Public session to focus on education reforms

LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette Parish School Board is expected to convene at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at David Thibodaux Magnet STEM Academy, 805 Teurlings Drive for a public training session on new education reforms in Louisiana.

The training session, which will be led by an attorney with Hammond, Sills, Adkins and Guice, will include an overview of Act 1 of the 2012 legislative session. The new law shifts hiring and firing decisions from school boards to superintendents and principals. It also alters employee protection laws.

Some employees fired under the new law recently challenged their terminations claiming their dismissals were related to their performance prior to July 1, when Act 1 took effect.

The School Board settled the lawsuits out of court and allowed the tenured teachers hearings before the board, as allowed prior to Act 1. The law provides a hearing but the panel of administrators that may include the principal.

State Superintendent of Education John White has visited several districts in the past two months to provide an overview of the changes that are part of the state’s comprehensive education improvement plan, “Louisiana Believes.”