Barbe No Where Near Best in Calcasieu,Elections, Evaluations, Failing Schools and Deception

The Blog

C. M. Ambrose, Jr.

For those that weren't paying attention, the numbers for the most recent election show no interest in the process. In Calcasieu Parish, there was little interest in voting.  According to the Secretary of State,  in Calcasieu Parish, all three of the amendments were passed and Angele Davis received 34% of the vote for State Treasurer. The voters approved all three amendments for changes to the constitution. State voter turnout was at about 13%. That means barely more than one in ten people voted of those registered to vote, pretty weak for a state and area and state that are so active on various platforms of social media. It also seems to validate those who think the push to register voters is a waste of time, and that effort should be used to get those already registered to vote by providing more information on the issues.  The State Democratic Party is hemorrhaging voters and with no plan, the defections from the party will continue.

Race for State Treasurer

In what some are calling a repudiation of the La. Democratic Party,  New Orleans attorney Derrick Edwards pulled in 31% of the vote, while rarely campaigning, and raising little to no money while prominent Democratic Legislators and state party leaders endorsed Neil Riser.  Edwards has little to no chance of winning, his opponent former state legislator John Schroder (R) Covington, had raised the most money of any of the candidates in the race, with more left over for the runoff. The winner will replace Ron Henson who was appointed after John Kennedy became a U.S. Senator.

3rd Congressional District Announcement

 

Dr. Phillip Conner(D) announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 3rd congressional district on Thursday in Lake Charles at a gathering held at the Pujo St. Cafe, he joins Lafayette attorney Josh Guillory(R) and Veron Thomas(I) in challenging Rep. Clay Higgins in next falls mid-terms.  Dr. Conner gave us an exclusive interview a couple of days after his announcement.  That conversation will be available later this week on the Podcast, The Back Porch Experience.

CPSB
At October CPSB meeting, there was a couple of eventful things, one of the highlights was the recognition of Barbe English and AP Gifted English teacher  Lori Benoit, who was selected as the 2017 Yale Educator Award.  Mrs. Benoit has selected out the 400 nominations from around the world. In a selection process that is solely student-led, sponsored by the Yale Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Yale Student  Simarpreet Chadha, a former Barbe student, nominated her former teacher for the award. The award honors outstanding educators who serve as an inspiration to their students, by supporting and encouraging them to perform at a high level. Mrs. Benoit will be attending an award ceremony at Yale.  Congratulations to Mrs. Benoit, and thank you to all the teachers who are fighting the fight every day.

There were several parents from Washington-Marion as well as alumni in the audience for the meeting. Then towards the end of the meeting board member Billy Breaux, who wasn't present at the beginning of the meeting, but appeared after the executive session, addressed the group. During this speech, he took a shot a fellow board member who is against adding more tax burden on the citizens with another bond issue. All this when the sales tax is generating 30% higher revenue than projected and should increase or at least remain constant if the words of the economic boom are true. Besides the tax last for 20 yrs.  Now to his comments and those of board member Fred Hardy.

Click to Hear Audio

Mr. Breaux said that since he's been on the board $150 million dollars have been spent on the west side of the parish, thus verifying the inequality of funding under the present administration.  It seems that each time someone is critical of the administration, Mr. Breaux is quick to come to the defense of the administration as the above clip demonstrates, even taking the board off subject. This was his second shot at a fellow board member in as many weeks.  

Quietly mentioned towards the end of the meeting was a notice about the Evaluation of the Superintendent. How this evaluation is done is the perfect example of how no one is held accountable for the failings of the system. The evaluations are given to the Superintendent being evaluated, he self-evaluates and uses the evaluations of the board members to become a better at his job.  The catch, with help from Mr. White, the grades for the schools haven't been released. The school grades are the "Data" that defines the job being done by the Administration in moving the district forward. The maximum score by the formula used is 150 points

Score 85.5 out of possible 150.  Excellent Evaluation for the Administration?  

