LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
Ruston, Louisiana
REGULAR SESSION
Tuesday, January 7, 1992 6:00 p.m.
The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, January 7, 1992 at 6:00 p.m. in the Board Room of the Lincoln Parish School Board Office, 410 South Farmerville Street, Ruston, LA. Members present were Dr. Phil Rice, Mr. David Wright, Mrs. Loyace Braggs, Dr. Marty Beasley, Mr. George Mack, Mr. Andy Shealy, Mr. Jim Kessler, Mr. Wayne Barfield, Mr. Calvin Wilkerson, Ms. Ann M. Boyd, Mr. Paul Woodard, and Mr. Allen Tuten.
Absent: None
Mr. Tuten called the meeting to order and gave the invocation. He welcomed guests and members of the media and staff who were present.
Mr. Calvin Wilkerson was called upon to introduce Ms. Pinkie Wilkerson, his daughter and newly elected representative from District 11. Ms. Wilkerson received a warm welcome from members of the board and she spoke briefly, indicating her desire as well as that of her staff to be of service to the Lincoln Parish School Board. She encouraged board members to call upon her and members of her staff for assistance whenever needed.
Mr. Tuten recognized Ms. Mary Richard, fifth grade teacher from Alma Brown, who in turn introduced Joshua Fischer, student at Alma Brown Elementary, who was selected to lead the board in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag. Ms. Richard indicated that Joshua was an outstanding honor roll student who was well disciplined and well mannered. She listed the numerous activities that he participates in. Following the pledge, Dr. Cobb presented Joshua with a certificate of appreciation from the Lincoln Parish School Board. Joshua introduced members of his family who were present. Ms. Jean Brown, Curriculum Coordinator, was also introduced to members of the board.
Upon a motion by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, seconded by Mr. Paul Woodard, the board voted to approve the minutes of the Regular Session held on December 18, 1991.
Prior to proceeding to the next agenda item, Mr. Tuten spoke to the board of his pleasure in being given the opportunity to serve as board president for the past four years. He reminded the board that an informal agreement exists that presidents would not succeed themselves after four consecutive one-year terms.
Mr. Tuten then opened the floor nominations for board president for the 1992 calendar year. Ms. Ann M. Boyd nominated Dr. Phil Rice to serve as president. Upon a motion by Mr. Andy Shealy, seconded by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, the board voted that nominations Cease and that Dr. Rice be elected by acclamation to serve as the new board president for 1992.
Mr. Tuten opened the floor for nominations for vice-president of the board for the 1992 calendaryear. Mr. Calvin Wilkerson and Mr. George Mack nominated Mr. David Wright to serve as vice-president. Upon a motion by Dr. Marty Beasley, seconded by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, the board voted that nominations cease and that Mr. Wright be elected by acclamation to serve as vice-president for 1992.
At this point in the meeting, the new president and vice-president took their places at the speakers' table and Dr. Rice presided over the remainder of the meeting. He expressed words of appreciation for the board's confidence and pledged to do his best in leading the board. Mr. Wright also spoke of his appreciation for being elected to serve and for the spirit in which the election was conducted.
At this time, Mr. Calvin Wilkerson offered a motion that in the future board officers be limited to serving only one one-year term. Mrs. Loyace Braggs seconded this motion. A discussion of this motion followed. Mr. Wilkerson then asked that he be allowed to amend his motion to state that board officers be limited to serving no more than two consecutive one-year terms. This was agreed to by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, who seconded the motion. This amended motion to limit officers to serving no more than two consecutive one-year terms failed by a vote of 7-4.
Dr. Rice called on Danny Bell who then presented Sandra Powell, Spelling Bee coordinator for Lincoln Parish Schools. Mrs. Powell briefed the board on the progress of the parishwide Spelling Bee to be held on March 18 at Louisiana Tech. She indicated that the halfway point had been reached in securing assistance in implementing this program. She expressed appreciation to the Ruston Daily Leader for their assistance and indicated that Spelling Bee organizers were in the process of securing more co-sponsors. Mr. Jay Blakeney of Louisiana Power and Light Company was present and made a $500 donation on behalf of that company to aide in the success of the Spelling Bee.
