LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
Ruston, Louisiana
REGULAR SESSION
Tuesday, July 2, 2002 6:00 p.m.
The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, July 2, 2002 at 6:00 p.m. in the Board Room of the Lincoln Parish School Board Office, 410 South Farmerville Street, Ruston, Louisiana. Members present were Mr. Billy Abrahm, Mr. Otha Anders, Ms. Lisa Best, Ms. Mattie Harrison, Mr. Jim Kessler, Mr. George Mack, Mr. Rob Shadoin, and Ms. Jo Tatum.
Dr. Marty Beasley, Mr. Curtis Dowling, Mr. Joe Mitcham, and Mr. David Wright were absent.
President Rob Shadoin called the meeting to order and led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag.
Upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Ms. Best, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the agenda as printed.
Upon a motion by Ms. Tatum, seconded by Ms. Harrison, the Board unanimously voted to approve the minutes of the Regular Session held on June 4, 2002 as distributed.
Because truancy is a predictor of future juvenile problems including criminal behavior, District Attorney Bob Levy implemented a program last year to work with 6th - 10th graders. Quickly realizing that truancy began much earlier, he requested and was granted funding from the legislature for a K - 5 pilot truancy program. He spoke to the Board about last year's program, his plans for this year's pilot program, and introduced one of his two officers who work with the program, Reverend Tommy Carr, who was in attendance. Mr. Levy said the whole objective of the truancy program is to keep the kids in school and to produce a good citizen.
Superintendent Gerald Cobb and Mr. Shadoin expressed their thanks to Mr. Levy for this help with the children's school attendance and to the principals for their cooperation with the program.
At this point in the meeting, President Shadoin recognized and welcomed twelve principals who were in attendance at the meeting and introduced the two newest principals, Mr. Tim Nutt at Simsboro and Mr. Tony Guirlando at Dubach High.
After being submitted and recommended by Assistant Superintendent Ronnie Suggs, the Board considered the following personnel items:
1. Retirement, effective June 17, 2002, of Bobette Banks as teacher at Choudrant Elementary.
2. Retirement of Pupil Appraisal secretary Denise Baker effective July 31, 2002.
3. Sabbatical leave request for the 02-03 school year, effective August 12, 2002, for Lisa Lagattuta, social studies teacher at Ruston Junior High.
4. Points of Reference/Transfers of the following teachers effective August 12, 2002:
Sheila Barber from Hillcrest to special education at A. E. Phillips replacing Renee Cook who is deceased.
Amy McGuire from Simsboro to math at Choudrant High replacing Marilyn Hyams who retired.
Nancy Grant from Simsboro to Cypress Springs replacing Emily Moore who transferred.
Mary Lee from Cypress Springs to Glen View replacing Sheila McBride who retired.
Selena Tuggle from I. A. Lewis to special education at Glen View replacing Karen Newsom who transferred.
Mandy Brown from Simsboro to Hillcrest replacing Louise Adams who retired.
Karen Newsom from Glen View to special education at Hillcrest replacing Sheila Barber who transferred.
Virginia Suggs from Cypress Springs to I. A. Lewis replacing Alisa Antley who was granted a sick leave/sabbatical.
Emily Moore from Cypress Springs to I. A. Lewis replacing Susan Green who retired.
Sonja Walker from Ruston Elementary to I. A. Lewis replacing Trudy Ireland who resigned.
Tomie Bradshaw from Glen View to a new special education slot at Lincoln Center.
Pam Adams from Dubach High to special education at Ruston High replacing Nancy Giesse who resigned.
Cynthia Breed from Cypress Springs to Ruston Junior High replacing Lori Frasier who resigned.
5. Resignation of the following teachers:
Rob Boagni, math at Ruston High, effective June 6, 2002.
Pam Pruden, science at Dubach High, effective June 3, 2002.
Barbara Hammond, librarian at Hillcrest, effective July 1, 2002.
6. Employment of the following teachers effective August 12, 2002 unless stated otherwise:
Kellye Ketchum, elementary at Choudrant Elementary, replacing Bobette Banks who retired.