Calcasieu Parish's score was 85.5, even on a scale of 100 a C, but the strange part about the change in scoring for the district from a C to a B with no marked improvement can be explained, in an article on Educatelouisiana.org., they delve into this.  From the article:

Obviously, the release of the 2016 scores was highly anticipated.  When the news came out that Calcasieu had brought its score back up to a B from a C, I wanted to see if I could determine how they did it.  I started out by comparing the 2016 results to the 2015 results and arranged them in order from the largest decrease to the largest increase.  When I illustrated the data in a line graph, I was shocked by what I saw.

Courtesy of Educatelouisiana.org

"When you first look at this comparison between the two years, you immediately think, "Wow! They're nearly identical!"  But when you take into consideration the yellow line that shows the greatest decrease to the greatest increase,  you realize that this is statistically impossible for that to occur organically...

"...So what does this tell us? ...I now believe the drop in the score that Calcasieu Parish received was merely the result of data manipulation.  It seems cruel, but it is necessary to understand why the accountability system is invalid."

The article contains more pertinent information in regard to how the school district has remained basically the same for the last 6 yrs, with marginal changes. You can read the complete article here.

Now with the rush to get superintendents evaluations done, John White is holding the scores for the schools, thus denying citizens valuable data that school board members need to make evaluations, that is for the rest of the state.  Calcasieu Parish Board Members were told their evaluations are simply "guides for better job performance" for the Superintendent and aren't important.

It seems that there is not only little to no accountability, it seems the agencies that are responsible for making sure the Administration is following the law, aren't doing their job of protecting the people.

FYI: Nearly every, if not all Parish schools have seen a 50% change in faculty over the last 6 yrs. The turnover rate for teachers is high, a problem that the 1% sales was to have solved.  After this year the bonuses won't be paid but the tax is a 20-year tax.

a couple of things....

1. How can the evaluation reflect the progress, if any has been made, by the district if you don't have grades for the schools?

 What are you being evaluated on? Whether they like you? He certainly isn't evaluated on the budget, the 9 schools that have failed for three state years? Is it the diversity in the central office administration? The only thing that really matters is the one thing that this seems set up to avoid, the school grades. The only two people in the State who have questionable qualifications for their positions,  John White, holding up the grades, and the Superintendent that gets evaluated on basically nothing.  How can citizen feel confident that the school system is moving in the right directions if the evaluations aren't reflective of the true environment of the system? The link below explains what teachers have to go through to get a couple of hundred bucks, while the Superintendents salary keeps risings with a school system that is hovering in sight of the bottom.  

http://educatelouisiana.org/2017/09/14/are-teachers-being-paid-correctly/

2. Why would the Administration not accept an offer to have 26 retired teachers volunteer to tutor at-risk students?

3. Why would they introduce a plan, half of which has failed before and doesn't address the problems of the failing middle schools?

4. Why are there 2 counselors from the D.A. office on school board payroll, when there are counselors in the schools already? Just another example of waste and politics.

5. Discipline is a problem but the administration won't change the policy, why?

6. Why are so many graduates of the Calcasieu Parish School system required to take remedial courses as freshmen in college?

7. Why isn't the evaluation based on the productivity of moving the system forward instead of a popularity contest?  We all like the Superintendent, some question his job performance and commitment to the whole parish as well as his ability to move the district forward, there is a record that is being ignored.

8. With all this money why can't the budget be balanced? 

9. Certificate of punctuality on the budget, so you finished and submitted on time...lol...it' never balanced even though there is an abundance of money. 

10.There is a discipline problem in the school system, the system is doing nothing to solve the problem.

When offered with an approach which was pre-intervention, and a change in approach which would address the discipline problems sooner, the administration wasn't interested.  They prefer post-intervention aka allowing disrupters to remain in class long after their discipline issue should have been addressed. The PBIS program isn't a solution.

The only thing you need to know about turn around principals, they are given every available resource, that their predecessors weren't given,  even the ability to bring some of their staff and in some cases having two guidance counselors while their predecessor usually had only one, and not as many qualified teachers.

