LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
Ruston, Louisiana
REGULAR SESSION
Tuesday, June 2, 1992 6:30 p.m.
The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, June 2, 1992 at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Lincoln Parish School Board Office, 410 South Farmerville Street, Ruston, Louisiana. Members present were: Dr. Phil Rice, Mr. David Wright, Mrs. Loyace Braggs, 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.
Member absent: Dr. Marty Beasley
Dr. Phil Rice, president, called the meeting to order and the invocation was given by Mr. Andy Shealy.
Dr. Rice recognized the guests and members of the press and media who were present.
Upon a motion by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, seconded by Mr. Andy Shealy, the board voted to approve the minutes of the Regular Session of the board held on May 5, 1992.
At this time, Dr. Rice indicated that special invited guests of the board would be recognized. He called on Dr. Cobb to make the first presentations. Michael Lyons, coach at Grambling High School, was recognized for being named as Class I-A State Coach of the Year and Boys' I-A State Basketball Championship Coach. Also recognized from Grambling High School was James Smith as Girls' I-A State Track Championship Coach. David B. Anderson, Ruston High School, was honored as Boys' 5-A State Track Championship Coach. Each of these were presented with a plaque and the board expressed their appreciation to these three coaches for their contributions to the Lincoln Parish School System.
Dr. Rice called on Mr. Bell and Mr. Suggs to present certificates of appreciation to the following first place winners in state competition:
David Batterton - FFA Poultry Judging
Brad Lamkin - FFA Poultry Judging
Rebecca Martin - FFA Poultry Judging
Jennifer Sheehan - French I
James Samuel - French II
Cara Hanchey - French III (first & overall winner)
Uday Gajendar - Civics
Edgar Mitchell - Superior Boy's Vocal Solo
April Davis - Superior Girl's Vocal Solo
Robert Jungman - Superior Special Foreign Language
French II
Kisha Cooper - Superior Special Foreign Language
French III
Monica Moore - Superior Speech and Drama
Jean Jacobsen - State Commodity Challenge Program
Chicago Board of Trade, American Free
Enterprise
Matt Hinton - President, State Level Technology Student
Association
Casey Sherrard - Engineering (first and overall runner-up)
Sandeep Sule - All-Star Team - Cajun Quiz Bowl, USL
Louisiana Knowledge Master Team
All State Orchestra - Violin
Kyle Bozeman - All State Band - French Horn
Andrew Morse - All State Band - Baritone
Mukund Saxena - State FBLA Treasurer
Tracy Johnson - Junior High All State Chorus
The board expressed their congratulations to these students for their outstanding contributions to their individual schools, to the Lincoln Parish School System and the community.
The next agenda item to be considered was ratification of a poll vote dealing with two items as shown below:
1. The board, on a roll call vote and upon a motion by Mr. Jim Kessler, seconded by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, voted 10-1 to approve authorizing the Lincoln Parish School Board to seek additional sales tax revenue in addition to the proposed 1/4 cent, if deemed necessary by the board. This would allow the board additional flexibility in its plans to meet all of its demonstrated needs.
Voting for the motion: Mr. David Wright, Mrs. Loyace Braggs, Mr. George Mack, Mr. Andy Shealy, Mr. Jim Kessler, Mr. Wayne Barfield, Ms. Ann M. Boyd, Mr. Paul Woodard, Mr. Allen Tuten and Dr. Phil Rice.
Voting against the motion: Mr. Calvin Wilkerson
Absent and not voting: Dr. Marty Beasley
2. The second portion of the poll vote to be ratified dealt with the lease of the gymnasium of the old Hopewell School in Dubach to the Town of Dubach. This building is occupied by a business and a problem has developed in that the roof on the school needs to be repaired. Upon a motion by Mr. Wayne Barfield, seconded by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, the board voted unanimously to waive their lease fee in the amount of $100 a month for a period of 6 months, and in return, the business owner would repair the gym roof.
Dr. Rice suggested that, with agreement of the board, the agenda would be deviated from at this time in order for several guest presentations to be made before the board embarked upon a lengthy agenda involving a number of business items.