Gail Reeder, elementary at Cypress Springs, replacing Cynthia Breed who transferred.
Lisa Coy, elementary at Cypress Springs, replacing Wendy Del Rio who resigned.
Denise Kimrey, elementary at Cypress Springs, replacing Virginia Suggs who transferred.
Terri Powers, special education at Cypress Springs, replacing Anita West who transferred.
Alice Higginbotham, special education at Cypress Springs, replacing Jessica Burnaman who resigned.
Tish Freeman, kindergarten at Cypress Springs, replacing Mary Lee who transferred.
Roye Augustine, special education at Dubach High, replacing Pam Adams who transferred.
Paul Bean, math at Dubach High, replacing Elishondra Davis who resigned.
Elizabeth Dickson, science at Dubach High, replacing Pam Pruden who resigned.
Linda Colvin, elementary at Glen View, replacing Jo Carter who retired.
Janet Cook, special education at Glen View, in a new position.
Amy Green, elementary at Hico, replacing Mary Cooper who retired.
Jane Hurst, elementary at Hillcrest, replacing Barbara Hammond who resigned.
Yolanda Roussell, special education at I. A. Lewis, replacing Selena Tuggle who transferred.
Crystal Lambert, pre-kindergarten at Lincoln Center, replacing Tracy Bennett who resigned.
Amanda Simmons, elementary at Lincoln Center, replacing Rachel McCallister who retired.
Michee Moss, elementary at Ruston Elementary, replacing Summer Baucum who resigned.
Teresa Nichols, elementary at Ruston Elementary, replacing Pam Harris who was promoted.
Sheila Stepp, elementary at Ruston Elementary, replacing Julie Holmes who was granted a sabbatical leave.
Pam Harris, coordinating teacher at Ruston Elementary effective August 5, 2002, replacing Faye Kavanaugh who retired.
Jamie Hudson, elementary at Ruston Elementary, replacing Lynette McGee who resigned.
Gloria McAdams, elementary at Ruston Elementary, replacing Sonja Walker who transferred.
Michelle Marsh, counselor at Ruston Junior High effective July 29, 2002, replacing Glenda Howard who retired.
Mildred Smith, teacher/administrative assistant at Ruston Junior High effective August 5, 2002, replacing El Donte Osborne who was granted leave without pay.
Sandra Ford, math at Ruston High, replacing Rob Boagni who resigned.
Mike Milstead, social studies at Ruston High, replacing Virginia Cook who retired.
Dan Gressett, science/coach at Ruston High, replacing Jason Smith who resigned.
Tina Scott, elementary at Simsboro, replacing Mandy Brown who transferred.
Meg Everett, elementary at Simsboro, replacing Jerry King who retired.
Melissa Savage, math at Simsboro, replacing Amy McGuire who transferred.
Daryl Savage, junior high at Simsboro, in a new position.
Heather Causey, special education aide at Ruston High, replacing Reba Daniel who resigned.
Pamila Cochran, interpreter at Ruston Elementary, in a new position.
Upon a motion by Mr. Kessler, seconded by Mr. Abrahm, the Board unanimously voted to approve the personnel recommendations.
Mr. Suggs indicated that comparing this July to last July, the number of personnel recommendations is the same, thirty-one. Last August, twenty -two employment recommendations were presented for a total of fifty-three new hires. He expects an additional fifteen to twenty at this year's August meeting. Mr. Suggs is pleased to report that all of the thirty-one recommendations are certified teachers. He ended by saying that he is working to fill one elementary, five high school, two special education, one administrative, and one secretarial positions.
According to Danny Bell, Elementary Supervisor, the LEAP 21 summer school program was offered at no cost to 230 fourth and eighth grade students who scored at the Unsatisfactory level on the Spring 2002 LEAP 21 English/language arts and/or mathematics test and 79% or 182 students attended. He said he has an outstanding, qualified, certified faculty of 25 teachers, 8 aides, a principal, a secretary, a cafeteria technician, and 4 bus drivers. He indicated that 40% of summer school enrollment is made up of special education students. This week all eligible students in attendance will be tested and next week brings the program to an end with the retesting of all eligible students. The program operated for 25 days and provided approximately 100 ours of instruction for students needing only one subject and 50 hours per subject for those needing both subjects. Breakfast and transportation have also been provided at no cost. He projected the cost to be a little more than $130,000 with a LEAP 21 state grant providing $75,086 and Special Education and Title I helping with several salaries and aides from their particular areas. School Food Service paid for the cafeteria technician. Approximately $14,000 will be paid using local monies. Although testing has not been completed, Mr. Bell feels that the 2002 summer remediation program was a success.
