The American School Board Journal has announced that the St. Tammany Parish Public School System was recently selected as the grand prize winner in the publication’s 16th annual Magna Awards program. The recognition came as a result of the School System’s successful Energy Management Program, in a presentation entitled “A Win-Win Formula: Curriculum Funding and Energy Management.”

Chosen for the honor from among school districts with over 20,000 students, St. Tammany will receive $4,000 in scholarship money during a special presentation at the National School Boards Association’s annual conference in Chicago in early April.

The Magna Awards recognize districts across the country for outstanding programs that advance student learning and encourage community involvement in schools.

In 2006, when faced with rapidly-escalating energy costs, the School Board established a comprehensive energy management program with the goal of reducing energy usage 10 percent district-wide. After launching an awareness campaign, partnering with the Environmental Protection Agency to identify areas of further progress and creating a departmental energy management team, District schools have reduced energy usage by 20 percent. The energy costs avoided resulted in more funds for instructional purposes.

“I am so pleased that the St. Tammany Parish School Board is being recognized for its strong support of the Energy Stars program. This award highlights the hard work and dedication that have led to energy cost avoidance of more than five million dollars for our School System” said Superintendent Gayle Sloan.

Marilee Rist, the publisher of the American School Board Journal and an associate executive director of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), explained, “As school districts face unprecedented financial challenges, the Magna Awards are an opportunity to showcase innovation and the bold steps that school leaders take every day. This year’s entries reflect the hard work of school boards, superintendents, and staffs who strive to meet their communities’ changing needs in creative and innovative ways.”

American School Board Journal initiated the Magna Awards in 1995 to recognize school boards for taking bold and innovative steps to improve their educational programs. An independent panel of school board members, administrators, and other educators selected winners from more than 330 submissions. This year’s applicants came from more than 40 states plus Canada and the Mariana Islands.

The 2010 winners are highlighted in a supplement to the April issue of ASBJ and will be formally recognized on Monday, April 12, at the School Leaders Luncheon which is part of NSBA’s 70th Annual Conference.

Each year students and faculty look forward to the Easter/Spring Break, and a variety of programs are held on the last day of school before the week-long vacation. The fun events range from Easter eggs hunts to community service projects.

Mandeville High held its Annual Egg Drop Day on Friday, March 26, and Chahta-Ima Elementary celebrated with PBS (Positive Behavior Support) Fun Friday, complete with Spring parties and the PTA birthday recognition program. The students at Little Pearl Elementary School held their “Buddies Breakfast” that day as well.

Over at Fontainebleau High, the “Bulldog Buddies” organization enjoyed its big annual outdoor event with a gathering near the football field. It was a beautiful Spring day, highlighted by a pizza lunch followed by an Easter egg hunt. Several dozen students took part.

The Bulldog Buddies group at Fontainebleau encourages friendships with students who have disabilities, the mission being to integrate students with special needs into school activities and the community. Through the buddy process, students are paired up and stay in contact through emails, phone calls, handwritten notes and personal visits.

During the year, the group holds tailgate parties, a Sweetheart social, a Fall Festival, bowling parties, and is involved with the local Special Olympics. Other events include the Spring Scavenger Hunt and a Senior “Send Off” party complete with scrapbooks and a slide show. For Christmas, the organization sent gift packages to soldiers in Iraq, and members are becoming involved in a community effort to build an assisted living and vocational center for citizens with special needs.

The Bulldog Buddies has grown from an informal group of ten members three years ago to a current membership of over 100 students. Members include students with Down Syndrome, cheerleaders, band members, students with Autism, football and basketball players, theater students, students with multiple handicaps, soccer players, Junior ROTC members, students with epilepsy, student council members, and students with hearing and visual impairments. The motto of the group is “Friendship Beyond Differences,” and at the Easter Egg hunt many members were wearing shirts with the motto printed on them in bright colors.

The group exemplifies many characteristics of good citizenship, said Club Sponsor Monique Hebert, including respect, responsibility, and trustworthiness. “Students are given the opportunity to practice compassion, patience, and acceptance of those with special needs on a daily basis,” she said. “Club members are acting as ambassadors for the message that all students deserve friendships and inclusion to social events and activities.”

The impact of the Bulldog Buddies is spreading throughout the student body, Ms. Hebert noted.

Spring registration for the 2010-2011 school year will begin April 19, 2010, for students entering kindergarten and first grade for the first time in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System.

Any child born before October 1, 2004, will be eligible for the first grade, and any child born before October 1, 2005, will be eligible for kindergarten.

Registration for the 2010-2011 pre-kindergarten classes will be held later, with specific registration dates and times to be announced for each school in local newspapers and on the School System Web site.

Every child, as a prerequisite to enrollment in any first grade of a public school, shall meet one of the following criteria: have attended a full-day public or private kindergarten for a full academic year; or have satisfactorily passed academic readiness screening at the time of enrollment for first grade. Students who have completed kindergarten at an accredited private school must furnish proof of attendance.

Registration for kindergarten and first grade students entering the St. Tammany Parish public schools for the first time will be held at the school the student will attend.  Students who attended and completed a public school kindergarten during the 2009-2010 school year will not be required to register again for the first grade.

Hours of registration will be 9:00 a.m. until noon at the following locations.

REGISTRATION SCHEDULE

 Monday, April 19, 2010  

Cypress Cove Elementary 
 Folsom Elementary 
 Whispering Forest Elementary 
 Woodlake Elementary 

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Abita Springs Elementary  
Bonne Ecole Elementary
Brock Elementary
Florida Avenue Elementary 
Little Pearl Elementary 
Lyon Elementary 
Madisonville Elementary
Mandeville Elementary 
Marigny Elementary
Pontchartrain Elementary
Riverside Elementary

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Abney Elementary
Alton Elementary 
Bayou Woods Elementary 
Chahta-Ima Elementary 
Covington Elementary 
Fifth Ward Junior High
Lee Road Junior High 
Sixth Ward Elementary 

The following items are required for student registration:

1.  State Certified Birth Certificate;
2.  Health Record of Required Immunization;
3.  Proof of Residency;
4.  Social Security Card;
5.  Custody Papers (if applicable).

State Certified Birth Certificate:   Those who do not have a birth certificate may contact a St. Tammany Parish School Board Annex in their area for information on how to obtain one.  Contact the Covington Annex at 985-898-3370 or the Slidell Annex at 985-646-4917.Health Record:  State Law requires that all children attending school in the State of Louisiana have the following immunizations.  This requirement includes students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12.  Included are students who are coming into the St. Tammany Parish Public School System from another parish, state or nonpublic school.

 1. DTP  (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis or Whooping Cough) – A minimum of four (4) doses is required.  The last DTP or a booster is to be given after the fourth birthday.   

2. Polio – A minimum of three (3) doses is required.  The last polio or booster is to be given after the fourth birthday.

3. MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) - One (1) dose is required at twelve to fifteen months of age.  A second MMR is required before entry to school.

4. Hepatitis B – Three (3) doses are required for first time enrollees into Louisiana public schools.

5. HIB – Four (4) doses or proof of at least one dose after fifteen (15) months of age are required for pre-kindergarten and noncategorical students to enter school.

6. Varicella (Chickenpox) – Two (2) doses or a history of the disease is required for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

7. MCV4 (Meningococcal Conjugate) – Required for all students entering grade 6 or eleven (11) years old in any other grade.  These students must also have proof of booster doses of Tdap and Chickenpox.

Dates of the above required immunizations must be recorded on an official immunization form and presented to the school at the time of registration.  Contact the Slidell Health Unit at (985) 646-6445, the Covington Community Wellness Center at (985) 871-6030 or the Greater New Orleans (GNO) Immunization Network Mobile Unit at (504) 733-3268 for immunization information.The immunization policy of the St. Tammany Parish School Board dictates that no child be allowed to enter school without proof of immunizations.Proof of Residency:  Proof of residency must be established using at least three of the documents listed below.  Documents that are suspect or inconclusive may be disallowed and additional documentation may be required.  All documents must be the most current available.     

Documentation may consist of a current utility bill (butane, electric, gas, water, cable or satellite), the current year W-2 form, the most recent federal or state income tax return, a vehicle insurance print-out from the parent’s or legal guardian’s insurance company, a signed residential building contract, a signed real estate lease agreement or signed mortgage loan documentation. 
 
All documents must show the name of the parent or legal guardian, the street or road address of residence or the utility service address (if using utility bills).  Lease agreements must show street or road location and must be from a real estate office, apartment complex or mobile home property, not from an individual.
             
U.  S. Post Office box numbers, printed checks or drivers’ licenses are NOT considered proof of residency.
 
Social Security Card:  The Social Security number serves as the student’s identification number on all records.  The Social Security number written on a piece of paper cannot be accepted. 
 
Custody Papers:  Parents or guardians granted custodial rights of a student must present at registration the custody papers granted through a court system.

A variety of summer camps will be offered at selected St. Tammany Parish Public Schools starting in June, and a new web page listing many of those has been added to this web site.

Some camps will focus on specific areas of interest, while others will offer general activities and enrichment programs. Information on other camps will be added as it becomes available. The web page listing may not be complete, therefore students and parents may wish to contact their schools for additional summer camp opportunities.

The new web page is located at http://www.stpsb.org/SummerCamps/summercamps.htm.

A week-long break for St. Tammany Parish Public School students began on Monday, March 29.  Students will not be attending school through Monday, April 5. Classes resume on April 6.

School Board support offices will be closed Friday, April 2, and Monday, April 5, and will re-open on April 6.

The St. Tammany Parish School Board adopted the Calendar for the 2010-2011 School Year Thursday night, after a vote by employees between two proposed calendars.

The school calendar for the next school year is available here in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view the file.

On the new calendar, school opens on Monday, August 9, and the first semester ends before the Winter/Christmas break. The last day of school is on Friday, May 20, 2011.

Election Day on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, is a holiday since many schools are used as polling places.

Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Pete Jabbia reported to the Board that after a committee had narrowed down suggested calendars to two versions, they were sent out for a vote. A total of 3215 employees responded to the survey, with 87 percent voting for the winning calendar.

The only differences between the two were the number of holidays in Mardi Gras week. The adopted calendar gives five days off, where the rejected calendar gave three days off.

Hundreds of St. Tammany Parish Public School students took part in an innovative learning program in March that taught them how to figure household finances and budget their monthly income and expenses.

The Capital One/Junior Achievement Finance Park returned to Slidell Junior High for the second year, offering a mobile learning lab where eighth graders from across the parish participated in a simulation of day-to-day living by becoming aware of the costs of housing, furniture, and utilities, while making sometimes difficult choices on cars, entertainment, and investments.

The students attended four and a half hour sessions where they learned the challenges of balancing income with expenses, keeping calculators busy as they tracked their household budgets. Volunteers from Capital One Bank helped them as they worked through the exercise. From 50 to 150 students were brought in by bus each day for the event.

Developed by Junior Achievement and sponsored by Capital One, the Finance Park uses state-of-the-art simulation technology arranged in separate work stations to introduce students to different aspects of budgeting, credit and spending choices. Essentially, they became “adults for a day,” having to learn how to make ends meet.

Among the junior highs participating were Clearwood Junior High, Creekside Junior High, Fifth Ward Junior High, Folsom Junior High, Lee Road Junior High, Pitcher Junior High, Slidell Junior High, and St. Tammany Junior High.

The students’ visit to the Finance Park was preceded at the schools by specialized curriculum instruction provided by Junior Achievement so teachers could lead up to the schools’ participation at the event.

The Park session assigns various tasks for the student to complete, emphasizing careful record-keeping along the way. A sample check register is included in the package given each student. 

