OCTOBER 11, 2022                                         

THE VERNON PARISH SCHOOL BOARD CONVENED IN REGULAR SESSION AT 10:00 A.M., 201 BELVIEW ROAD, LEESVILLE, LOUISIANA.  JOHN BLANKENBAKER CALLED THE MEETING TO ORDER AND ON ROLL CALL THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS WERE PRESENT:

Robert Pynes, Jr.

Jim Seaman

Angie Davis

Randy Martin

Shad Stewart

Vernon L. Travis, Jr.

John Blankenbaker

Lisa Thompson

Absent:

Doug Brandon

Steve Woods               

David Detz       

There was also present Mr. James Williams, Secretary of the Board.

The meeting was opened in prayer by:   Vernon L. Travis, Jr.     

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by:                 Vernon L. Travis, Jr.                 

Item #1:            October 6, 2022 Minutes

On motion of Randy Martin, seconded by Jim Seaman, the Board voted to approve the minutes of the October 6, 2022 regular meeting and dispense with the reading of the minutes. 

Item #2:            Retirements       

On motion of Lisa Thompson, seconded by Shad Stewart, the Board voted to accept employee retirements

Item #3:            Amendments related to Personnel Changes

On motion of Jackie Self, seconded by Angie Davis, the Board voted to approve budget amendments related to personnel changes.

Item #4:            Pay the Claims 

On motion of Vernon L. Travis, Jr., seconded by Shad Stewart, the Board voted to authorize the president and secretary to pay the claims.

Item #5:            Leave Without Pay Requests

On motion of Jim Seaman, seconded by Lisa Thompson, the Board voted to approve Leave Without Pay Requests.

Item #6:             VPSB Meeting Dates for 2023

On motion of Angie Davis, seconded by Jackie Self, the Board voted to approve the VPSB meeting dates for 2023.

Item #7:              Contracts

On motion of Shad Stewart, seconded by Jackie Self, the Board voted to approve two (2) year promotional contracts for Assistant Principal positions.

Item #8:            Resolution in Support of the LASS Accountability Proposal

Superintendent explained the purpose of the resolution to the Board. On motion of Jackie Self, seconded by Vernon L. Travis, Jr. the Board voted to approve a Resolution in Support of the LASS Accountability Proposal.  There was a full board vote of

9 yeas

0 nays

0 abstained

Item #9:            Recognition of the 2022 Distinguished Educator

Superintendent Williams presented Lisa Lohman,  Secondary Curriculum Director with an award for achievement as being chosen as the Distinguished Educator 2022.

Ms. Lohman will also be inducted in the Northwestern State University Hall of Fame for Distinguished Educator 2022 on October 21 & 22, 2022 at Northwestern.

Item #10:          Employee of the Month

Jeff Taylor with Taylor & Sons Insurance introduced the Employee of the Month, Linda Blakes employed at Vernon Middle School as a paraprofessional.  Mr. Taylor presented Ms. Blakes with a plaque and talked about her excellent work ethics and how valuable she is in her position at VMS.

Donita Poteat, VMS Principal also spoke to the Board about what an important and helpful employee Ms. Blakes has been and that the staff and students greatly respect Ms. Blakes.

Item #11:          Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting      

Superintendent, James Williams presented the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to Director of Finance, Tim Ward.

Item #12:          Superintendent’s Remarks

Superintendent, James Williams welcomed all to the meeting.  Mr. Williams explained to the Board about the “robo” call sent directly to the Leesville City Police Station about two weeks ago, reporting that there was an active shooter at Leesville High School.  This was a prank call, but the City Police, Sheriff’s Department, and Leesville Fire Department immediately responded and quickly completed all procedures for a serious threat. Students were in lockdown. They did an outstanding job responding for the safety of our students.  Mr. Williams placed the 4 step procedure for serious threats (including social media) in the Board folders.

1.  Notify Child Welfare  Attendance Director and Parents

2.  Determine the credibility of the information

3.  Remove student from school pending hearing with Child Welfare Director.

4.  Notify Law Enforcement

These immediate procedures shall be followed in conjunction with our already existing policy.

Finance Director, Tim Ward also informed the Board concerning the change of interest rate and penalty calculations for sales & use tax per Act 87 (RS 2022.

Mr. Williams thanked the Board for their support and prayers during this time and updated them on procedures being done.

He reminded the Board that 4 weeks from today is election day for Board Members.

Item # 13:                     Memorial Resolutions

On motion of  John Blankenbaker,  seconded by the Board, the Board voted to adopt the following memorial resolution:

R E S O L U T I O N

            WHEREAS, the members of the Vernon Parish School Board wish to express their sympathy to the family of Lloydell I Mullican who recently passed away; and

            WHEREAS, Ms. Mullican was a retired Rosepine Elementary teacher; and

            WHEREAS, the Board would like to acknowledge family members employed by the Vernon Parish School District:  Ms. Mullican’s daughter-in-law is Denise Mullican, former teacher at South Polk Elementary School; and

            WHEREAS, Ms. Mullican was a resident of Beauregard Parish; now

            BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Vernon Parish School Board requests a copy of this memorial resolution be sent to her family at this time of sadness.