Mr. Bell also briefly reported on another program held at Ruston Junior High, the GEE 21 Summer Program. This was an optional program offered to students in grades 10 and 11 who had scored Unsatisfactory in English/language arts and/or mathematics. Students could earn a ½ unit of carnegie credit for GEE remediation. Although there is no test to conclude the program, he was surprised that he ended up with 23 English/language arts students and 33 mathematics students. To earn the ½ unit, the students had to maintain attendance (a minimum of 40 hours) and had to pass the assessments which were built into the program. Many of the students will earn the ½ unit or carnegie credit. These students will take the GEE retest in October at their high school.
Dr. Gerald Cobb said that Mr. Bell does an excellent job organizing these remediation programs along with excellent cooperation from Transportation Supervisor James Payton and School Food Service Supervisor Brenda Theodos.
Juanita Duke, Business Manager, told the Board that sales tax monies for the month ending June 30, 2002 decreased 1.59% over the same month last year which brings the total increase for the year to 14.27%. The completion of the plant in Simsboro has probably begun a few months of decreased sales tax collections, she speculated. Total sales tax collections for the 01-02 fiscal year in the 1967 and 1979 fund were $4,422,398 and $2,653,481 was collected in both the 1993 and the new 2000 sales tax funds. Yearly audit recoveries were down about 21.01% compared to last year's figures.
A financial update for the months ending April and May 2002 was also presented by Ms. Duke. As the year is winding down, she said the general fund balance has decreased as usual for this time of year. Property tax collections which started in January and continued in February have begun to trickle off and not much is being collected. She gave a brief explanation of recent activity noting nothing unusual and mentioning the upcoming payment of salary supplement checks.
Because the 2002 Special Legislative Session included a few Acts which impacted School Board policy, Superintendent Cobb presented four policy manual revisions: Bids and Quotations (DJED), Adult Education (IDG), Compulsory School Attendance Ages (JBA), and Prayer in School (IKDC); three new policies: Alternative Schools Education Program (IDDG), Employee Conduct (GBRA), and Dangerous Weapons (GAMG); and one policy that only needed a code change: Health Examinations (BGRA). According to policy, these changes will be voted on at the next meeting.
Each year it is necessary to make revisions to the budget that are a result of changes that have occurred in revenue and expenditures throughout the year and in order to align the budget to the actual figures, Ms. Duke advised. She reminded the Board that the 01-02 beginning budget contained very conservative estimates of income and of expenditures expected to occur during the year. Estimated revenue figures changed from $41,773,566 to an actual figure of $46,154,028; expenditures from $42,911,696 to $44,572,193; which shifted the ending funding balance from $6,937,968 to $9,927,070. She estimated that the general fund's ending balance will be $8,301,351. Ms. Duke requested adoption of the 01-02 revised budget.
Upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Ms. Harrison, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the revised budget for fiscal year 01-02 as presented.
The State Legislative Auditor's office requires all Louisiana governmental units to complete a Systems Survey & Compliance Questionnaire and submit it to the independent auditor at the beginning of the financial and compliance audit, Ms. Duke informed the Board. She recommended approval of the questionnaire.
Upon a motion by Ms. Best, seconded by Ms. Tatum, the Board unanimously voted to approve the Systems Survey & Compliance Questionnaire for fiscal year 01-02 as presented.
In a Report of the Superintendent, he said that a list of board meeting dates for 02-03 was included in Board members' packets.
After brief comments and one question, the meeting adjourned at 7:26 p.m.
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Gerald W. Cobb, Secretary Robert E. Shadoin, President