The Allen Parish School Board heard from the administration on its work to prepare to reopen school and agreed to consider calling for four renewal tax elections at its meeting Monday night, July 13.
In his comments, Superintendent Kent Reed said the district administrator meeting always indicated it was time to reopen school. That meeting was scheduled to take place Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28. He noted new teacher orientation would be Monday, August 3rd. All teachers would begin a four-day in-service meeting on Tuesday, August 4, and the start of school for students would move to Monday, August 10.
“We have decided to postpone students reporting until Monday to give our schools a little extra time to prepare for such an unusual opening of school. Our office staff is working diligently to prepare for school opening while information and updates change daily. This has been a very difficult process, but we will continue to work through these difficult times and prepare for the opening of our schools.”
Reed has been posting updates to the board’s website and Facebook™ page and will continue to do so, he explained to the board. He’s already posted four videos and conducted a survey. He said they would roll out with final plans on Friday, July 17, but changes would probably be made as circumstances changed in the pandemic.
Construction Update
Reed gave a construction update for the Kinder projects. He said the pre-K and kindergarten building at Kinder Elementary would not be ready until Thanksgiving. The construction staff is set to complete the cafeteria by Labor Day, although he believed issues associated with the pandemic could change that date. At Kinder High, the gym is expected to be completed by mid-term (start of 2021).
He said classrooms were his priority, and he spoke to the contractors. He is hoping the 32 classrooms being completed will be ready as he explained windows and air conditioners were being installed. The classroom floors should be done by Thursday of this week, and he hoped they could tour the area by Friday. Carpet would be installed in the fifth grade classrooms soon.
Reed noted the district applied for grant money to update lighting on catwalks outside at Kinder High like what had previously been done in Oberlin. The district did not receive the monies, so he hoped they could find a way to fix the areas where no lighting existed. He also said two doors to the weight room needed to be reframed and the doors and hardware replaced. If this was done then the concrete patio steps outside would have to be brought to code. He planned to bring the doors up at the next school board meeting for discussion.
New Assistant Principals
Reed introduced two new assistant principals. Pam Leboeuf will be assigned to Kinder Middle. She has worked for the parish for 14 years in Oberlin and Oakdale. Lori Phillips will be at Oberlin High. She worked for the parish in the 1990s at Oakdale and was recently in St. Landry Parish.
Free Lunch
Program
Reed also introduced members of his staff to give updates on various projects in the district. April Fruge, supervisor for School Food Service, announced the entire population at three additional schools would receive free lunches like students at Oberlin Elementary, Oakdale Elementary and Oakdale Middle School. She said the data indicated the number of families receiving SNAP benefits made these schools eligible to participate in the Community Eligibility Provision program. This means students at all of these schools would be eligible to receive a healthy breakfast and lunch at school at no charge to these households during the upcoming school year. The three additional sites would be at Oberlin High, Oakdale High and Reeves High.
Grade Standards
Misty Alexander, Title 1 coordinator, and Lori Lemons, Instructional Supervisor (5-8), Title II, Title IV and Title IX, reviewed the district’s Pupil Progression Plan line-by-line and presented an updated plan which was approved by the board. Several changes were made including:
•Everyone going to a nine-week grading block, pre-K to 12th grade.
•Kindergarten students would have to achieve 90 percent instead of 80 percent of the skills in ELA and math to be promoted to first grade.
•Assessments were updated for those transferring into the district from a non-accredited or non-certified program.
•Parent-teacher conferences will be held at the end of the first and third nine-week periods to do a better job of meeting students’ needs. Conferences also will be held for kindergarten to second grade students at the four-and-a-half week mark of the new year.
•Make sure classrooms where 50 percent of the students did not score well, content would be re-taught and re-assessed.
•Minimum of eight grades are needed on all grade levels for a grade at the end of each nine-week block.
•Lowest grade for middle school students would be dropped.
Pandemic Funds
Kenney Courville, supervisor for CW&A, Transportation and Special Services, was asked to discuss the Work-Force plan, which would employ displaced workers to assist the janitorial staff in Allen Parish. He said the parish qualified for four workers in this program. Two of those workers will be housed in Kinder and Fairview to assist the staffs there. Two will rotate through the parish and assist with sanitizing classrooms, busses, etc. This would be for one year, and their salaries would be paid through the Cares Act.
Jennifer Manuel, Title I, Title V, Title IX – McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and Youth, Director / Homeless Liaison, discussed the Cares Act and other federal funding. She said the money was coming from three areas. The first was associated with formula funding and provided for devices for students, teachers and connectivity allowing the district to purchase over 2,000 Chromebooks. She thanked technology for its hard work to prepare these tablets for the classroom. The monies also purchased lockers to house approximately 18 chrome books each. Disinfectant sprayers were purchased along with digital platform curriculum for the district. The monies also allowed for the purchase for chromebook touchscreen tablets to be purchased for pre-K use.
Manuel’s announcement brought concerns for the upkeep and updating of these devices. The board learned these devices have three-year plans, and Reed said they would be working on plans for the future to repair, replace and upgrade these devices as the district moves forward.
Curriculum Vision
LaDeisha George, supervisor for Curriculum and Instructional Support and Textbooks, discussed the plan for the upcoming academic year. Her visual presentation began with the state’s vision – “All students can achieve high expectations regardless of their background, family income or zip code.” She said the district also updated its vision – “Our vision is that every student in Allen Parish is taught by excellent teachers and supported by effective leaders. We are committed to creating productive members of society who will compete in the global marketplace by laying a strong foundation through high-quality education.”
She outlined critical goals and plans for the new school year as well as comparing what would be taught in the classroom in person and in a virtual environment. As the district prepares, she said health and safety of all students and staff is number one. They also want to address and close the gap in learning which occurred at the end of last year when COVID-19 closed schools and the social and emotional needs of students and staff.
George said they are preparing for the new year with a safe face-to-face plan, as well as preparing for the home learning option. Both in-person learning and at-home learning have been addressed in the plan including providing for the same courses/classes to be offered and correspondence between all students and staff. The plan is flexible enough to adapt should state officials decide to adjust learning options due to the pandemic.
The plan also provides for different phases as the state moves through the pandemic including alternating days of classroom instruction for some students every Monday and Thursday and the other half every Tuesday and Friday with technology learning on the other days. The plan also has stages for transportation, health and safety measures and food services for those on campus and at home.
Fall Sports
Reed said LHSAA (Louisiana High School Athletic Association) voted earlier in the day football would not resume at the high school level until the state was in Phase Four.
Other business
The Allen Parish School Board voted to consider renewing ad valorem taxes in School District Ward One, School District Number One, School District Number Four and School District Number Five on Monday, August 10. These monies would be used to construct, improve, operate and maintain public school houses and buildings in these districts.
In other business, the board:
•Approved advertising for a business coordinator, bus driver for Fairview and special education para for Oakdale High School.
•Approved changing an order for Kinder High School Bond Issue Improvements Project. The change order is for an increase of $6,751. A fire panel box was being added to the gym’s design and would be tied into the present school’s system. However that system needed to be updated so a new box would be installed for the school that would also monitor the gym.
•Authorized the president to sign the Board Certification Form for the Unified Application for Federal Funds for fiscal year 2020-21.
•Learned about funding totaling $3,253,628 for the upcoming year through the Grants Management System Allocations including three new areas of funding – Redesign 103, State Personnel Development Grant and Ready Start Network. These monies will allow the district to add slots for nine more students to the three-year-old program at Oberlin Elementary and purchase some materials for online teaching.
•Went into executive session to discuss the superintendent’s evaluation.