The board heard a progress report on the LINC Program given by Dr. Janie Humphries, Director of the three-year grant to the Early Childhood Education Center at Louisiana Tech University. This program is housed at Lincoln Center with Mr. Ray Bratton serving as principal and is one of only three grants of this nature given nationwide. Dr. Humphries indicated that the first year of this program has proved to be very successful. The four major components mandated in the program are: 1) Developmentally appropriate practices in the Early Childhood classroom, 2) Implement the usage of mentors with the children. Ten high school juniors from Ruston High School who are exemplary students and are male minority were used in this program, under the director of Mr. David Crowe, assistant principal at Ruston High School. 3) Create a parent involvement plan to enable parents and members of the community to participate in the school 4) Advisory Committee was created to work with the program.
At this time, the students from Ruston High School who served as mentors in the LINC Program were given certificates of recognition for their contributions to this program. Also recognized were the teachers at Lincoln Center who worked with the program.
Mr. Charles Owens, Director of Auxiliary Programs, informed the board that action by the board would be necessary in order to continue the Project Independence Program for the next year. Upon a motion by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, seconded by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, the board voted unanimously to approve implementation of the Project Independence Program for 1992-93. Following this approval, the board heard a report given by Katherine Bowden who spoke on behalf of the program. She informed the board of the many positive results that have been evidenced from the implementation of this program during the past year. The goal is to target welfare parents to enable them to receive education and become employed, thus reducing the welfare rolls. About 269 persons were assessed with 45 persons securing jobs since the program began. Following Ms. Bowden's report, Mr. Owens showed a brief video on the program.
Dr. Gary Stokley gave the board a detailed update on Phase 11 of the tax/millage survey done recently. This second phase contained demographic information. that indicates over 80% of the persons surveyed own their own homes and over 13% own or manage their own businesses. All questions were analyzed in the following categories: 1) Basic information questions which have been presented; 2) Evaluation and rating questions regarding various portions of the school system, and, 3) Support for or against a property and sales tax proposal. Some results of the questions asked showed that 86.7% are satisfied to very satisfied with the quality of education in Lincoln Parish while only 13.7% expressed dissatisfaction. The area that reflected the highest percentage of dissatisfaction was in school discipline where almost 62.7% of respondents felt that school discipline was very poor to fair. Dr. Stokley indicated that discipline is a major problem across the nation, not just in Lincoln Parish. He further indicated that at this time, 69% of the respondents said they supported a 12 mill property tax and 69.1% said they supported a one/fourth cent sales tax increase. Overall, these comments obviously show strong support for the Lincoln Parish School System and is an outstanding and impressive positive survey as indicated by Dr. Stokley.
Upon a motion by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, seconded by Mr. George Mack, the board voted to renew the lease granting Headstart permission to continue using the old Lincoln High School building and also to add usage of the adjacent baseball field, as presented by Charles Owens.
The report of the Finance Committee meeting held on Monday, June 1, 1992 at 4:00 p.m. was given by Mr. Allen Tuten, chairman, and the following items were addressed:
1. Upon a motion by Mr. Allen Tuten, seconded by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, the board voted, upon the recommendation of the Finance Committee, to approve adoption of the Revised Budget for all Funds for 1991-92
2. Upon a motion by Mr. Allen Tuten, seconded by Mr. David Wright, the board voted, upon the recommendation of the Finance Committee, to approve payment of the 13th check for June 30, 1992 to be paid on July 1, 1992 in a range of $1130 to $1150 for certificated personnel and a range of $565 to $575 for support personnel. Also included in the motion was a stipulation that if the amount should deviate from this range, the board would have to give approval, either by poll vote or a special meeting.
3. Upon a motion by Mr. Allen Tuten, seconded by Mr. Jim Kessler, the board voted, upon the recommendation of the Finance Committee, to grant permission to enter into negotiations for Fiscal Agent for 1992-94. Richie Garrett, Supervisor of Finance, indicated that in the past all funds were deposited into one bank and that bank would be custodian of our checking accounts. However, any funds invested above our cash flow would be divided equitably among all parish banks, depending upon the bank's capital structure. Mr. Garrett indicated that under the new agreement, each bank would be approached monthly and inquired about their rate of interest on a given sum of investment; thereby, giving us the opportunity to receive the highest return on our investments available from each bank. All parish banks will be given equal opportunity to participate.
Voting for the motion: Mr. David Wright, Mrs. Loyace Braggs, 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.
Abstaining: Dr. Phil Rice
Absent and not voting: Dr. Marty Beasley
4. The next item to be considered was to schedule an election date for the proposed tax/millage increase. Following a discussion on the pros and cons of various dates, the board, upon the recommendation of the Finance Committee, voted unanimously to set January 16, 1993 as a tentative date for the tax/millage increase election, with the appropriate time lines to be followed.