When the students first arrived, they were assigned a “life situation” that guided their spending decisions. As a result, some students portrayed adults who were single with good jobs, and others wound up budgeting finances from a middle income job with a spouse and three kids. The students were also introduced to the steps of borrowing money for a home improvement project, and since they didn't have the cash for it, they had to figure out the monthly payment plan for the credit to go forward with the project.

Also pointed out were the dangers of credit cards for those who may not know how to handle them.

Worksheets on each household expense helped students understand the options available for each living expense, from health care to tv cable service to utilities. The health care options got as complicated as they are in real life, in-network, out-of-network, deductibles, service levels and prescription drug benefits. The dining out options offered prices for different appetizers, sandwiches, entrees and desserts. The entertainment options ranged from movie theaters to athletic contests and from golf to festivals. Each choice affected the student’s household budget and how much money, if any, they had left at the "end of the month."

Overall, the Finance Park helped students “get the message” about financial responsibility. After the Finance Park experience, many parents and teachers reported that the students are very affected by what they have learned. Afterwards, students were heard talking among themselves about how the variety of household expenses cost different amounts for different families.

“It was truly a meaningful learning activity,” one principal said. “They discover how difficult it can be when you only have a certain amount of money to spend. I heard one student say that he can now better understand his mother when she says she doesn’t have the money to spend on some items.“

The Finance Park was set up in the old gymnasium at Slidell Junior High. The equipment will now travel to other parts of the country for use in different school systems where local sponsors are available.

On March 24, four directors of non-profit organizations from Kazakhstan were scheduled to tour the Finance Park learning lab to see how the project works and to observe students participating in the educational activity. According to the local Junior Achievement Director of Education, by showcasing this effort the Citizen Diplomacy Council aimed to help the foreign visitors learn more about the successful management of organizations that provide youth services and to exchange ideas about best practices in the field.

The School Board renamed the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville in honor of the late David C. Treen on Thursday, March 18. Members of the Treen family attended the special ceremony, as well as many area visitors, School  System administrators, supervisors, and children from Woodlake Elementary School.

Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse emceed the event, and Superintendent Gayle Sloan and Supervisor of Technology Julie Matte gave an overview of the history of the location. A video by Channel 13 portrayed Treen's life and accomplishments, and his grandson Jason Neville voiced the family's appreciation for the honor.

Governor of Louisiana between 1980 and 1984 and a resident of the Mandeville area for many years, Treen died last October. The Board voted in November to honor him for his service to the state and community and his many contributions to public education.

He was instrumental in establishing the state's Professional Improvement Program for teachers, which gave thousands of teachers additional incentives to take part in professional development activities. Almost 77 percent of Louisiana’s teachers took the opportunity to enhance their teaching capabilities. Treen also helped establish the Louisiana School For Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches. In addition, Treen served as a Congressman between 1973 and 1980.

After leaving the governor’s office, Treen was a frequent visitor to St. Tammany schools and worked with other governors to maintain educational funding in the state. The Board acknowledged that the entire Northshore community benefitted from Treen’s personal involvement over the years, and he left a legacy of public service locally as well as across the state.

The Instructional Technology Center, located at 2024 Livingston Street in Mandeville, is a 24,000-square-foot office and instructional building that houses approximately 20 full-time employees. The facility contains four computer training labs, a professional development center, a distance learning classroom (with satellite, internet, cable TV, and compressed video conferencing), a cable television station, a conference center, and administrative offices and workspaces.

Each year, the St. Tammany Parish School Board's (STPSB's) Instructional Technology Center hosts over 450 educational and professional development workshops for more than 15,000 students, teachers, administrators, and school staff members. 

The facility is one of the first four Teaching, Learning, and Technology Centers (TLTC) established in the state in December of 1998. As a TLTC, the tech center serves as an extension of the Division of Leadership and Technology and provides technology training services to educators in 11 surrounding parishes as well as three city school districts.

The site of the David C. Treen Instructional Technology Center was the original location of Mandeville High School, and today’s auditorium was the gymnasium in the early days. The current building was constructed in 1986 as an elementary school and kindergarten center. It was renovated in 2001 to its current configuration as the Instructional Technology Center.

In 2005, the complex joined the EPA's ENERGY STAR program and is known for its outstanding energy management program and for showcasing the tools and resources necessary to achieve superior energy performance in the district's 69 school campuses and administrative buildings.

An eighth grade student from Mandeville Junior High School has been named Louisiana State Student of the Year for the Middle School/Junior High School Level.

Aaron Zachary Reed, 14, won District Student of the Year honors earlier this year, then moved up to become a Regional Student of the Year. On March 17, in a special State Department of Education ceremony at the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge, he was chosen as Louisiana’s top student in the Grades 6 through 8 category.

Reed is a member of several clubs at his school, the student council and honor society,  as well as a drum major. He is also active in area sports and musical performances with the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, particularly jazz piano. A native of Baton Rouge, he and his family moved to Mandeville in 2002.

“We are always proud to have our students do well in their endeavors, but we are especially pleased to have Aaron named Student of the Year for the entire state,” said Gayle Sloan, Superintendent. “He has shown that persistence in academic studies, willingness to lend a hand in community service projects, and dedication to developing his outstanding musical talents can be very rewarding.”

Principal Mary Ann Cucchiara congratulated Reed for his selection and said he was an outstanding student, always going above and beyond whatever is expected. “He is a true asset to our school, volunteering when extra help is needed,” she said. His social studies teacher Karen Griggs said he was an amazing young man in many ways, not only excelling academically and musically, but a leader who is well-liked and respected by his teachers and fellow students.

Student of the Year participants competed at the school, district and regional level,  judged on several criteria, including academic achievement, leadership skills, character and service to their schools and communities. Prior to selecting the three state winners, the state selection committee conducted interviews Wednesday, as well reviewed writing samples from each of the finalists.

All public schools, including charter schools, as well as approved non-public schools, were asked to submit one candidate from their student body.

The New Orleans Hornets professional basketball team will celebrate Friday, April 9, as “St. Tammany Parish School Night at the Hive,” an annual event in which several activities are planned involving St. Tammany Parish public school students and teachers.

The Hornets will play the Utah Jazz that night beginning at 7:00 p.m. with a number of audience-participation contests scheduled at the New Orleans Arena. Activities include the ROTC flag presentation and opportunities to serve as high five kids, tunnel kids, and ball boys.For more information, call 504-593-4741.

The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) tests are scheduled to be administered by the St. Tammany Parish Public School System to students in grades 4 and 8 in two sessions, the first phase being given on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, and the second phase scheduled for Monday, April 12, and Tuesday, April 13, 2010.

Parents are reminded that if a student DOES NOT participate in Phase 1, then he/she must wait until summer to take the LEAP assessment allowing only one opportunity for the student to pass.

Students whose parents currently reside in Louisiana and who wish to enroll in St. Tammany Parish public schools in the fifth or ninth grades for the 2010-2011 school year must have passed the fourth and/or eighth grade LEAP test. 

According to the LEAP High Stakes Testing Policy, a student may not be promoted to the 5th or 9th grade until he/she has scored at or above the Basic achievement level on either the English Language Arts or Mathematics component on the 4th or 8th grade of LEAP and at the Approaching Basic achievement level on the other; officially referred to as the Basic/Approaching Basic combination. 

The LEAP High Stakes Testing Policy can be found on the Louisiana Department of Education website at www.louisianaschools.net.

Parents of Home Study and nonpublic school students may request LEAP testing for their children according to the following procedures: (1) Requests for applications for testing are to be made no later than March 1, 2010; (2) Applications must be returned for processing by March 12, 2010; and (3) All testing will take place at a parish school site.

Administration of these tests for Home Study and nonpublic school students will follow the same instructions and conditions as provided public school students. Make-up tests, other than what is provided for public school students, cannot be given if a test appointment is missed.

As provided by state regulations, a fee of $35 will be charged for each test.  Checks should be paid to the order of “St. Tammany Parish Schools” and must accompany the returned application.  This fee is refundable when the Home Study or nonpublic school students begin attendance in St. Tammany public schools.
    
Home Study students, at the discretion of parents, also may take the iLEAP test during spring testing.  This test will be given the week of April 12- 16, 2010.

Parents must contact the district test coordinator to register.  For further details or for an application, call 898-6481. An Adobe Acrobat PDF file of the application is available for download by clicking here.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan has announced her intention to retire at the end of the current school year.  In a letter to the School Board members, Sloan expressed her desire to step down effective June 30, 2010.

“Serving as Superintendent for St. Tammany’s public schools has been a privilege for me, as I grew up here, graduated from one of our fine public high schools, lived almost my entire life in this community, and came up through the ranks of dedicated employees.  This has been much more than a job to me.  It has been a labor of love,” Sloan said in her letter.  “It is time for me to move on to the next opportunity in my life and maybe slow down a little bit,” she told School Board Members.

Sloan graduated from Mandeville High School before attending Louisiana State University, where she earned her teaching degree.  Her first eight years as a teacher were spent in the Jefferson Parish Public Schools, before returning home to work briefly at Chahta-Ima Elementary School and then Mandeville Middle School, where she served as a classroom teacher, Resource Helping Teacher, Assistant Principal and Principal before moving to the Central Office.  Mrs. Sloan was an instructional supervisor, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, and became Superintendent in 2003, following the death of former Superintendent Leonard P. Monteleone.

School Board President John Lamarque expressed the Board’s high regard for Mrs. Sloan and the job she has done of moving the School System forward during the last several years.  “The Board has great respect and trust for Mrs. Sloan and realizes how fortunate our School System has been to have had her at the helm during some challenging times that required critical decisions.”

The announcement comes the week after the School System’s successful completion of a district wide accreditation review in which the visiting committee specifically pointed to the strong leadership and vision of the Superintendent as a major reason for the significant progress of the School System during the last five years since the original accreditation review recommended the School System to become one of the first school systems in the nation to receive district wide accreditation. 

The School Board President will work with the administration and Board members to complete the necessary steps to advertise the vacancy, accept applications, and complete the appointment process so that a new Superintendent will be in place in time to prepare for the 2010-2011 school year.

Public school students in St. Tammany Parish did not report to school on Friday, March 12, to allow a day for teachers to finish record-keeping duties for the end of the third grading period and take part in various in-service professional development workshops.

The third grading period for the 2009-2010 School Year ended Thursday, following a week of exams for students in the higher grades.

Classes will resume on Monday, March 15.

The third public meeting by a special committee setting up an attendance district for the new Henry Mayfield Elementary School will take place on Tuesday, March 16, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Bayou Woods Elementary in Slidell.

Participants will be able to discuss four proposed attendance district maps now under consideration. While Map 3 was favored by many at the second meeting of the group, the committee was asked to add a fourth map to take in both sides of Airport Road north of Interstate 12 so across the street neighbors can to go to the same school.

All four maps may be reviewed onthis web page. Information on student demographics for each map is also included.  Copies of the maps are also on display in the lobby of the School Board Central Office in Covington and at Bayou Woods Elementary School and Carolyn Park Middle School. Parents, teachers, and administrators have been reviewing the existing attendance boundaries of both of those schools to determine the most appropriate area for the new school to serve.

The new school, located on U. S. 190 between Lacombe and Slidell, will serve the western portion of the existing attendance district of the two schools above. Construction on the school began last year, and the facility will not be ready until the 2011-2012 School Year. The school is scheduled to serve kindergarten through sixth grade.
 
The 11-member committee hopes to come to the School Board sometime this Spring with a recommended attendance area for the new school. The Board will make the final decision. To comment on the issue or any of the proposed maps, click here to send an email to the committee.

