across the board.
Mr. Creel – Began by thanking everyone for coming out and especially thanked Chassidy for being so brave in trying to speak on her mother’s behalf and expressed that he hoped to see her at future meetings. Mr. Creel then began to address Mrs. Breaux directly and stated that he had never taken an adversary position towards anyone at the SBO. Mrs. Breaux and Mr. Creel began to heavily disagree on their positions on these subjects and the meeting was adjourned.
13.) Adjourn
___________________________________ _______________________________________
Lisa Tanner, Superintendent Curtis Creel, President