• Approved the item recommended by the Department of Education
• Lafayette Academy - amendment for an annex site
• NET Charter HS - amendment for larger enrollment and change in school days
• Read details here  

• Received a verbal status report from RSD administrators
• Opening for August: Bienville, Osborne, Woodson, Parkview and Crocker
• Ready in the middle of the Fall: Fannie C. Williams
• Ready in January: Little Woods, Colton, and Frantz
• Starting construction soon: Carver HS and Wheatley
• In design: 8 schools
• Modular campuses being used for swing space: 9 sites
• Received a written report report covering all OPSB & RSD projects
• Active major projects underway: 66
• Demolitions: 5
• Major constructions/renovations: 20
• Stabilizations: 32
• Mothballing: 9
• Current open contracts: $417 million
• Completed projects
• Total: 98
• Changes: net less than 2.5%
• Monthly progress report through April 2012 can be read here
• Quarterly detailed status report through March 2012 on projects and project budgets can be read here

• Received a report on the Early Head Start Program in Orleans
• Recognized Advisory Council members

Additional Item

 

• Heard a delegation of parent advocates with concerns expressed by several parents from transitional high schools currently occupied by two programs each:
• Direct run high school program being phased out by losing one grade a year beginning with no longer accepting entering 9th graders, and
• Take-over charter programs being phased in one grade a year starting with entering 9th graders.
• Concerns expressed included the following:
• Accountability - how are takeover charters being held accountable
• Suspensions - students afraid of being suspended for minor offenses such as not wearing a belt, chewing gum, etc.
• Athletics - different teams in one school building for same sports
• "Segregation" - not racial but other barriers (verbal or regulatory) keeping students apart, even siblings, between the two schools
• Equity - different standards of field trips, equipment, etc. for joint occupants
• Faculty - teachers from different schools are kept apart, thus beginning teachers cannot benefit from veterans  
• Cultural - some charters have school cultures that do not fit community culture, for example a younger grade girl in charter school was not allowed to get a pencil from her older sibling in the direct-run school because the students were kept separate
• Superintendent Patrick Dobard responded to each item of concern
• Transitions are going well, but some tweaking is needed
• Transitions have been going on for two years, so they are halfway complete
• Summer is a good time for tweaking, and the parents are invited to participate
• Parents can help a lot with the cultural issues by helping to build new school climates
• Charters are being held accountable by RSD and BESE and will be replaced if they fail to meet their periodic goals, which is better than the past when failing schools continued to fail without being addressed
• The new centralized Hearing Office will provide due process for all expulsions
• Out-of-school suspensions are being addressed by RSD with the charters, and new alternatives to handling discipline problems are being discussed
• RSD is petitioning athletic officials to allow dual co-located schools to field joint athletic teams 
• Equity will be a focus of the RSD