The decision to name the school in honor of Henry L. Mayfield was made by the School Board following a request from several retired educators.

The School System’s Energy Management Program continues to earn recognition from national and state agencies for reducing energy usage.

Dr. John Swang, director of the program, reported this month that the School System had reduced its energy usage by more than 20 percent, leading to an energy cost avoidance of $5,375,487 over the past five years, and earning additional accolades from the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. The latest is called the “Leaders 20% Improvement” designation.

“We’ve had a very successful year,” Dr. Swang said. The School System received three national awards in the past year, the “Energy Milestone Award” from SEE (Schools for Energy Efficiency), an Energy Star-Leader Certificate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and an Energy Star Label for the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville.

In the first year of the effort, the School System saved seven percent on its energy usage. In 2008, that went to 15 percent, then to 19 percent in 2009, and wound up at 20 percent this year.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s distinguished ENERGY STAR Label went to the Tech Center for the School System’s efforts to protect the environment through superior energy performance. The Tech Center was the first school district facility in the State of Louisiana to receive the designation, Dr. Swang stated.

Gayle Sloan, Schools Superintendent, said, “We are committed to creating an energy efficient environment. Through this project we have lowered our overall energy costs and this benefits our entire School System.”

The EPA awarded the School System the Energy Star-Leader Award for its leadership in improving its average energy performance rating and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through superior energy management. “We were the first School District in the State of Louisiana to receive this honor, and one of only 42 school districts in the entire nation so designated,” Dr. Swang reported.

In 2008, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources awarded the School Board its Environmental Stewardship Award, in recognition of outstanding leadership in adopting and implementing energy efficiency measures. The award certificate states that students and faculty will enjoy the benefits of the School Board’s fiscally-prudent and environmentally beneficial energy management practices in protecting the environment, managing natural resources and benefitting the community.

Dr. Swang commended the students, teachers and staff throughout the parish for changing behavior patterns and taking part in the effort to turn off unneeded lights, switching off computers and monitors when not in use, and overall thermostat monitoring to save energy.

The St. Tammany Parish School Board implemented its Energy Management Program in December 2005, emphasizing energy-saving strategies that sought to raise awareness through employee training. In addition to asking staff and students to turn off electrical equipment when not in use, the School System also optimized the maintenance of all electrical equipment to ensure efficient performance. Savings are expected to increase as more schools have NOVAR control systems installed.

An energy conservation website was launched last year by the department, offering a variety of information on how to save money through energy management, changes in routine behavior, and appropriate technology. The program also helped schools save thousands of dollars by monitoring energy charges for possible errors in utility billing.

Each school is provided with a “customized energy management plan” which suggests improvements based on specific site characteristics.

In November of 2008, The Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) honored Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse with a Capital One Bank Keller Award for Innovation, which recognizes persons who have used innovative solutions to solve pressing problems. Superintendent Gayle Sloan commented that Mr. Folse had provided strong vision and leadership in developing the energy conservation program.

The committee setting up an attendance district for the new Henry Mayfield Elementary School met March 16 and voted that Proposed Boundary Map Three be recommended for School Board adoption.

In the past two months, the group has held three public meetings at Bayou Woods Elementary in Slidell. After reviewing four proposed attendance district maps, the group agreed that the new school, located on U. S. 190 between Lacombe and Slidell, should serve the attendance areas of Bayou Woods and Carolyn Park Middle Schools as drawn in Map 3.

Parents attending the meetings discussed various concerns and were provided with detailed student demographic information for each map of the four maps proposed.  Copies of the maps were on display in the lobby of the School Board Central Office in Covington and at Bayou Woods Elementary School and Carolyn Park Middle School.

The School Board will consider the recommended attendance map at its April 8 Committee As A Whole meeting. It will have the final vote on the boundary map chosen.

The committee also voted March 16 to start the school off as preKindergarten through 5th grade and then add 6th grade the following year.

Construction on the school began last year, and the facility will not be ready until the 2011-2012 School Year. The school is scheduled to serve kindergarten through sixth grade.
 
The decision to name the school in honor of Henry L. Mayfield was made by the School Board following a request from several retired educators.

Talented Arts Program Theatre student Maria Hefte' placed first in the Louisiana State Poetry Out Loud Competition held in Baton Rouge March 6.  A sophomore at Covington High School, she won $200 and an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. in late April to compete in the National Competition.
She also will receive a $500 stipend for the Covington High School library to purchase poetry books. 

The National Championship will be held at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium in Washington with semifinal rounds April 26 and finals being held April 27.  The National Finals will award $50,000 in prizes and school stipends. The national poetry recitation contest was created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Ms. Hefte’s Talented Art Program Theater Teacher at Covington High School is Gary Mendoza, who worked with Gifted English Teacher Eugenie Martin on helping her get ready for the contest.  Mendoza said, “This competition has been an interesting experience for our students. All of my theatre kids as well as all of Mrs. Martin’s gifted English students had to participate. It became more difficult than we all thought it would be, especially for my theatre students. They had to act without acting, which is much trickier than it sounds. Maria has worked extremely hard on this.”

Of the three St. Tammany students chosen February 9 at Mandeville High School to represent the parish at the state level, two were chosen in the top six finalists for the state. St. Tammany TAP theatre student Stanley Ameriski of Salmen High School was in the semi finals, and Jade Grantham of Covington High advanced to the final round of six in the competition.

Ms. Martin is also Grantham’s Gifted English Teacher, and Meghan Shea is Ameriski’s Talented Theater Teacher at Salmen High.  

The Poetry Out Loud competition is designed to help students build public speaking skills, self confidence and foster the appreciation of poetry as both literature and art. The program encourages young people to learn about great poetry and promotes poetry in both the classroom and the community.

Eighteen high school students from throughout the St. Tammany Parish Public School System took part in the St. Tammany Parish Poetry Out Loud Competition sponsored by the St. Tammany Parish Commission on Cultural Affairs.

The School Board will rename the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville in honor of the late David C. Treen in ceremonies on Thursday, March 18. The program begins at 10:00 a.m., and the public is invited to attend.

Governor of Louisiana between 1980 and 1984 and a resident of the Mandeville area for many years, Treen died last October. The Board voted in November to honor him for his service to the state and community and his many contributions to public education.

He was instrumental in establishing the state's Professional Improvement Program for teachers, which gave thousands of teachers additional incentives to take part in professional development activities. Almost 77 percent of Louisiana’s teachers took the opportunity to enhance their teaching capabilities. Treen also helped establish the Louisiana School For Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches. In addition, Treen served as a Congressman between 1973 and 1980.

After leaving the governor’s office, Treen was a frequent visitor to St. Tammany schools and worked with other governors to maintain educational funding in the state. The Board acknowledged that the entire Northshore community benefitted from Treen’s personal involvement over the years, and he left a legacy of public service locally as well as across the state.

The Instructional Technology Center, located at 2024 Livingston Street in Mandeville, is a 24,000-square-foot office and instructional building that houses approximately 20 full-time employees. The facility contains four computer training labs, a professional development center, a distance learning classroom (with satellite, internet, cable TV, and compressed video conferencing), a cable television station, a conference center, and administrative offices and workspaces.

Each year, the St. Tammany Parish School Board's (STPSB's) Instructional Technology Center hosts over 450 educational and professional development workshops for more than 15,000 students, teachers, administrators, and school staff members. 

The facility is one of four Teaching, Learning, and Technology Centers (TLTC) established in the state in December of 1998. As a TLTC, the tech center serves as an extension of the Division of Leadership and Technology and provides technology training services to educators in 11 surrounding parishes as well as three city school districts.

The site of the David C. Treen Instructional Technology Center was the original location of Mandeville High School, and today’s auditorium was the gymnasium in the early days. The current building was constructed in 1986 as an elementary school and kindergarten center. It was renovated in 2001 to its current configuration as the Instructional Technology Center.

In 2005, the complex joined the EPA's ENERGY STAR program and is known for its outstanding energy management program and for showcasing the tools and resources necessary to achieve superior energy performance in the district's 69 school campuses and administrative buildings.

Public school students in St. Tammany Parish will not report to school on Friday, March 12, to allow a day for teachers to finish record-keeping duties for the end of the third grading period and take part in various in-service professional development workshops.

The third grading period for the 2009-2010 School Year ends Thursday, following a week of exams for students in the higher grades.

Classes will resume on Monday, March 15.

A public hearing to review proposed changes to next year's Pupil Progression Plan will be held on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. at Boyet Junior High School in Slidell. A committee of school administrators, teachers, and parents meets annually to review the plan and submit recommendations to the School Board for consideration.

The plan establishes placement, promotion, retention, and grading policies for students within the St. Tammany Parish Public School System.

Administrators will meet on March 10 to give their input and ideas, and the Pupil Progression Plan Advisory Committee will meet on March 17 for discussion of any changes proposed by the administrators. Following the Public Input meeting on April 6, the proposed Plan will be presented to the St. Tammany Parish School Board for its consideration at the June 3, 2010, Committee As A Whole meeting and again at the June 10, 2010, School Board meeting at the C.J. Schoen Administrative Complex in Covington.

At a special School Board meeting Wednesday afternoon, the School System learned that continued District Accreditation for the School System would be recommended by a team of experts from the AdvancED accreditation organization.

For the previous three days, the ten-member team of accreditation professionals met with administrators, teachers, students, and parents to assess the School Systems’ success in continuing to meet District Accreditation standards and also review the effectiveness of the district’s continuous improvement process. The School System progress is evaluated every five years by an external review team.

In reporting on its findings, the review team described the School System’s several strengths as well as the challenges it faces, and then made recommendations for continued improvement. Dr. Donna James, team chairman, said the School System could be proud of the responses from the hundreds of persons interviewed by the team which included 13 Board Members, 99 administrators, 88 teachers, 47 support staff, 75 students, and 99 parents, business partners, and community leaders.

“You are one of the first Districts this year to earn re-accreditation,” she told the Board.

Dr. James pointed out that St. Tammany’s improvements were truly “systemwide,” meaning opportunities across the parish for all students. She commended Superintendent Sloan and her fellow administrators as people with vision for leading the System towards being a great School System. The team reported finding sound stewardship of fiscal resources as well as a community legacy of educational support.

Special recognition was given to the School System’s efforts to infuse technology throughout the schools and provide for the safety and security of its students and staff.

District accreditation was first granted to the St. Tammany Parish School System five years ago by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement.  (SACS/CASI).

The accreditation renewal process began with presentations by Superintendent Gayle Sloan and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Cheryl Arabie detailing the many programs and accomplishments of the School System. The team then interviewed Superintendent Sloan and also spoke with a number of Central Office employees about the System’s goals and challenges. The group also visited a number of individual school sites.

District accreditation is a rigorous process that relies on data, documentation, observation, and dialogue to arrive at a district perspective, including its vision, mission, and beliefs. “District accreditation demonstrates to our students, parents, and community that we are focused on raising student achievement, providing safe and enriching learning environments, and maintaining efficient and effective operations staffed by highly qualified educators,” Mrs. Sloan said.

The St. Tammany Parish Public School System was one of the first School Systems in the state to apply for and earn district accreditation in 2005. As a result, all schools in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System have earned accreditation.

School systems pursuit of District Accreditation is voluntary. The procedure was developed as a response to requests from superintendents whose systems were already engaged in quality strategic planning and who wanted to align more meaningfully their efforts, state and federal accountability requirements, and local school accreditation. 

Fan Disher, a gifted math teacher at Mandeville High School, is the Louisiana recipient of the 2009-2010 Siemens Foundation Award for Advanced Placement for her exceptional teaching and dedication in the area of math and science.  Mrs. Disher is the one teacher selected from Louisiana and one of only 50 teachers selected nationally.

