Inside Report for December 6, 2011
Committee sketching out future of EBR school system
A citizen-led committee, although not yet finished working, has already sketched out some far-reaching ideas about how to change the East Baton Rouge Parish school system.
The committee, which began meeting in May, has yet to sign off on a final draft. That final work will form the basis of a new strategic plan for the school system, replacing one originally developed in 2005 and revised in 2008.
The Committee for Educational Excellence — it includes 28 community members and five School Board members — released the latest draft of its work on Oct. 27.
It’s an 11-page document that includes the work of five of the six subcommittees that were put to work tackling different issues. A final, critical subcommittee called “Academic Expectations” released a draft of its work in August, but nothing since.
Here are a few of the draft recommendations from the Committee for Educational Excellence:
- Give principals control of their school budgets through an “adaptive dollar per-student formula.”
- Seek bids from private companies and “intergovernmental collaborations” for “nonstudent based services.”
- Recruit new teachers only from preparation programs with track records of improving student achievement.
- Conduct a study to get a better understanding of accessibility and the quality of pre-K centers in Baton Rouge, both public and private.
- Publish frequent “community-friendly” report cards that measure progress toward achieving “key performance results” and that also compare the school system to “comparable districts.”
Some of the draft recommendations are more modest. For instance, one idea is to update the school system’s website to include more information on parental involvement.
Student safety, a prominent part of the 2005 strategic plan, has gotten less attention so far.
One student safety idea is to create a “student bill of rights” defining which school personnel will address “any student concern or behavior issue (real or perceived)” and do so within “24 hours.” Another is to publish two or more times a year a “school climate score.”
Several recommendations direct the school system to create things it’s already doing. For instance, every school is directed to establish a “Positive Behavior Intervention Support” system. PBIS is required now at all public schools in Louisiana.
Another calls for an annual “Pre-K Round-Up Open House.” The school system does just such a roundup every spring and includes kindergarten in the effort as well.
Other suggestions are being implemented, including a call for the school system to create a nonprofit foundation to pursue “additional resources to the system,” or are being discussed, namely, “an independent, comprehensive cost reduction study.”
To keep up with the latest on the strategic plan rewrite go to: http://news.ebrschools.org/explore.cfm/ebrstrategicplan/
Charles Lussier covers education in East Baton Rouge Parish for The Advocate. He can be reached at clussier@theadvocate.com.