5. The final item from the Finance Committee involved exploring methods to purchase new buses. It was pointed out that if we continue in the same realm as in the past few year as it pertains to purchasing buses, the school board would be entering into the bus business, This would entail expansion of our bus terminal operations and numerous other expenses. The board agreed that Dr. Cobb, Mr. Hinton and Mr. Ownes would explore options of purchasing buses and report back at a later date.
The board served as a Committee of the Whole and the following Personnel Committee items were addressed:
1. Dr. Cobb presented an overview of the interview process involved in the selection of an applicant to be recommended to fill the Ruston Junior High School Principalship. Upon a motion by Mr. David Wright, seconded by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, and upon the recommendation of the interview committee and Dr. Cobb, the board voted to approve the appointment of Ms. Sandra Henderson as principal of Ruston Jr. High School.
2. Upon a motion by Mr. Allen Tuten, seconded by Mr. Paul-Woodard, the board voted unanimously to accept the letter of Intent to Retire submitted by Cora Brown, teacher at Ruston Jr. High School, effective June 2, 1992 as presented by Ron Suggs.
3. Upon a motion by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, seconded by Mr. Wayne Barfield, the board voted to accept the letters of Intent to Resign submitted by the following teaching personnel to be effective June 2, 1992 and presented by Ron Suggs:
a. Joan Best, math teacher at Ruston High School
b. David Gough, English/Coach at Ruston High School
c. Bonnie Tassin, half-time librarian at Hillcrest Elementary School
4. Upon a motion by Mr. Andy Shealy, seconded by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, the board voted to grant the following requests for Leave Without Pay for the 1992-93 school year as presented by Ron Suggs:
a. Jeanette Many, elementary teacher at Cypress Springs
b. Millie Hooper, elementary teacher at Cypress Springs
5. Upon a motion by Mr. Paul Woodard, seconded by Mr. David Wright, the board voted to accept the letter of resignation submitted by Janice Jones, custodian at Hillcrest Elementary, effective May 18, 1992 as presented by Charles Owens.
6. Upon a motion by Mr. George Mack, seconded by Mr. Wayne Barfield, the board voted to accept the letter of resignation submitted by Sebell Patton, part-time technician in the SFS program, effective June 1, 1992 as presented by Brenda Theodos.
A report on sales tax receipts for the month of May, 1992 was given by Richie Garrett, Supervisor of Finance. He indicated that collections were up 12.9% as compared to the same month last year. Collections to date reflect an increase of 2.7%.
The financial update for April, 1992, given by Richie Garrett, reflected that fund balances indicate a normal pattern for this time as it relates to collections and expenditures.
Richard Hinton reported to the board on an Internal Revenue Service procedural change related to bus driver operational expense. He indicated that a meeting had been held to offer additional information and explanation to bus drivers on this change.
Barbara Kirkland, Supervisor of Federal Programs, spoke to the board regarding the Vocational Education Program in the Lincoln Parish School System. She specifically addressed the area of vocational guidance and told the board that this year computers had been purchased for use in all guidance offices in order to be able to utilize a career information delivery system that Louisiana had adopted entitled "Choices". At this time, Mrs. Kirkland recognized Mrs. Diane Sistrunk, counselor at Ruston High School, who shared with the board the kinds of information that is available through Choices and how she has used Choices and the impact that it has had on her students and her ability to help them in making choices.
Mrs. Sistrunk made an excellent presentation to the board. It was both informative as well as very interesting. She told the board that in the self-study done several years ago at Ruston High School, it was felt that the school personnel were inadequate in their ability to provide vocational information to students. Mrs. Sistrunk expressed her delight in having access to this program and in the results that have been evidenced, as she explained to the board how the system worked and some of the results obtained.
A brief informational report was received from Mr. Jim Kessler on LSBA/LASS Day at the Legislature. The Lincoln Parish School Board was represented by Mr. Kessler and Dr. Marty Beasley. Mr. Kessler indicated that they met with area legislators and were particularly concerned with mandatory collective bargaining. He gave some background information on this legislation and expressed the overall feeling of opposition against this proposed legislation. He told the board that the first proposal of the mandated collective bargaining was defeated in the senate. He stressed that involvement was necessary in order to see the defeat of this as well as other undesirable legislation.