She has taught for more than 35 years, mostly advanced math courses to 11th and 12th grade students. In association with the award, the school will receive a grant for $1000 to use toward math and science education.

She strives to make her math classroom a place where students can develop their own individual problem-solving skills and learn self-confidence in their math abilities. Over the years, she has tried to make calculus a “memorable” hands-on experience, not just symbolic manipulations of numbers. “Not much has changed in calculus over the past three decades, even though the advent of handheld calculators did change the way we were doing some things,” she said. Ms. Disher serves as sponsor for the school’s math honor society and encourages her students to enter math competitions offered by national mathematics associations. 

During the summers, Ms. Disher grades Advanced Placement tests for the College Board in Kansas, where she networks with hundreds of other math teachers from around the country. “Grading those tests and meeting with those other teachers helps make me a better calculus teacher,” she said.

She has even received a banner proclaiming her recognition as Siemens Award winner for the state. “Being recognized in this way helps the students trust you more,” she noted. “They know that you know what you are doing, and that is essential because understanding math is so important in many fields, especially engineering and business.”

She was named Outstanding High School Mathematics Teacher by the Louisiana Association of Teachers of Mathematics last year, as well as Educator of Distinction for the State of Louisiana by the Louisiana Parent, Teacher, Students Association in 2003, and Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2000 by the Louisiana Computer Using Educators group. At Mandeville High, she has helped advance technology use in the classroom in many ways.

Advanced Placement courses at the high school level enable students to earn college credits in their chosen field, giving them a headstart in college that will save their parents tuition money. “Every credit they can get in high school is a course their parents don’t have to pay tuition for in college,” she explained.

Ms. Disher continues taking part in many professional development courses and is a member of a dozen state, regional and national professional associations. She has presented workshop sessions at numerous conferences and institutes and received several grants and awards. She is also active in the local community performing arts society.

 Last year Mandeville High School received a Siemens Award for its overall performance in offering Advanced Placement classes.  Richard Burvant, General Manager of Siemens Building Technologies, New Orleans branch, made the presentation to Principal Bruce Bundy at a School Board meeting, focusing on the school’s Advanced Placement program that provides enhanced learning opportunities in science, technology, and mathematics.

Burvant said that recognizing educational excellence has always been a priority at Siemens. “If we are going to continue to create cutting-edge innovations and high-paying jobs, then it is important to recognize that we honor teachers instrumental in student achievement and schools such as Mandeville High School for educating the next generation of scientists who will advance tomorrow’s technology.”

“We believe the teachers honored by Siemens embody the best of American education by inspiring students in the classroom while instilling a love for learning that continues to influence them for a lifetime,” said Diane Tsukamaki, Director, National Recognition and Scholarship Programs.

Established in 1998, the Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement strives to expand and strengthen the pool of math, science and technology talent that will be needed for the continued growth of business and industry in the United States and globally. The Siemens Foundation also honors individual high school students with these awards.

This week, the St. Tammany Parish Public School System hosted a System review team from AdvancEd, a national accreditation organization, to seek the continuance of district accreditation that was granted five years ago by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement.  (SACS/CASI).

At a special School Board meeting Wednesday afternoon, the group presented its findings after dozens of interviews, several school visits, and extensive classroom observation.  In that report, the review team described the School System’s strengths and the challenges it faces, and then made recommendations for continued improvement. At the end, the group announced that it will recommend the St. Tammany Parish Public School System be granted continued District Accreditation.

For the past three days, a ten-member team of trained professionals met with administrators, teachers, students, and parents to assess the School Systems’ success in continuing to meet District Accreditation standards and assess the effectiveness of the district’s continuous improvement process. The School System progress is evaluated every five years by an external review team.

On Monday, the process began with presentations by Superintendent Gayle Sloan and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Cheryl Arabie detailing the many programs and accomplishments of the School System. The visting team members then interviewed Superintendent Sloan and also spoke with a number of Central Office employees about the System’s goals and challenges.

On Tuesday, the group visited Madisonville Elementary, Madisonville Junior High, Lee Road Junior High,Covington Elementary, Fontainebleau High, Lake Harbor Middle, Lakeshore High, Monteleone Junior High, Bonne Ecole Elementary and Alton Elementary.

District accreditation is a rigorous process that relies on data, documentation, observation, and dialogue to arrive at a district perspective, including its vision, mission, and beliefs. “District accreditation demonstrates to our students, parents, and community that we are focused on raising student achievement, providing safe and enriching learning environments, and maintaining efficient and effective operations staffed by highly qualified educators,” Mrs. Sloan said.

The St. Tammany Parish Public School System was one of the first School Systems in the state to apply for and earn district accreditation in 2005. As a result, all schools in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System have earned accreditation.

The pursuit of District Accreditation by a School System is voluntary. The procedure was developed as a response to requests from superintendents whose systems were already engaged in quality strategic planning and who wanted to align more meaningfully their efforts, state and federal accountability requirements, and local school accreditation. 

The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) tests will be administered by the St. Tammany Parish Public School System to students in grades 4 and 8 in two sessions, the first phase being given on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, and the second phase scheduled for Monday, April 12, and Tuesday, April 13, 2010.

Parents are reminded that if a student DOES NOT participate in Phase 1, then he/she must wait until summer to take the LEAP assessment allowing only one opportunity for the student to pass.

Students whose parents currently reside in Louisiana and who wish to enroll in St. Tammany Parish public schools in the fifth or ninth grades for the 2010-2011 school year must have passed the fourth and/or eighth grade LEAP test. 

According to the LEAP High Stakes Testing Policy, a student may not be promoted to the 5th or 9th grade until he/she has scored at or above the Basic achievement level on either the English Language Arts or Mathematics component on the 4th or 8th grade of LEAP and at the Approaching Basic achievement level on the other; officially referred to as the Basic/Approaching Basic combination. 

The LEAP High Stakes Testing Policy can be found on the Louisiana Department of Education website at www.louisianaschools.net.

Parents of Home Study and nonpublic school students may request LEAP testing for their children according to the following procedures: (1) Requests for applications for testing are to be made no later than March 1, 2010; (2) Applications must be returned for processing by March 12, 2010; and (3) All testing will take place at a parish school site.

Administration of these tests for Home Study and nonpublic school students will follow the same instructions and conditions as provided public school students. Make-up tests, other than what is provided for public school students, cannot be given if a test appointment is missed.

As provided by state regulations, a fee of $35 will be charged for each test.  Checks should be paid to the order of “St. Tammany Parish Schools” and must accompany the returned application.  This fee is refundable when the Home Study or nonpublic school students begin attendance in St. Tammany public schools.
    
Home Study students, at the discretion of parents, also may take the iLEAP test during spring testing.  This test will be given the week of April 12- 16, 2010.

Parents must contact the district test coordinator to register.  For further details or for an application, call 898-6481. An Adobe Acrobat PDF file of the application is available for download by clicking here.

The 2010 College and Career Quest, an event hosted by the College Counseling Center for junior high students, will be held on Tuesday, February 23, at Castine Center in Pelican Park and Thursday, February 25, at Slidell City Auditorium. Students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 are invited to attend, along with their parents, to hear from a number of college and career representatives.

The events begin at 6:00 p.m., with the Slidell location focusing on students who will attend Northshore High, Pearl River High, Salmen High, and Slidell High and the Mandeville location focusing on students who will attend Covington High, Fontainebleau High, Mandeville High, and Lakeshore High School.

More than 36 exhibitors will have tables offering a variety of printed information and representatives on hand to answer questions pertaining to colleges and universities, career and technical training and military options.

Thousands of students are expected to visit the two informational meetings.

The list of participants expected to attend the one or both events include Emergency Medical Training services, a3 Virtual Academy, Covington High School, Delgado Community College, Fontainebleau High School, Huntington Learning Center, Lakeshore High School, Louisiana College, Louisiana Education Loan Authority, Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (TOPS), Louisiana State University Financial Aid Office, Louisiana State University, Louisiana State Police, Louisiana Technical College - Slidell, Louisiana Virtual School, Mark Anthony Institute, and McNeese State University.

Also planning to be present are representatives from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Nicholls State University, Northshore High School, Northwestern State University of LA, Nunez Community College, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Pearl River High School, Salmen High School, Slidell High School, Southeast Louisiana Building and Construction Trades, Southeastern Louisiana University, Southeastern Louisiana University Zoom Into Careers, Southeastern Louisiana University St. Tammany Center,  St. Tammany Healthcare Alliance, Tulane University, and the United States Air Force Academy.

Representatives are also planning to be on hand from the United States Military Academy at West Point, United States Air Force ROTC, University of Louisiana - Lafayette, Mandeville High School, and the University of New Orleans.

Eighteen high school students from throughout the St. Tammany Parish Public School System took part in the St. Tammany Parish Poetry Out Loud Competition held February 9 at Mandeville High School.

The Poetry Out Loud competition is designed to help students build public speaking skills, self confidence and foster the appreciation of poetry as both literature and art.

Judges for the event were St. Tammany Parish Councilmen Marty Dean and R. Reid Falconer, President of the North Star Theater Lori Bennett, and Thomas Beale, Assistant Public Information Officer for the St. Tammany Parish Government.

The local winner received a gift certificate from Barnes and Noble Bookstore and will go on to compete in the state championship in Baton Rouge.  All state winners from across the country will then compete for the National Poetry Out Loud Championship.The project was presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation through the St. Tammany Commission on Cultural Affairs. The Talented Arts Program for St. Tammany public schools assisted in bringing the program to the School System.

The program encourages young people to learn about great poetry and promotes poetry in both the classroom and the community.

The second public meeting by a special committee setting up an attendance district for the new Henry Mayfield Elementary School will be held on Monday, February 22, at 7 p.m. Supervisor Amiee Woessner, chairman of the boundary selection committee, will coordinate the meeting at Bayou Woods Elementary School.

Three maps, each with different proposed attendance boundaries, were presented at the first meeting and may be reviewed on this web page. Information on student demographics for each map is also included. 
Copies of the maps are also on display in the lobby of the School Board Central Office in Covington and at Bayou Woods Elementary School and Carolyn Park Middle School.

The new school, located on U. S. 190 between Lacombe and Slidell, will serve the western portion of the existing attendance district of the two schools above.
Construction on the school began last year, and the facility will not be ready until the 2011-2012 School Year. The school is scheduled to serve kindergarten through sixth grade.

The newly appointed committee of parents, teachers, and administrators is reviewing the existing attendance boundaries of both Carolyn Park Middle School and Bayou Woods Elementary to determine the most appropriate area for the new school to serve. To comment on the issue or any of the proposed maps, click here to send an email to the committee.

The 11-member committee hopes to come to the School Board sometime this Spring with a recommended attendance area for the new school. The Board will make the final decision.

To comment on the issue or any of the proposed maps, click here to send an email to the committee.

The decision to name the school in honor Henry L. Mayfield was made by the School Board following a request from several retired educators. Mr. Mayfield was known as an academic leader in the parish. He began his career in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System in July, 1926, serving as a teacher for one year and as principal of Slidell Grammar School for eight years.  He was appointed the System’s first instructional supervisor in the Central Office in January, 1935. 

He served as a Supervisor of Instruction for 31 years and was an Assistant Superintendent from April, 1965, until his retirement in June, 1968. 

St. Tammany Parish Public Schools are closed Monday, February 15, through Friday, February 19, for a one-week vacation beginning with the Mardi Gras holidays.

Classes resume Monday, February 22.

School board support offices were closed Monday and Tuesday (Mardi Gras), February 15 and 16, and reopened on Wednesday, February 17.

