It was what one civic group leader called a “groundbreaking” moment at the Lafayette Parish School Board meeting Wednesday night when the board voted 5-3 to add to its superintendent selection committee a representative from the 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette and the Lafayette Parish Public Education Stakeholders Council.
Board member Hunter Beasley proposed that a representative from each of the organizations team up with the nine board members in making a recommendation on narrowing down the superintendent search to 10 applicants. Once the board approves the top 10 applicants, the two reps from the civic groups will no longer sit on the panel.
Board members Tehmi Chassion, Kermit Bouillion, Mark Cockerham and Shelton Cobb joined Beasley in supporting the new additions to the committee.
“I’ve spoken at length with Mr. Beasley and other members of this board about the attempt to bridge the gap in the community,” 100 Black Men President Patrick Williams tells The Advertiser. “This is a groundbreaking moment. I’m an emotional guy, so my insides are shaking because I know how important this is.”
But Beasley’s proposal was met with some expected opposition from board members Tommy Angelle, Rae Trahan and board President Mark Babineaux. Their no votes offer yet another exhibit of a 5-4 split among board members when it comes to critical reform issues facing Lafayette Parish schools. Board member Greg Awbrey, who often sides with Trahan, Angelle and Babineaux, was absent.
Recent polls published in The Daily Advertiser further demonstrate the visible chasm on the board. When asked to complete a survey ranking the top 10 priorities for the school board, Angelle, Trahan, Babineaux and Awbrey refused:
Trahan declined to participate, saying she was too busy with work commitments to fill out the survey, which was e-mailed to her on Aug. 4, 10 days prior to publication. When told that a majority of other board members had made time to make public their priorities, Trahan replied, “That’s not the point. I bet they couldn’t walk a week in my shoes.”
In an e-mail response, Babineaux declined to participate, calling the issues listed “agenda-oriented” and “blatant propaganda.” He added that the list was not a “fair and accurate assessment of realistic expectations” for a superintendent, that many decisions are out of the board’s and the superintendent’s hands, that he strongly opposes charter schools, and that everyone is welcome to participate in the board-sponsored community forums and online surveys.
Starting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Thibodeaux Career and Technical High School, residents are invited to give their take on what they want to see in a new top schools administrator during the first of six public forums to be held at each of the district’s high schools. Click here to complete an online survey from LPSS.
Read more on the board’s search for a super here and here.
For more on the state of Lafayette Parish schools and the significance of a new superintendent, read The Independent’s May 11 editorial, “Help Wanted.”
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.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed