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MarWednesday, November 16, 2011
Nine civic groups have been speaking up for the silent voices who slip through the cracks in Lafayette’s public education system, and a majority on the school board are listening. By Heather Miller
When nine local civic groups coalesced to face the state of public schools in Lafayette Parish, their message was as emphatic then as it is today: Toss the notion that our poorest kids can’t learn. We can’t — and won’t — wait 30 years for a sizable increase in our high school graduation rate.
It’s been two years since the Lafayette Public Education Stakeholders Council came together and later crafted its bylaws. Six months ago, someone started listening.
The sleepy meeting agendas of the Lafayette Parish School Board have breathed new life as board members work toward the selection of a new schools superintendent, a decision expected by early December. If the past six months of board activity are a sign of what’s to come, LaPESC has a number of reasons — namely five — to hope that better days are ahead in Lafayette Parish schools.
The search for a new super has created a 5-4 cleft of the Lafayette Parish School Board, a divide that’s been well-documented ever since Superintendent Burnell Lemoine announced in May that he would retire at the end of this year.
It was then that five board members, Hunter Beasley, Kermit Bouillion, Tehmi Chassion, Shelton Cobb and Mark Cockerham decided beforehand they would not vote to extend Lemoine’s contract and informed Lemoine of their decision before the start of the meeting. In the days following that May board meeting, the five board members came under scrutiny for an unintentional violation of open meeting laws: Board members cannot legally discuss their voting intentions outside of a public meeting.
But what wasn’t widely reported is that their actions were based in part on the wishes of the 5,000-plus outside stakeholders that belong to LaPESC. Those stakeholders believed that a vote to extend Lemoine’s contract was a vote in favor of the status quo. New leadership in Lafayette Parish schools was long overdue.
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Margaret Trahan and Chip Jackson of the Lafayette Public Education Stakeholders |
The nine organizations that comprise LaPESC are the705, 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette, Citizens Action Council, Concerned Citizens for Good Government, the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, State of Greater Black Lafayette, Southwest LA Black Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Acadiana and UL Lafayette. The Lafayette Parish School System was a member at the outset but withdrew its membership after LaPESC began planning candidate forums for board elections (LPSS actually announced its withdrawal to the media before letting LaPESC know it was pulling out).
LaPESC pledges in its bylaws a “common commitment ... to identify roadblocks to educational attainment for children living in poverty, who are mostly African-American, and to advocate for solutions to those barriers.”
When the school board began outlining the protocol for selecting Lemoine’s replacement, LaPESC and the 100 GBM asked for a voice in the process. Beasley brought the request before the board, a proposal that was met with staunch opposition from board members Mark Babineaux (who serves as board president), Greg Awbrey, Tommy Angelle and Rae Trahan.
But the new majority that’s prevailed on the board outweighed the wishes of the minority four. With yes votes from the same five board members who set the wheels in motion to find a new superintendent, representatives from both civic groups were able to sit in on the superintendent interviews and recommend their top three candidates — despite a second attempt by Awbrey to question the legality of outside stakeholders participating in the process.
It’s the same five board members who also saved the application of Dr. Pat Cooper, one of 10 superintendent applicants selected by the board to be interviewed for the position.
When it was discovered that if selected for the job Cooper would be unable to start full-time until May 2012, Babineaux circumvented what should have been a very public discussion by the entire board.
With the help of LPSS Marketing Director Angie Simoneaux, Babineaux relayed a message to Cooper that the board’s wishes are for the new superintendent to start in January. That phone call was made without any formal meeting or vote from the board ever taking place, though board attorney Jimmy Simon had previously advised a full board meeting to decide a course of action.
A few days later, the “gang of five” fought back against the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of Babineaux. Another 5-3 vote of the board (Awbrey was absent) brought Cooper’s name back into the running.
Coincidentally, Babineaux and board member Rae Trahan did not vote for Cooper as one of their top 10 candidates. Angelle was absent for the vote due to an unavoidable family conflict.
Cooper seems to be the top choice for both LaPESC and 100 GBM (while the two groups did not rank their three finalists, evaluations of the top three in LaPESC’s and 100 GBM’s respective press releases last week appear to favor Cooper). He’s also been pegged by The Daily Advertiser as the frontrunner for the job.
Perhaps the most perplexing proof of a steep split in agendas for the school board came in August, when The Daily Advertiser sent out surveys to board members asking them to rank a list of priorities for the school district. The majority five filled them out, but Angelle, Awbrey, Babineaux and Trahan refused to return the surveys.
Board member Trahan told the daily she was too busy with other work commitments, also spouting that the other board members who completed the surveys “couldn’t walk a week in my shoes.”
Babineaux countered that the issues outlined in the survey were “agenda-oriented” and “blatant propaganda.”
What’s clear in this superintendent search is that the community has spoken — and the “gang of five” is listening. What’s not clear, however, is why the remaining four have yet to jump on board.
As board Vice President Cobb said during a recent board meeting, “We need to start acting like we’re together, or we’ll [experience] defeat.”
Our kids are with you, Mr. Cobb.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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"Who are mostly African-American" and what? Poor European-Americans are not included in your concerns?
I REALLY don't understand why it has to be about AFRICAN-AMERICANS.
The problem is NOT your skin color. The problem is POVERTY and POVERTY (unlike 100 Black Men) is NOT Racist.
The LaPESC needs to turn it's attention on the CULTURE that surrounds POVERTY. The culture that idolizes street thug gang dealers, Sex, promiscuity, Violence and dying young.
I have a challenge to the members of the LaPESC. Go and have a listen on your kid's iphone. That's your problem. Your role models suck.
But most of all, take your damned politics somewhere else. Our teachers have enough to deal with already.
Perhaps if all of the wannabe politicians got out of the way and quit micromanaging our teachers, the teachers could find time to actually teach. Right now they spend 2 minutes teaching a subject for every 10 minutes they spend documenting that they taught it.
And why are they doing this? To appease the wannabe politicians.