St. Tammany Parish Public Schools and offices were closed Friday, February 12, due to sleet and snow conditions.  Snowflakes began falling in Covington around 9:30 a.m., after several hours of sleet during the night.

A number of events scheduled for Thursday night and Friday were postponed due to the weather. They include the following:

     Boyet Junior High School postponed its Knowledge Quest night, rescheduling it for February 25.
     Mandeville Middle School postponed its play scheduled for Thursday night. It will be rescheduled in the next two weeks.
     Lake Harbor Middle School's Beginner Band Concert scheduled for Thursday night was cancelled. 
     Pearl River High School rescheduled Scheduling Night for next year's sophomores to February 23.  A spaghetti dinner fund raiser for the Freshmen class was rescheduled for after the Mardi Gras Holidays.

Meeting in special session on Thursday morning, the St. Tammany Parish School Board accepted a bid of 3.46 percent on the sale of $25 million in bonds for financing future school construction and renovation projects.

Bond Counsel Grant Schluter told the Board that the bond sale had attracted nine bidders, the highest number he had ever seen in Louisiana for many years. “It’s incredible how many bids came from all over the nation. This is as good as it gets,” he said.

The low bid was submitted by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. The other eight bond bids ranged in interest rates from 3.51 percent to 3.80 percent. The lower the interest rate on the bonds, the less the School System has to pay in interest on borrowing the money, and this results in considerable tax savings for St. Tammany Parish property owners, Schluter said.

The Board met at 11 a.m. at Schluter’s request, since greater participation from bidders results from daytime bid openings, giving a better chance to obtain more favorable interest rates.

Schluter said that the School System’s current financial position together with an admirable fund reserve balance level helped maintain a AA bond rating with the firm Standard and Poor’s, and that bond rating resulted in more competition among bidders.

Last year’s bid bond sale of $20 million came in at 3.81 percent interest with four bids, and the year before that the bond sale interest rate for $67 million came in with a 4.40 percent interest rate with four bids submitted.

St. Tammany Parish Public School System officials are working with the National Weather Service and the local Emergency Operations Center to monitor weather conditions.

A weather briefing is scheduled for this afternoon to discuss the possibility of snow and sleet overnight in St. Tammany Parish. The School System will make a decision about possible school closures following this briefing. Please continue to monitor this website, Channel 13, and local news stations for updates.

A text message and call alert will be sent out in the event of a cancellation. If you would like to sign up for emergency text messages or call alerts, please click here.

Several events planned for Tuesday, February 9, were rescheduled due to schools being dismissed two hours earlier than usual that day. They included the following:Covington High Girls and Boys Basketball games vs Hammond High scheduled for Tuesday night were re-scheduled for Wednesday night.

Basketball Game - Mandeville High vs Fontainebleau High, Tuesday night games were moved to Wednesday night.

Former astronaut Jan Davis visited two St. Tammany Parish schools, Mandeville High School and Fontainebleau Junior High School, on January 28, classrooms of teachers who had been named NASA/LaSPACE Michoud Education Fellows for 2009-2010. 

Dr. Davis spoke to the students of Physical Science and Chemistry teacher Dr. Mark Hazlett at Mandeville High School and Donna Frank and Margaret Piazza, teachers of Earth Science and Life Science respectively, at Fontainebleau Junior High School. 

All three teachers are participating in the year long MEF-2 NASA Fellows Program that began in an intensive two week internship at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans last summer and will culminate in a Final Briefing in May.

Dr. Davis became an astronaut in 1987, and has logged over 673 hours in space, flying on three Space Shuttle missions. She currently serves as vice president and deputy general manager of Jacobs Technology operations at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. 

Dr. Davis talked about her experiences during her three space flights and answered students’ questions about life in space. 

“Getting students excited about math and science is important to me.  I enjoy telling young folks about the opportunities related to space exploration,” said Davis. 

She also presented, to Dr. Paulette Perrin, Secondary Science Curriculum Specialist, and the three NASA Fellows, framed pictures signed by the STS-125 crew, the astronauts that the teachers met and were photographed with during the summer internship at Michoud when the astronauts had just returned from their flight in space aboard the shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Telescope.  

This program is part of the efforts of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System to encourage students to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM),  which are embedded in the MEF NASA Fellows Program.  This visit from Dr. Jan Davis helps support those initiatives
The Michoud Education Fellow Program began in 2008 when several School System educators took part in the inaugural session.

Those participating the first year were Dr. Perrin and teachers Ruth Hill, Monteleone Junior High School; Crystal Drake, St. Tammany Junior High School; Joanne Hobson, Slidell Junior High School; Paul Chandler, Slidell High School, and Deborah Nunez, Covington High School.

The internship program is the result of collaboration among St. Tammany Parish Schools, Louisiana State University/Louisiana Space Consortium, and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center/Michoud Assembly Facility. The program encourages educators to communicate the information, experiences, and lessons learned to their students during the school year. 

The St. Tammany Parish Public School System was invited to help develop the education program for teachers that could be duplicated with other parishes in southeast Louisiana.

During the event, educators were welcomed into the Michoud family and even designed their own “mission patch.”

Dr. Perrin said the program offers a working model of what educators want their students to be able to do in a real world setting. “Teachers seldom have the opportunity to study the final product of education, the workplace,“ she said. “Teachers in this program see in action the skills we want our graduates to take with them when they leave our School System.”

Click here to see photo of Dr. Davis visiting Mandeville High School.

Students and School System employees wore Black and Gold Saints attire again on February 5, as the St. Tammany Parish Public School System again collected donations for Haiti earthquake relief.

The first parishwide effort to raise funds for Haiti earthquake victims met with outstanding success on January 22 with a total of $85,000 collected for the American Red Cross.  Donations were made by students and faculty giving a dollar or more each to wear black and gold, hats, and jeans that day in support of the New Orleans Saints Football Team playoff bid.

From elementary schools through high schools, students and employees on Friday made additional donations in showing their support of the New Orleans Saints Football Team as it prepares to win the Super Bowl. This time the School System donations will go towards rebuilding schools for the victims of the tragic earthquake that hit the capital city of Haiti.

Click here for a multimedia slide show of the Saints Day participants. (Quicktime Movie File) A photo album of Saints Day Photos is located here.

Similar fund-raising drives in the past have collected donations by giving students the opportunity to wear a favorite hat or shirt. Blue jeans were also popular among many students and employees taking part in past fund-raising drives.

St. Tammany Parish Public Schools and offices closed two hours early on Tuesday, February 9, 2010, so that students and employees could help the New Orleans Saints celebrate their Super Bowl victory.

After care programs were encouraged to continue as scheduled however, parents needed to check with their individual schools for specific details. The decision on whether to hold all other after school activities were handled at the school level.

 “We are extremely proud of the Saints, and we wanted to give our students and employees the chance to attend the Super Bowl Celebration Parade in New Orleans,” said Superintendent Gayle Sloan.     

Schools and school board offices opened at regular times on Wednesday morning.

A photo album of students supporting the Saints is located here.

St. Tammany Parish Public Schools were open as normally scheduled the day after the Saints win in the Super Bowl.

While the School System firmly supports the Saints and their journey to the Super Bowl, the education of students must remain a top priority.

Understandably, some families had Super Bowl plans that took them out of town or kept them out late on Super Bowl Sunday. Students who missed school on Monday were counted as absent but schools will work closely with students to allow them to make up any missed work or assignments.

The first public meeting to begin considering attendance boundaries for the new Henry Mayfield Elementary School was held February 2 at Bayou Woods Elementary School. Approximately 25 people attended. Elementary Supervisor Amiee Woessner, chairman of the boundary selection committee, coordinated the meeting, and Superintendent Gayle Sloan explained the timetable for the attendance area selection process.

Three maps, each with different proposed attendance boundaries, were shown to begin discussion.  The proposed maps are “starting points” and may be changed as public comments are received and considered. Click here to view the maps. Information on student demographics for each map is also included.  Copies of the maps will also be on display at Bayou Woods Elementary School and Carolyn Park Middle School.

The new school, located on U. S. 190 between Lacombe and Slidell, will serve the western portion of the existing attendance district of the two schools above. Questions from the audience at the February 2 meeting involved projected class sizes, number of classrooms per grade at the new school, and the demographics of the student body at the new school. The school is scheduled to serve kindergarten through sixth grade.

The next committee meeting will be held on Monday, February 22, at 7 p.m. at Bayou Woods Elementary School.

Construction on the school began just a few months ago, and the facility will not be ready until the 2011-2012 School Year. The newly appointed committee of parents, teachers, and administrators is reviewing the existing attendance boundaries of both Carolyn Park Middle School and Bayou Woods Elementary to determine the best area for the new school to serve. The 11-member committee hopes to come to the School Board sometime this Spring with a recommended attendance area for the new school. The Board will make the final decision.

To comment on the issue or any of the proposed maps, click here to send an email to the committee.

The name for the school was selected by the School Board following a request made by several retired educators to name a building to honor Henry L. Mayfield.

Mr. Mayfield was known as an academic leader in the parish. He began his career in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System in July, 1926, serving as a teacher for one year and as principal of Slidell Grammar School for eight years.  He was appointed the System’s first instructional supervisor in the Central Office in January, 1935. 

He served as a Supervisor of Instruction for 31 years and was an Assistant Superintendent from April, 1965, until his retirement in June, 1968. 

Mr. Mayfield also taught at Tulane University for more than ten years. According to former colleague Henri Ferrer, Mayfield worked as a “behind the scenes” leader whose expertise, dedication, and broad range of work helped make the St. Tammany System a leading school system.  Mr. Ferrer noted that Mr. Mayfield was recognized throughout Louisiana for his work in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System and in the field of education.  He was a frequent speaker at education conferences.

Carolyn Park Middle School's Afterschool Program “Inspiring Students in Art & Business” is showing its young participants that Art can be a rewarding career choice. Now in its second year, the program is supported with a grant through the Louisiana Division of the Arts as administered by the St. Tammany Commission on Cultural Affairs.

In a report at the January Board meeting about the special Arts Grant project at Carolyn Park, School Board Member Bob Womack told the story about the success of the afterschool arts instruction program.

In his “Growing the Cultural Economy” presentation, Womack explained how the arts class produced dozens of beautiful works of art to create a first class gallery exhibit in Slidell recently. He introduced several of the students who took part, and they held up their artworks for display to the audience. “The principal and assistant principal at Carolyn Park did a magnificent job with this program,” he said.

Chantelle O’Meallie, assistant principal, said the after-school program is inspiring young people to become artists and learn the business skills that give the community the opportunity to see and buy their work. “It cultivates their creativity while helping them realize that Art can be a lifelong passion,” she said, “and end up as a career.” The Junior Achievement activity brought local artists in to help the children create marketable products, ending with 45 of the students giving an art show which 160 people attended.

The students first learned how to produce artwork for showing in a gallery and then went through the procedures of putting their pieces up for sale and even paying a commission to the gallery. The opening reception for the art show was open to the entire community.

Visitors to the show purchased many of the pieces of art, and one student was even commissioned to produce a work of art. Total sales for the event came to $417.

The Carolyn Park Middle School Strings Ensemble provided music for the art show throughout the evening. “The program helped these students realize their potential as artists and entrepreneurs, all to make our community a more beautiful and successful place,” Ms. O’Meallie stated.

Womack noted that these children are “our future architects, our future draftsmen, and even a future Van Gogh. They will be designing and decorating the buildings yet to come in St. Tammany Parish.” He said he was very proud of their accomplishments.

