Rae Trahan, the Lafayette Parish School Board member who represents the Youngsville area, joined three other board members Wednesday night in voting against a recommendation on how to address critical overcrowding in Youngsville schools.
According to The Advocate, the board voted 5-4 at its regular Wednesday meeting to accept a recommendation by Superintendent Pat Cooper to sell $30 million in bonds for construction and facility needs, the most pressing of which includes new buildings in Youngsville to accommodate the town’s exploding population.
As The Independent reported in its June 6 news story, “Growing Pains,” Youngsville schools have surpassed their maximum capacity by 1,000 students, prompting Youngsville Mayor Wilson Viator to schedule a series of meetings recently between himself, Cooper and school board members to come up with an immediate solution:
The draft list of items involves: $6 million in renovations and construction at Lindon; $2 million for a new classroom wing at Youngsville Middle; $4 million to complete renovations at Northside High; $10 million for renovation and construction at Lafayette High; and $8 million for new construction at David Thibodaux STEM Academy.
Some board members asked that a decision on starting the bond sale process wait for a detailed list of how the money may be spent at each school.
“Let’s have an idea of where it’s going to go and how it’s going to be spent before we go get it,” Angelle said. “Maybe we need less … maybe we need more.”
Viator attended Wednesday’s meeting to ask the board to consider addressing overcrowding at his city’s schools. Architect Kirby Pecot told the board that the school could be enlarged with the use of property donated from Young’s Industries, a Youngsville business.
River Ranch and Sugar Mill Pond developer Robert Daigle was also on-hand at the board meeting for a rare appearance and comment on behalf of Young's Industries, telling the board that “in a nutshell … we in the private sector care deeply about what’s going on in public education today.”
Read more here.
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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