Mr. Danny Bell presented the need to secure permission to allocate $2.00 per student for all parish school libraries. Upon a motion by Mr. Jim Kessler, seconded by Mr. David Wright, the board voted to grant permission to allocate $2.00 per student to school libraries. This is funded from the 1979 Sales Tax and is in addition to state allocations for school libraries.
The board served as a Committee of the Whole and the following personnel items were presented to the board for action:
1. Upon a motion by Dr. Marty Beasley, seconded by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, the board voted to grant the request for an extension of leave-without-pay until June 30, 1992, as submitted by Judy Mabry, Director of Chapter I and presented to the board by Ron Suggs.
2. Upon a motion by Mr. Paul Woodard, seconded by Mr. David Wright, the board voted to accept the letters of intent to resign as submitted by the following teacher and special education aides and presented to the board by Ron Suggs:
a. Susan Hanson, elementary teacher at Hillcrest, resigning effective December 10, 1991
b. Nicole Howard resigning as special education aide at Lincoln Center, effective January 10, 1992
c. Rea Lisa Sampson resigning as special education aide at Cypress Springs, effective December 13, 1991.
3. As points of reference, the following information was presented by Ron Suggs:
a. Elaine Gaudet, elementary teacher, returning from Leave-Without-Pay to replace Angel Thomas at Cypress Springs who is on Maternity/Sabbatical Leave. This is effective December 16, 1991.
b. Lynn A. Gillum transferring from P. E. position to Glen View Elementary to replace Kay Rabb who is on Maternity/Sabbatical Leave. This is effective December 16, 1991.
c. James Barker returning from Sabbatical Leave to a social studies position at Ruston High School, replacing Steve Hammons, who is on Sabbatical Leave. This will be effective January 21, 1992.
4. Upon a motion by Mr. Jim Kessler, seconded by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, the board voted to employ Jennifer Russell as elementary teacher at Hillcrest to replace Susan Hanson, resigned. This is effective December 11, 1991, as presented by Ron Suggs.
5. Upon a motion by Mr. David Wright, seconded by Mr. Jim Kessler, the board voted to accept the letter of intent to retire submitted by Wilson Boyte, bus driver for Ruston Schools, effective December 31, 1991, as presented by Richard Hinton.
An addendum to the personnel agenda was presented and the following action was taken as presented by Charles Owens:
6. Upon a motion by Mr. Jim Kessler, seconded by Mr. George Mack, the board voted to employ Charles Perry as custodian at Ruston High School, replacing John Brantley who was transferred. This will be effective January 6, 1992.
Mr. Ken Selle, demographer with Tri-S Associates, was present and reported to the board on the status of the recently submitted reapportionment plan. He reminded the board that in Lincoln Parish the elective district lines are the same for the Police Jury and the School Board. The original submission of our reapportionment plan was made to the Justice Department and after receipt of this plan, they requested additional information for their review. The bulk of the questions had to do with Louisiana Tech dormitories and the number of students registered and voting; why and how we managed to pack 2 districts in Grambling and why Ward I, Districts D, E & F were fractured. Mr. Selle indicated that the joint committee representing the Police Jury and the School Board met and the decision was made to stay with the original plan and also to answer the questions asked by the Justice Department as stated above. He gave a detailed explanation on how these questions were answered. The Justice has 60 days in which to respondto the reapportionment plan. Mr. Selle emphasized that there must be pre-clearance before an election can be held. Following this update from Mr. Selle, a lengthy discussion was held by members of the board. When questioned about his feelings as to whether or not the plan would be approved, Mr. Selle indicated that he felt that there is a possibility that it will be approved.
Benice McGee, Supervisor of Finance for Lincoln Parish Schools, gave a report on Sales Tax receipts for December, 1991. She informed the board that receipts were down $11,089 or an approximate 5% from the same month last year. She indicated that she felt the major reason for the decrease was due to the fact that this was the first impact we have received from local governments not paying any sales tax. This went into effect September 1, 1991.
A financial update for November, 1991 was given by Benice McGee. She offered brief explanations on the status of several funds.