Art Assistants and Junior Achievement members taking part in the program include Cheryl Martinez, Geri Winzy, and Nicole Burgess, with Phil Galatas of Moondancer Studio serving as Master Artist for the program. If funds continue, the program will be offered again next year.

The students and employees of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System raised a total of $85,000 for Haiti earthquake victims in a parishwide campaign on January 22.  Donations were made by students and faculty giving a dollar or more each to wear black and gold, hats, and jeans  that day in support of the New Orleans Saints Football Team playoff bid on January 24.

The money raised by St. Tammany public schools will be given to the American Red Cross for its work during recovery efforts in Haiti. The school that makes the largest collection of money per student population will present the donation on behalf of the entire School System at a special ceremony.

Similar fund-raising drives in the past have collected donations by giving students the opportunity to wear a favorite hat or shirt. Blue jeans were also popular among many students and employees taking part in the fund-raising drive.

Click here for a photo slide show of the Saints Day participants. (Windows Media Player Video File). A photo album of Saints Day Photos is located here.

The first public meeting to begin considering attendance boundaries for the new Henry Mayfield Elementary School west of Slidell will be held on Tuesday, February 2. The meeting will take place at Bayou Woods Elementary School beginning at 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

While construction on the school began just a few months ago and the facility will not be ready until the 2011-2012 School Year, the process for setting the boundary lines for the Pre K through 6th Grade school has begun with the naming of a committee to review the existing attendance boundaries of both Bayou Woods Elementary School and Carolyn Park Middle School. These two schools, which now have a total of 1411 students, will contribute some of their enrollment to the new school’s student body.

The principals of the two schools helped establish the committee made up of parents, teachers, and administration. Elementary Supervisor Amiee Woessner was named chairman of the committee, and Administrative Supervisor John Cousin will serve as staff liaison working with the committee. Ms. Woessner will report to Superintendent Gayle Sloan and the School Board on the progress being made as the redistricting process moves forward.

The committee hopes to come to Board sometime this Spring with a recommended attendance area for the new school. “Starting now gives us more than enough time to take care of the process,” said Superintendent Sloan at the January 21 Board meeting.

Also now under construction, the Joseph B. Lancaster Elementary School west of Madisonville will not require redistricting of attendance boundaries. It will receive students by reorganizing grade levels within Madisonville Elementary, Madisonville Junior High, and Lancaster Elementary and sharing the existing attendance boundary lines for those schools.

For the 21st year in a row, the St. Tammany Parish School Board has been awarded two annual recognitions for excellence in financial reporting.

The honors come following detailed reviews by experts from two organizations for financial reporting professionals.  Ms. Joy Irwin, Director of Advisory Services for the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office, explained the process at the January School Board meeting and presented a Certificate of Excellence from the Government Finance Officers Association of Louisiana (GFOA) for the financial reporting work done in 2008.

“The St. Tammany Parish School System had to jump through a lot of hoops to earn this certificate,” she said, adding that the Board also had to commit the right resources and the right staff to the job to achieve the award.

“This honor shows a high level of competence by your staff and a continuing commitment by the Board,” said Joey Richard, III, Managing Director of Postlewaite and Netterville, APAC, in presenting the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting from the American School Board Officials International (ASBO).

Chief Accountant and Acting Director of Business Affairs Terri Fortenberry and her staff were commended for their annual Financial Report and work in financial reporting for the School System.

The GFOA certificate recognition program is more than 50 years old, and organizations which are singled out for recognition have to meet very stringent criteria. Since 1945, the program has become widely known as the premier indicator of excellence in governmental accounting.

ASBOIntl established the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting Program in 1972 to encourage and recognize excellence in school system comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFR). The primary objective of the program is to promote high-quality school system financial reporting through the preparation of a CAFR, using the guidelines of the certificate program.

The purpose of the financial statements is to report on and provide an overview of the financial position and operations of the school system (including its component units). The CAFR enables school business officials to educate the school board and the public about the status of a school system's finances.

Click here to go to photo of Award Presentation

A parishwide effort to raise funds for Haiti earthquake victims by giving students a chance to wear Saints football shirts and hats met with outstanding success January 22 across the St. Tammany Parish Public School System.

Schools offered students a chance to wear black and gold caps, jerseys, and other Saints memorabilia if they would donate $1 to the relief fund for Haiti. Similar drives in the past have raised funds by encouraging donations in return for a free pass to wear a favorite hat or shirt. Blue jeans were also popular among many students and employees taking part in the fund-raising drive.

Youngsters from elementary to high schools took the opportunity to show their support of the New Orleans Saints Football Team and at the same time help the victims of the tragic earthquake that hit the capital city of Haiti.

Click here for a photo slide show of the Saints Day participants. (Windows Media Player Video File)

Superintendent Gayle Sloan created the fundraising campaign which took place at all schools and office locations as well. Mrs. Sloan likened the devastation in Haiti to that caused in the local area by Hurricane Katrina, to which many people around the country sent help to Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The money raised by St. Tammany public schools will be sent to the American Red Cross for its work during the rescue and recovery efforts in Haiti. The school that makes the largest collection of money per student population will make the donation on behalf of the entire School System at a special ceremony.

A photo album of Saints Day Photos is located here.

The 21st Century Community Learning Center is applying for funding through the 21st CCLC program. The request is to finance the program from June 1, 2010 through December 31, 2013.

The 21st Century Community Learning Center After School programs provide extended opportunities for learning in a safe and secure environment offering participants homework help and tutoring the certified teachers, computer skills, music, cooking, art, drama, academic games, sports, recreation and a nutritional snack.

At the 21st Century Community Learning Center Summer Camp children engage in the Playbooks Literacy Program, Houghton-Mifflin’s Math Club, recreation and culturally enriching activities, cooking, arts and crafts, and water safety lessons. The camp culminates with an all-day field trip.

The 21st CCLC serves approximately 800 students per year with Centers at Brock Elementary School 259 Brakefield, Slidell; Chahta-Ima Elementary School, 27488 Pichon Road, Lacombe; Creekside Jr. High, 65434 Highway 41, Pearl River; and Pine View Middle School, 1200 W. 27th Avenue, Covington.

The proposal for the 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant will be available for review after February 5, 2010, at the St. Tammany Parish School Board Office, 321 N. Theard Street., Covington, LA 70434.

The St. Tammany Parish Public School System has once again contributed significantly to the local United Way community fund raising campaign.

Senior Administrative Supervisor Bill Brady reported to the School Board at its January meeting that the students and employees have again shown they are the most caring School System in the area, if not the entire state. “Our recent United Way campaign was very successful,” he said, “with our employees and students raising almost $138,000 for the United Way.”

Over the past five annual United Way campaigns, the School System has raised over $625,000, Brady told the Board. He announced a number of awards to schools and support sites that went “above and beyond” what they were asked to do.

Special recognition awards for 100% Participation, where everyone at a site takes part in the campaign, went to Bayou Lacombe Middle School, Bayou Woods Elementary School, Florida Avenue Elementary School, Honey Island Elementary School, Lyon Elementary School, Mandeville Elementary School (16 years in a row at 100%), Woodlake Elementary School, and Marigny Elementary School, a new school that gave 100% in its first year.  Also winning recognition as 100% participation sites were support offices Covington Annex, Covington Educational Center, Energy Management Office (for two years in a row), Slidell Annex, and Student Health Services.

The school with the most student dollars raised was Fifth Ward Junior High School with $2,697.70 donated this year. Fifth Ward has achieved the honor for three years in a row.

The school that raised the most employee donations was Bayou Woods Elementary School with a total collected of $4,376. The support site that raised the most employee dollars was the St.Tammany Parish School Board central office with $8,894.00 donated.

Four awards were given to schools and sites with the best United Way drives, each in a separate grade range category. The Information Technology Office won top honors in the support site category, Covington High School won in the upper grades category, and Bayou Lacombe Middle School won in the middle grades category. The winner in the elementary school category was Marigny Elementary School.

Brady credited much of the campaign success to the local school and office United Way coordinators appointed by each site administrator.

The free Swine Flu vaccination program being offered by the St. Tammany Parish Public School System ended on Saturday, January 23, at Pearl River  High School. A total of 275 vaccinations were administered.

Saturday was the last opportunity to receive free Swine Flu shots from the School System program. Flu shots and nasal mist vaccinations may still be available at private health care providers, retail pharmacies giving the H1N1 vaccination, the Health Unit and the Community Wellness Center. 

On January 9, a total of 398 vaccinations was given to students, employees, and the general public at Covington High School, and on January 16, a total of 491 was given at Fontainebleau High School. Overall, the number of vaccinations given in the program over December and January came to 2560.

The Centers for Disease Control is continuing to highlight the importance of influenza vaccination, stating that while H1N1 is likely to continue to spread, the demand for vaccine usually drops significantly after the holiday season. "Though this has been an unprecedented year in terms of the number of people who have received flu vaccinations, most people still have not gotten the 2009 H1N1 vaccine," the agency noted. "There is still room for improvement among every age and risk group. Influenza is unpredictable, and we do not know the likelihood of a future wave of 2009 H1N1 influenza, but we do know that vaccination is the single best way to reduce the health impact of influenza."

The School System worked in conjunction with the Louisiana Office of Public Health to make the H1N1 (Swine Flu) shots and nasal mist vaccinations available in December and January.The School System provided this service as a convenience for parents who chose to have their children vaccinated. 

For more information about the flu vaccine, click on the following links:
Flu Shot Information Sheet (PDF File)
Flu Nasal Mist Information Sheet (PDF File)

Linda S. Jenkins, a first grade teacher at Abita Springs Elementary School, has won the Louisiana State “Citizen Teacher of the Year” award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

The honor was given to her for the many class projects she has organized over the past three years to support the men and women serving in the U.S. Armed Forces in other countries.  She will be going to Alexandria on January 30 to receive her award, after which she will advance to the National competition for Citizen Teacher of the Year.
 
She was nominated by her principal Rebecca Stogner, and the entire faculty is proud of her accomplishment. “She certainly deserved this honor,” Mrs. Stogner said.

“I am deeply honored to receive the award. I was surprised to be nominated and really didn't expect to win,” Mrs. Jenkins stated. “The projects all began because my son joined the Marines, and I wanted to do everything a mother could do to support that effort. It just grew from that very simple desire.”

“As my husband and I visited our son in boot camp, we became aware of the immense need for support that went much farther than our son,” Mrs. Jenkins explained. “The boot camp experience is very intense and very emotional, and at the end of each day, the recruits look forward to mail call for encouraging letters from back home. Some of the recruits didn’t get any mail, and I said, well, I can do something about that!”

That began Operation Pen Pal, which involved students writing letters and sending them to the recruits. The response was tremendous. That effort expanded to writing letters and cards to servicemen deployed on ships and overseas, leading to other teachers, parents and community members becoming involved.  Mrs. Jenkins began using the Internet and her Promethean Board to keep track of what the recruits were doing at boot camp and what life was like aboard one of the warships, and this helped her students learn what their pen pals were doing day by day.

Projects have ranged from writing cards and letters to troops stationed overseas to providing them with a variety of items from eye drops and mouth wash to potato chips and granola bars. Shipping boxes are filled with donations from students and parents and then sent to specific servicemen related to people working at the school, with extra items to be shared with his or her fellow servicemen.

The impact on her students taking part in the projects has been quite remarkable. “It is almost indescribable. These projects bring patriotism to the most intimate level for the children. They have been able to learn about our military and meet some of the men who have served our country. They have learned how to write encouraging letters and how important the power of their words are.”

Students at Abita Springs Middle School began participating and did “an awesome” job on the effort. Donations started coming in from local residents, visitors to town, and library branches from Mandeville to Folsom. Donation barrels were placed at area dollar stores.