Mr. Charles Owens asked the board to consider bids received for the following:
1. Upon a motion by Mr. Andy Shealy, seconded by Mr. David Wright, the board voted to accept the bid submitted by Bancroft Paper Company for the purchase of toilet tissue and paper towels for 1992-93 as shown:
100 cases of toilet tissue at $22.50 per case $2,250.00
400 cases of paper towels at $7.74 per case $3,176.00
2. Upon a motion by Mr. Andy Shealy, seconded by Mr. Paul Woodard, the board voted to reject all bids received for duplicating fluid and spirit masters.
Upon a motion by Ms. Ann Boyd, seconded by Mr. David Wright, the board voted to accept the bid submitted by LA Teachers Supply for the purchase of thermal masters for 1992-93 as shown:
1000 boxes of thermal masters at $3.79 per box $3,790.00
3. Upon a motion by Mr. Allen Tuten, seconded by Mr. David Wright, and upon Mr. Owens recommendation, the board voted to reject all bids received for duplicating paper.
4. Upon a motion by Mrs. Braggs, seconded by Mr. Paul Woodard, the board voted to accept the bid submitted by E. Lee Young for the purchase of Gasoline & Diesel for 1992-93 in the amount of $.068 above the terminal price.
5. Mr. Owens indicated that no bids were received for the rental of dust mops.
6. Upon a motion by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, seconded by Mrs. Loyace Braggs, the board voted to grant permission to readvertise for the purchase of Duplicating Fluid, Duplicating Paper and Spirit Masters.
Mrs. Brenda Theodos, School Food Service Supervisor, gave an update on the meeting held with Ms. Jacqueline Sumler, LAE representative. Board members were given a packet of information relative to updated School Food Service activity.
At this time, Dr. Phil Rice reported that the reapportionment process was completed and maps were distributed to individual board members.
He then addressed amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Ordinance and the following action was taken:
1. Upon a motion by Mr. Jim Kessler, seconded by Ms. Ann M. Boyd, the board voted to adopt the amendment to the ordinance, Section 1.05, to include the following statement as underlined:
" 'Director' shall mean and include the administrator of the Lincoln-Ruston Sales and Use Tax Division who shall be in charge of the administration and collection of the tax herein levied, or the duly authorized assistants of said Director. The administrator of the Lincoln-Ruston Sales and Use Tax Division shall be appointed by a majority vote of the members of the Lincoln-Ruston Sales and Use Tax Advisory Committee to serve until such time as his appointment is revoked in the same manner."
2. Upon a motion by Mr. Jim Kessler, seconded by Mrs. Loyace Braggs. the board voted to adopt the amendment to the ordinance, Section 12.02 (a), to include the following statement as underlined:
"There shall be an Advisory Committee composed of two members selected by the Lincoln Parish School Board, two members selected by the Lincoln Parish Police Jury, two members selected by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of the City of Ruston, one member selected by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of the Town of Dubach, and one member selected by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of the Town of Grambling. Said committee shall act in advisory capacity upon such policy matters as the Director may refer to such committee."
3. Upon a motion by Mr. Jim Kessler, seconded by Mr. Wayne Barfield, the board voted to adopt the amendment to the ordinance, Section 13.02 to include the following statement as underlined:
"Out of the funds on deposit in said "School Board Sales Tax Fund," the Director shall first pay all of the Lincoln Parish School Board's pro-rata portion of the reasonable and necessary costs and expenses of collecting the tax levied hereby and administering the provisions of this ordinance as well as the various administrative procedures established herein. The Lincoln Parish School Board's pro-rata portion of the costs and expenses of collecting the tax levied hereby shall be equivalent to that percentage which the amount of taxes, revenues, funds, assessments, moneys, penalties, fees or other income collected on behalf of the Lincoln Parish School Board bears to the total amount of such funds collected on behalf of the political subdivisions within Lincoln Parish, Louisiana which levy a sales and use tax." Such costs and expenses shall be reported by the Director monthly to this taxing authority."
In the Superintendent's Report, Dr. Cobb indicated that at the July 7 board meeting, a report will be given on the results of test scores in Lincoln Parish Schools.
He also informed the board that a letter had been sent to all area legislators asking for their assistance in opposing House Bill #1 which proposes an additional appropriation of from $20 to $40 million to the State Employees Group Benefits Program, with no help for self-funded systems, for funding rate increases.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
Gerald W. Cobb, Secretary Phil F. Rice, President