Act 6 of the 1991 Louisiana Legislature was discussed at this time by Ms. McGee. She indicated that Social Security regulations changed effective July 1, 1991. Under the new regulations, any person employed 20 hours or less per week had to contribute to social security, even though this person may be a member of a retirement system. This would mean that an individual had to be a member of a retirement system and also a member of social security. The employer would have to pay both rates in this case. After these new regulations went into effect, the state legislature introduced Act 6 which states that any person with less than ten years of service, working 20 hours or less a week, would not be eligible to be a member of a retirement system. Thereby, those individuals would go under social security. In looking at our part-time employees, it was determined that those effected would be bus drivers and bus aides with less than ten years of experience. Ms. McGee indicated that Mr. Hinton was working with bus drivers to compile the total number of hours worked per week by each of these drivers and he felt that they worked, in all aspects of their bus driving jobs, at least the minimum of 20 hours. Establishing this will determine that they can remain in the retirement system. However, Ms. McGee indicated that the bus aides might be more difficult to work out, but we are in the process of looking at that now.
Dr. Rice informed the board that he had spoken with David Wolf, bonding attorney with Foley & Judell of New Orleans, and that everything was in order as it relates to the refunding of the bonds. He gave the board a brief update on the status of that procedure.
Mr. Danny Bell spoke to the board regarding Lincoln Parish hosting the textbook caravan on Thursday, January 9 at the Ruston Civic Center for the purpose of inviting publishers to come and show their new materials, giving schools the opportunity to look at what is available. This year the social studies textbooks will be reviewed. Parishes attending this caravan are Jackson, Claiborne, Union, Bienville and Lincoln. Principals and teacher representatives will be present to listen to the presentations and then take the information back to their respective schools for the entire faculty to consider. It was pointed out that each publishing company has sent copies of their books to all schools to give faculty members an opportunity to review the materials.
The next agenda item to be considered was an update from Dr. Cobb on the financial needs of the Lincoln Parish School System. Information had been given earlier to board members concerning the status of Lincoln Parish and how we compare in several different ways with other systems in the state. Dr. Cobb presented several determinations that could be made from the information given to board members. He indicated that state funds were received from the Minimum Foundation Program. From there we have to look to local funds since the amount received from MFP is inadequate to finance the cost of our schools. Our three main sources of local funds that are flexible are Sales Tax (Lincoln Parish has one cent and state average is 1.5 cent), Special Maintenance and Operational Tax (Lincoln Parish has 5.22 mills and state average is 11.88 mills) and Special Building, Repair, and Equipment Tax (Lincoln Parish has 5.22 mills and state average is 9.59 mills).
Dr. Cobb further pointed out that our needs are in three categories as follows: Salaries of instructional and support personnel; Instructional needs such as textbooks, technology, personnel, programs such as music and physical education; Transportation needs are tremendous, and we need additional facilities to prevent overcrowding. We also need help in the area of maintenance for the upkeep of our schools.
After presenting this information to the board, Dr. Cobb proposed that he be granted permission to contact and contract with an outside consultant to come in and look at our system, look at what we have, study the areas of needs in terms of dollars and cents and to make a recommendation to the board as to the procedure to follow at this point. He indicated that he would like to contact Gaston and Associates of Baton Rouge. The cost of this service would be $4,000-$6,000 and would take approximately one month to accomplish this study.
Upon a motion by Mr. Andy Shealy, seconded by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, the board voted that Dr. Cobb be authorized to retain Gaston and Associates for an estimated fee of $4,000-$6,000 to make this study of our needs.
Upon a motion by Mr. Allen Tuten, seconded by Mr. David Wright, the board voted to adopt the policies requiring revision due to legislation passed in the 1991 Louisiana Legislative Session. The following revised policies will be included in our Lincoln Parish Policy manuals: Bids and Quotations - DJED; Sick Leave (Illness) - GBRIB; Attendance - JB; Student Searches - JCAB; Searches-Student's Person - JCABA; Visitors to the School - KM; Expulsion - JDE; Immunizations - JGCB.
In the Superintendent's Report, Dr. Cobb indicated that the purchase of property from Simsboro United Methodist Church had been completed. He also reminded board members of the upcoming Louisiana School Boards Association Convention to be held in Alexandria on March 5-7.
Committee preference forms were given to board members and Dr. Cobb asked that each board member indicate their choices as to serving on the various committees.
Words of appreciation from several board members were expressed to Mr. Tuten for the excellent job he did while serving as president of the board for the past four years.
Several comments and observations were made from various board members.
Upon a motion by Dr. Marty Beasley, the board voted to adjourn at 7:35 p.m
Gerald W. Cobb, Secretary Philip F. Rice, President