Item # 14:           Adjournment

There being no other business the meeting was adjourned.

Authorized Officer

____________________________________________

JOHN BLANKENBAKER, PRESIDENT

ATTEST:

_____________________________________________

JAMES WILLIAMS, SUPERINTENDENT

 MODEL RESOLUTION

SUPPORT OF LASS ACCOUNTABILTY PROPOSAL

A Resolution expressing support for the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents (LASS) proposal to reimagine the Louisiana public school accountability system and urge LA Department of Education State Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley, and the Board of Secondary and Elementary Education (BESE) to adopt their proposal instead of the current proposal presented by the BESE Accountability Working Group in August 2022, and otherwise to provide with respect thereto.

WHEREAS, last year the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education began conducting an Accountability Working Group to propose changes to the public education accountability system;

WHEREAS, those meetings sought and accepted very little input from public education stakeholders such as teachers, superintendents and school boards, but rather focused primarily on the input from the LA Department of Education (LDOE) and a few self-proclaimed education reform organizations, some led by former LDOE staff from the Supt. John White administration;

WHEREAS, the publicly stated goal of the Accountability Working Group was to lower the number of high schools earning letter grades of A or B under the current system that has, in its core principles, been in place since the John White administration;

WHEREAS, the LDOE and the self-proclaimed “reformers” used the mantra that Louisiana high schools and school boards were “gaming the system” to inflate high school letter grades;

WHEREAS, the evidence they cited was: 1. the proportion of A & B high schools was higher than the proportion of A & B elementary schools, and those proportions should be the same; and 2. TOPS bound high school students were also taking career and technical classes and the WorkKeys exam and those students should not be given that choice.

WHEREAS, the result was a proposal that reverse engineered the high school accountability formula to deny points for high school students merely being proficient in high school content and graduating on time;

WHEREAS, the reverse engineered formula was then overly weighted on high school students doing post-secondary (high school) work as the only way for a high school to earn an A;

WHEREAS, the reversed engineered formula would result in only a hand-full of select academic admissions high schools earning an A;

WHEREAS, when BESE undertook the new formula at its August meeting it faced significant push back that the proposal was bad for students, parents, teachers, and communities;

WHEREAS, in response to the opposition, and despite the chiding of the self-proclaimed “reformers” BESE urged the LDOE to go back and seek more input from educators;

WHEREAS, the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents (LASS), with the assistance of the Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA), created a proposal to reimagine and completely rework the defective accountability system, not just for High School but also for Elementary and Middle School;

WHEREAS, the LASS Accountability proposal focuses on student proficiency of grade level content;

WHEREAS, the LASS Accountability proposal uses a pre- and post-test model similar to that being successfully used in Florida, where in students are tested in the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year to evidence how far that individual student grew toward proficiency of that grade level content;

WHEREAS, the LASS Accountability proposal aligns TOPS, WorkKeys and, for the first time ever, ASVAB, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, so that whether High School graduates move on to college or a skilled trade or the military, they will all be considered successful.

WHEREAS, the LASS Accountability proposal uses a simple 100 point grading scale, familiar to students, parents, and the general public instead of the arbitrary 200, 150 and newly proposed 125 point scales that have been the hallmark of the past and current accountability system;

WHEREAS, the LASS Accountability proposal also limits testing to that mandated by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), noting that Louisiana over-tests our students;

WHEREAS, the LASS Accountability proposal also recognizes successes that are ignored in the current and BESE proposed system: Special Education students learning the basic life and commercial skills that will allow them to enter the workplace, students who continue to strive and earn their high school diploma beyond the expected 4-year window;

WHEREAS, the LASS Accountability proposal has resisted running simulations to see what the letter grade distribution would be, as the system was designed to focus on student achievement and not to reverse engineer a result.

THEREFORE, the [INSERT] School Board does hereby endorse and express its support for the LASS Accountability proposal;

FURTHER, the [INSERT] School Board urges the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to set the discussion and consideration of the LASS Accountability proposal on the October agenda of the BESE Academic Goals and Instructional Improvement Committee and the full BESE meeting set for October 10 and 11, 2022, respectively.

FURTHER, the [INSERT] School Board urges the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and specifically BESE Member [INSERT LOCAL MEMBER], to support the adoption of the LASS Accountability proposal and take such actions as are necessary to move toward implementation of the proposal.

FINALLY, the [INSERT] School Board directs the Superintendent of the [INSERT] School System to deliver a certified copy of this Resolution to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, each elected and appointed member thereof, Superintendent Cade Brumley, Governor John Bel Edwards, Senator Cleo Fields, Representative Lance Harris, and each member of the Legislative delegation of [INSERT] Parish.