This school district is the 4th largest in the state and ranks in the bottom 3rd when it comes to achievement, with no real improvement overall for the last 6 yrs. The problem with certified teachers supposed to have been solved, by the 1% sales tax, making the pay competitive, didn't happen.

The sales tax is for 20 yrs people, and the teacher's salary is about the same when selling the tax as "pay raise" for teachers. The pay raise as it was called was really a stipend that ends this year. and the tax goes on. One more thing on this, by paying a stipend and not giving that money in a raise, the teachers don't get that increase in retirement since it wasn't a pay raise, even got them. Salaries of the Administration are at all time highs, sources say there are at least 20-30 people minimum that if they disappeared tomorrow the only people who would miss them are the others whom they drank coffee with. Without transparency how do you know that the money is being spent wisely?  You don't, you have to take the word of a board and administration who consistently, in the past, have deceived you. 

If the scores of the schools that have been failing for the past three years don't improve and the state takes over, the entire administration and the school board who have allowed and helped this to happen should be replaced, all of them.

The school board is made up of 10 business people and 5 educators, the system is run by an accountant, and you wonder why Calcasieu Parish hovers around the bottom in education? Everyone knows that some of the things which were stated in a recent newspaper article by a board member are true, and we know that the administration will go to great lengths to quiet its critics.  I've personally experienced that, as have others.  There is no oversight, no transparency, and no progress, just lots of high five and six-figure salaries, while citizens get deceived and their tax money not used to benefit them. It's only criminal if those in charge of policing, police.  They aren't, and that doesn't make it right. What it does is simply continues that pattern of politics and racial inequality that has been going on for years in Calcasieu Parish directed at a portion of Lake Charles.  It's just blatant now under the present administration and board. Now with no one watching they have one of the largest budgets for education in the state, a bloated, overpaid front office and continues to fail year after year.

Barbe thought to be the best school in the district, even if that were the case, the district is one of the worst in the state, it's the worst in the SWLA area. The supposed best school in the district doesn't register on any best of the list. 

As a matter of fact, according to Schooldigger.com, the first school to show up on the list of Louisiana high school rankings from Calcasieu Parish shows up at #70, Sam Houston High School.  The best high school in SWLA according to Schooldigger.com is Grand Lake High School, which came in at #30 and is in Cameron Parish.  Other area schools on the list before any CPSB school were: Laccasine and Lake Arthur, Hornebeck. Fairview.  Schools from the area ranked after #70 Sam Houston are:

#82 Westlake, #85 Hathaway, #87 Oakdale, #112 Evans , #114 Simpson, #124 Oberlin, #135 Iowa, #137 Starks, #138 Bell City, #140 BARBE, #150 Jennings.

The complete list can be viewed HERE.

The proof is in the record, and this administration's record would get them fired and the board replaced if this were a corporation. The shareholders, the citizens, keep getting screwed, even the best in the district could be better if there was someone in the system that knew Education.  Thank God, I have no kids in this system, it's not a system that benefits minority students at all or underperforming nonminority students.

School board bonds are usually requested by board members for their specific district, and usually, have an amortization period of 2-3 yrs.  The new, additional bond (tax) is being asked for by the Superintendent, highly unusual, and the amortization period of 6 yrs requires taxpayers to pay an additional tax for 6 more yrs.  That's two (2) bonds and a 20 or 1% sales tax.  Are you going to keep taxing yourself and seeing none of the money?  Something to think about. Another thing to think about, where are the pastors and community leaders? Playing politics and doing photo ops, no results, just smiling for the camera.

Backroom deals eventually get brought to the Front table.  

City of Lake Charles

Lastly, a person on a panel about the Civil Rights History in Lake Charles, who didn't live through the period or wasn't born or lived here in Lake Charles? Well, that's Lake Charles politics for you. 

The State of Louisiana, like CPSB, is waiting to tax you too, just like last time, as soon as  YOU tax yourself locally the state will slap another tax figuring it ok, you just taxed yourself.  

Wishing for you what to wish for yourself, Peace.