Then, local Marines coming back home would visit the classrooms and tell the students how much they appreciated the cards and letters and boxes full of donated items.
 
“The teachers have been great, also,” Mrs. Jenkins said. “They jump into each project with their students and collect all kinds of donations we can send to the Marines. They said the meetings with the servicemen were a powerful experience. All of the projects have mushroomed to the point where our parents and teachers expect our school to be doing something each year, and they come to me for instructions,” she said. “I now feel responsible to keep things going, and I am happy to do it because we have all found that doing this is really important.”

The “Snack Attack” project this past year sent 18 large boxes containing over 1000 items to men and women serving in Iraq. The year before, Mrs. Jenkins coordinated a project that filled 385 Christmas stockings that were shipped to Marines deployed overseas. “It was the most amazing display of love I have ever seen,” Mrs. Jenkins said. She thanked all those who took part for letting their classes be part of something wonderful.

One project involved giving a long distance “baby shower” to a couple from Covington who had been transferred to Okinawa, Japan. Donations from throughout the school were shipped to the couple at their new home for their new baby. “There were eight boxes of gifts for the baby, clothes, bedding, all kinds of things,” Mrs. Jenkins said. “We got a really great letter from the mother thanking us and saying that she had no idea that it was being done. She cried when her husband told her about it and started showing her all the stuff we had sent.”

Mrs. Jenkins has been communicating with other parents around the country on Internet bulletin boards, sharing her ideas for the various projects. One teacher in Pennsylvania wrote back that the ideas would never work in her School District because the economy was so bad and people didn’t have anything to donate. Mrs. Jenkins encouraged her to bring up the idea anyway at her local school board meeting, and the lady agreed to do so. To her surprise, her school board liked the idea, kicked off their version of the project, and it was a tremendous success. “She couldn’t believe the response,” Mrs. Jenkins said of the Pennsylvania project. “You don’t realize how much people want to help others until you give them the opportunity to do so.”

A National Board Certified Teacher, Mrs. Jenkins has been in education for 40 years, beginning to teach in 1970 and coming to Abita Springs Elementary in 1989. She is also active in hosting foreign exchange students, and working in her community and church.

Each year the VFW's National Citizenship Education Teachers' Award recognizes the nation's top elementary, junior high and high school teachers who teach citizenship education topics regularly and promote America's history and traditions. Teachers are nominated for consideration by the local VFW posts, which then send the local winner to state competition.

For the national award, nearly 1,000 teachers are nominated, coming from every state, the District of Columbia and overseas. The national citizenship education teacher honors include a $1,000 cash award for professional development to a teacher in three separate grade level categories, $1,000 award for each winning teacher's school; and plaques for both the winning teacher and school.

Last year VFW Louisiana winners included Kelly M. Stomps, a teacher at Woodlake Elementary School and Martin Golden, a teacher at Monteleone Jr. High School.

The free Swine Flu vaccination program being offered by the St. Tammany Parish Public School System was held again on Saturday, January 16, at Fontainebleau High School. A total of 492 vaccinations was given. On Saturday, January 23, the vaccinations will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pearl River High School. The shots and nasal mist vaccinations will be offered again to students, employees, and members of the general public. Saturday will be the last opportunity to receive free Swine Flu shots from the School System program.

Flu shots and nasal mist vaccinations may still be available at private health care providers, retail pharmacies giving the H1N1 vaccination, the Health Unit and the Community Wellness Center.  On January 9, a total of 398 vaccinations was given to students, employees, and the general public at Covington High School. The Centers for Disease Control proclaimed January 10-16 as "National Influenza Vaccination Week" to highlight the importance of continuing influenza vaccination, as well as fostering greater use of flu vaccine after the holiday season. The CDC stated that since H1N1 is likely to continue to spread, the special week was an opportunity to increase the number of people who get the vaccine at a time when demand for vaccine usually drops significantly.

"Though this has been an unprecedented year in terms of the number of people who have received flu vaccinations, most people still have not gotten the 2009 H1N1 vaccine," the agency noted. "There is still room for improvement among every age and risk group. Influenza is unpredictable, and we do not know the likelihood of a future wave of 2009 H1N1 influenza, but we do know that vaccination is the single best way to reduce the health impact of influenza." The School System, working in conjunction with the Louisiana Office of Public Health, gave several hundred H1N1 (Swine Flu) shots and nasal mist vaccinations on two Saturdays in December. Local health officials recommend that children under nine years of age who were vaccinated in December should get a second booster shot 28 days later in January.

The School System is providing this service as a convenience for parents who choose to have their children vaccinated. Parents may wish to review information available about H1N1 and the vaccine before deciding whether to participate in this program. Students receiving the shots need to be accompanied by their parents.

 A completed consent form for the vaccination will be required. A PDF file of the consent form is available for download at the following link: Consent Form . (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF Files.)

The vaccination campaign was put together in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health, and the Louisiana Department of Education.

For more information about the flu vaccine, click on the following links:
Flu Shot Information Sheet (PDF File)
Flu Nasal Mist Information Sheet (PDF File)

A variety of programs to observe Arbor Day and the importance of preserving the environment took place all across St. Tammany Parish Friday and Saturday as schools took part in traditional tree planting ceremonies.

A number of schools held programs in conjunction with community garden clubs.

The Arbor Day Celebration at Pontchartrain Elementary School involved third grade students telling about the importance of trees, followed with comments by Mandeville City Councilman Jerry Coogan, Ms. Jenny Ronquillo and Principal Kim Thomas. The students then lined up to help plant a Cypress Tree in front of the school.  The bald cypress is the Louisiana State Tree.

At Sixth Ward Elementary, students held an Arbor Day ceremony to plant a magnolia tree donated by the Magnolia Forest Garden Club. The local Cub Scout troop was asked to help plant the tree.

Lesa Bodnar, principal at Folsom Elementary School, said that students and teachers planted a tree in front of the Pre-K building on Friday in memory of Mrs. Karen Falanga who had served as one of the Pre-K teachers.

Bryan Gowland taught history and social studies in St. Tammany Parish public schools for 33 years, working to instill in his students an appreciation for local cultural heritage. He retired in 2002, but he has continued and even expanded upon those efforts through the development of local musical programs that promote a sense of community pride.

This year he was chosen to receive the President’s Special Award from Parish President Kevin Davis during the 2010 St. Tammany Commission on Cultural Affairs Arts Awards program on January 15 at Louisiana Medical Center and Heart Hospital in Lacombe. Davis recognized Gowland for his “tireless promotion of the musical excellence which exists throughout St. Tammany.”

While he also served as the mayor of the Town of Abita Springs from 1990 to 2002, Gowland is now known nationally as host of the Abita Springs Opry, a musical program at Abita Springs Town Hall that six times a year features area musicians performing traditional Louisiana songs. It is the successor to the Piney Woods Opry which began in the early 1990’s to showcase area musical traditions.

“I’m grateful for the recognition,” Gowland said of the award, “but it’s really not just for me. It is for all the musicians from throughout the area who take part , and the Opry board of directors who have worked so hard.” But the star of the show is the music itself. “Louisiana culture is magic, and Louisiana music is magic,” he explains. “People come from all over the world to Louisiana to experience it first-hand.”

“The response has been phenomenal. It’s all about keeping it real, presenting the music for the sake of the music,” he stated. While the original effort was to perpetuate the musical culture of the state, its success as an entertainment program has made it even more fun, Gowland said.

The Opry work is an outgrowth of what he was doing in the classroom, he said, teaching students an awareness of Louisiana culture and what could be done to preserve it. After retirement, he took part in a special effort to bring the Smithsonian Museum’s “New Harmonies- American Roots Music” exhibit into local schools.

The Opry continues to reach out to involve young musicians and put them on stage to perform, all the while video-taping the programs and sending them out to public access channels across the nation.

“We send the tapes out on request to Virginia, North Carolina, Minnesota, California, Colorado, and even Las Vegas,” Gowland stated. “They watch them over and over again. We have a very loyal audience in Las Vegas. They’ve even come here to Abita Springs to see the show in person.”
Locally the show is seen on government access television and the SLU Channel in Hammond. As a result, Gowland is recognized wherever he goes as the emcee of the popular program. It has encouraged him to learn to play the guitar himself, and he has even built a guitar from a kit.

In addition to the Opry performance, the organization also provides free concerts at the Abita Springs Trailhead. People now contact him to ask for help in finding musicians for their own festivals. “So it’s getting our musicians some work at other events,” he said.

The President’s Arts Awards honor artists and arts patrons who have contributed to cultural efforts in St. Tammany Parish. Also chosen for awards this year were Ronnie Kole (Lifetime Achievement in the Arts); Alan Flattmann (Visual Artist of the Year); Shane Gorringe (Culinary Artist of the Year); Lori Murphy (Arts Patron of the Year); Allen Little (Performing Artist of the Year); and Brian Stoltz (Musical Artist of the Year). “All have made a significant contribution and commitment to the development of the arts in St. Tammany Parish,” said Davis.

Public schools in St. Tammany Parish were closed on Monday, January 18, for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday.

Classes resumed on Tuesday, January 19.

School System support offices were closed on Monday, January 18, in observance of the traditional holiday. Support offices  re-opened on January 19.

Due to extreme winter weather conditions, St. Tammany Parish Public Schools and support offices will be closed Friday, January 8, 2010.

All before and after-care is cancelled. Parents and students should check with their individual school about any scheduled after-school activities or sporting events. If the weather forecast remains on target, schools will resume as scheduled on Monday.

A number of events scheduled for Thursday night and Friday have been cancelled or postponed due to threatening weather conditions. Those events that have been cancelled or postponed are as follows:

The School Board Committee As A Whole Meeting has been cancelled.

Abita Springs Middle School:  The PTA meeting for Thursday night was cancelled and will be rescheduled.

Clearwood Jr. High School: The basketball game for Thursday night was cancelled celled; will reschedule next week.

Folsom Elementary School: The Pre-K field trip for Friday has been rescheduled.

Folsom Junior High School: The basketball game for Thursday night was cancelled and will be rescheduled next week.

Fontainebleau Jr. High School: Girls soccer practice for Thursday night was cancelled, and soccer game for Thursday night was cancelled.

Fontainebleau High School: The Girls Junior Varsity soccer game for Thursday night was cancelled .

Lyon Elementary School: The third grade field trip to Stennis Space Center has been cancelled.

Mandeville Jr. High School: The dance scheduled for Friday night has been cancelled, and soccer game for Thursday night was cancelled .

Monteleone Jr. High School: The boys soccer game scheduled to be played at Lakeshore High Thursday night was cancelled .

Northshore High School: The soccer games scheduled for Friday night have been moved to earlier starting times.

Covington High School: Thursday''s Boys Soccer JV vs. Lakeshore is cancelled and re-scheduled for Monday at Lakeshore at 5:30; The Girls and Boys Soccer vs. Ponchatoula set for Friday is cancelled and re-scheduled for Wednesday, January 13. Girls and Boys Basketball at Ponchatoula High School for Friday is cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Pearl River High School:  The boys' and girls' soccer games for Thursday afternoon with Riverdale High was cancelled.  They will be rescheduled. The boys' basketball game on Friday with Holy Cross has been cancelled.

Little Oak Middle School: The Boy Scouts meeting that was to be held Thursday night at 7:00 P.M. in the library has been cancelled.

Boyet Junior High School: All Boyet basketball games have been cancelled for Thursday night.

Salmen High School: Thursday night athletic events cancelled - Girls and boys basketball, Girls and boys soccer. Saturday detention cancelled.

Covington Pathways: After school activities including Boys and Girls Club and CRD are cancelled.

Pitcher Junior High: The boys’ soccer game and the Band Boosters meeting for Thursday night was cancelled.

Instructional Technology Center: The Podcasting Class for Thursday night has been cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Creekside Junior High School: The basketball game against St. Tammany Junior at Creekside Junior set for Thursday night was cancelled.

Tchefuncte Middle School: Saturday detention has been cancelled.

The free Swine Flu vaccination program being offered students and employees of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System will resume on Saturday, January 9, with the service being expanded to the general public and first responders.

The School System, working in conjunction with the Louisiana Office of Public Health, gave several hundred H1N1 shots and nasal mist vaccinations on two Saturdays in December, and will resume the program next Saturday and again on January 16 and 23, with emergency response personnel and the general public being offered an opportunity to receive the free vaccinations.

This Saturday, the vaccinations will be available again from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Covington High School, and then on January 16 at Fontainebleau High School, and on January 23 at Pearl River High School at the same time period.

Local health officials recommend that children under nine years of age who were vaccinated in December should get a second booster shot 28 days later in January.

The School System is providing this service as a convenience for parents who choose to have their children vaccinated. Parents may wish to review information available about H1N1 and the vaccine before deciding whether to participate in this program.

A completed consent form for the vaccination will be required. A PDF file of the consent form is available for download at the following link: Consent Form . (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF Files.)

To receive the vaccinations, students and employees may visit any location most convenient to them, regardless of the school they attend. Students receiving the shots need to be accompanied by their parents.

The vaccination campaign was put together in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health, and the Louisiana Department of Education.

For more information about the flu vaccine, click on the following links:
Flu Shot Information Sheet (PDF File)
Flu Nasal Mist Information Sheet (PDF File)

Meeting in special session December 19, the St. Tammany Parish School Board appointed Mrs. Judy Palmer, wife of the late Sorola "Jody" Palmer, to fill the District 7 position left vacant by her husband's untimely death December 11. State law allowed only ten days from the time of Mr. Palmer's death for the School Board to appoint a successor. She will serve until a special election is held next fall.The primary will be held on October 2, with the general election to be held, if necessary, on November 2.

Board Member Beth Heintz said that Mrs. Palmer has attended many meetings of the group and has a good knowledge of Board matters.

Classes for the second semester of the 2009-2010 School Year began January 4.

The Winter-Christmas break began Monday, December 21. Schools were closed for two weeks from Monday, December 21, through Friday, January 1, 2010.

In a special presentation from the Supriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana’s Children, Magnolia Trace Elementary School received six interactive whiteboards for its first grade classrooms on December 16. Mrs. Jindal, the wife of Governor Bobby Jindal, visited the school in person to meet with teachers and students and demonstrate how the new Promethean Boards worked.

Mrs. Jindal guided the children through several lessons using the new technology. The system projects a computer image onto a screen and allows the manipulation of elements on the screen using a special pen. “Outside the classroom, our children are used to interactive video games and innovative technology,” she said. “We have to bring those highly-engaging techniques into the classroom environment.”

Her foundation has partnered with AT&T to bring the new technology to the state’s classrooms. “Interactive whiteboards are something we are beginning to see transform education across the country,” she told Magnolia Trace educators. “We have the opportunity to make a lasting and positive difference in education.”

Special wireless devices called ActivVoters were given out to the children to enable them to give individual feedback when Mrs. Jindal asked questions. The computer brought up internet websites with specially- prepared lessons on a variety of topics. The children then played an educational form of “Jeopardy” with subjects ranging from money and matter to addition and subtraction with a special bonus round on Louisiana questions.

Mrs. Jindal is aiming to instill a love of science and math into Louisiana children through her school visits, and the Foundation and AT&T are working to install interactive whiteboard systems in over 60 classrooms across Louisiana by the end of December.

Jessica Salley, a Covington High School senior, has been selected one of two delegates to represent the state of Louisiana to the United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) next year, an intensive week-long educational experience and scholarship for outstanding high school students who are interested in pursuing careers in public service.

She will travel to Washington, D. C. the week of March 6 – 13, 2010. “It’s something I’ve definitely wanted to do for a long time, and I am really excited,” she said.

The program will put her right in the middle of the government, giving her a chance to meet “a lot of really interesting people,” including a Supreme Court Justice and a variety of Washington “insiders” and public officials. “But I am really looking forward to meeting and working with young people who are interested in politics like I am,” Jessica said.

Salley plans to major in social policy or international relations once she graduates from high school.

In the summer following her freshman year, she took a college class called “Ethics in the International Political Area” and this heightened her interest in politics. This past year she went to Washington, to take part in the American Legion “Girls Nation” program. “We got a pretty good look at what goes on in Washington, but in that program we were mainly meeting with ourselves and learning the legislative process,” she explained.

Principal Deborah McCollum said she is thrilled that Jessica has been awarded this opportunity.

The Senate Youth Program was established in 1962  and is a unique educational experience that provides a foundation of knowledge and encouragement for high school students considering a future of public service on the local, state or national level. The 48th annual program will bring together two student leaders from each state and the District of Columbia. Student delegates will hear major policy addresses by Senators, cabinet members, officials from the Departments of State and Defense and directors of other federal agencies. In addition, each delegate will also be awarded a $5,000 College Scholarship for undergraduate studies, with encouragement to pursue coursework in history and political science.

The delegate selection process started with teachers and principals nominating qualified students, those who hold student body office or another elected or appointed position in their communities and show academic interest and aptitude in government, history and politics.

Mary K. Bellisario, School Board Member representing District 15, was named Legislator of the Year by the St. Tammany Chapter of the Alliance for Good Government December 13 at the four-parish regional group’s annual awards banquet in New Orleans.
 
“This particular award represents the hard work of not only St. Tammany Parish school board members and their Superintendent, but a growing network of public school board members and superintendents from parishes all over Louisiana, working together for real reforms in public education,” Mrs. Bellisario said. The Alliance recognized her and three other legislators from the metropolitan New Orleans area.

“It was a surprise to me,” she said of the honor. “I was pleased that the Alliance acknowledged that School Board members are considered legislators by state law. Since September, I have been networking with other School Board members here and in 64 other parishes to determine which problems are of greatest concern to us and how state legislation can address them.”This past summer, Mrs. Bellisario worked with a group comprised of School Board members and Superintendents statewide called “Louisiana Public Schools - Solutions That Work.” 

The group requested input from all other parishes in Louisiana as to what types of education reforms would help their districts perform at a higher level. The group started meeting informally in September, working those ideas into proposals. “We have even set up a website so that School Board members in Louisiana can input their thoughts and make us aware of how we can help,” she stated. “We want to focus on ideas that will work, and bring those to the attention of our state legislators.”The Louisiana School Boards Association has adopted several of the group’s ideas for legislative efforts to be announced at the LSBA state convention in March. State legislators interested in authoring bills to incorporate these proposals may do so in the upcoming legislative session.Mrs. Bellisario first joined the St. Tammany School Board in January of 1995 after becoming active in several PTA groups and the Military Road Alliance 25 years ago. She continues to serve on the boards of several PTA’s. Superintendent Gayle Sloan congratulated her on the recognition, saying “It is a wonderful honor to have a School Board Member recognized for strong leadership and governance.”

The Alliance for Good Government is a nonpartisan organization that has been recognizing outstanding service by elected officials in the metropolitan New Orleans area for the past 42 years.

Sorola “Jody” Palmer, a member of the St. Tammany Parish School Board since January of 2003, died unexpectedly on Friday, December 11.  He was 54 years of age and represented District 7, the Lacombe area.

"Our School System is like a family, and when we lose a member, it deeply saddens all of us," said School Board President John Lamarque.

Palmer had served as Executive Director of Community Action Agency for St. Tammany Parish and was also the District 89B Representative on the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee (DSCC), which is the governing body of the Louisiana Democratic Party.

He was the husband of Judy Palmer, the father of Sorola Palmer Jr. and Brian Palmer, and the brother of Elsie Burkhalter of Slidell, Valerie Thomas of Oklahoma, Brenda Palmer of Lacombe and the late Janice Palmer.

Students and employees of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System received Swine Flu shots and nasal mist vaccinations on Saturday, December 12, at Northshore High School in Slidell, the second in a series of five vaccination programs held on Saturdays this month and next. A total of 634 vaccinations were given, in spite of rainy weather all day.

The School System is providing this service free of charge as a convenience for parents who choose to have their children vaccinated. Parents may wish to review information available about H1N1 and the vaccine before deciding whether to participate in this program.

The vaccinations will be available again from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  on Saturday, January 9, at Covington High School, on January 16 at Fontainebleau High School, and on January 23 at Pearl River High School.

To receive the vaccinations, students and employees may visit any location most convenient to them, regardless of the school they attend. Students receiving the shots need to be accompanied by their parents, and a completed consent form for the vaccination will be required. A PDF file of the consent form is available for download at the following link: Consent Form . (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF Files.)

Employees will need to show their School System ID’s to be vaccinated.

The vaccination campaign was put together in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health, and the Louisiana Department of Education.

For more information about the flu vaccine, click on the following links:
Flu Shot Information Sheet (PDF File)
Flu Nasal Mist Information Sheet (PDF File)

At the December meeting held Thursday, the St. Tammany Parish Public School Board elected officers for 2010, retaining John Lamarque as president and Jack Loup as vice-president.

Don Villere was chosen as chairman for the Business Affairs / Administrative Committee, and Beth Heintz was elected as chairman for the Human Resources / Education Committee.

The terms of Board officers begin January 1 each year.

Also at the December meeting, the Board and Superintendent Gayle Sloan voiced their appreciation for the 38.5 years of service to the School System by Senior Administrative Supervisor Kevin Marse, who is retiring this year.

Patricia H. Farris was hired as Supervisor of School Food Services. She will take on the duties of current Supervisor Sylvia Dunn when she retires at the end of the school year.

A public information meeting on federal “Race to the Top” funding and Louisiana’s planned application provisions was held December 9 in the Board Meeting Room at the C. J. Schoen Administrative Complex in Covington.

Jacob Landry and Chris Meyer of the Louisiana Department of Education  presented background information and  features of the federal program.

Additional public information meetings will be held by the State Department of Education in different parts of the state over the next week.

Race to the Top (R2T) is a highly competitive federal competition that will award $4.35 billion to a select group of states that have demonstrated their capacity and willingness to implement major reforms in their school systems. The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Events cancelled Tuesday due to weather-related concerns included the following:
        Clearwood Junior High: Choir and Band Christmas Concert has been re-scheduled for Thursday, December 10, at 7 p.m. 
        Northshore High School: Boys’ varsity and jv soccer games cancelled  with the junior varsity rescheduled for Thursday. 
        Northshore High School: The girls’ soccer game against SSA was rescheduled for Thursday.

The first semester of the 2009-2010 School Year comes to an end on Friday, December 18, following a week of exams for students in the upper grade levels.

Students will report to school in the morning on December 18 for one-half day only. The rest of the day teachers are given time for record-keeping responsibilities.

The Winter-Christmas break begins the following Monday, December 21. Schools will be closed for two weeks from Monday, December 21, through Friday, January 1, 2010. Classes resume on Monday, January 4.

School Board support offices will be open Monday and Tuesday, December 21 and 22, but will close Wednesday through Friday, December 23, 24, and 25.  Offices will re-open on Monday, December 28, and remain open on Tuesday, December 29, but will close for New Year’s Holidays on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, December 30 and 31, and January 1, 2010. Offices re-open on Monday, January 4.

Nine teachers and a principal from McKinley Elementary School in Enid, Oklahoma, toured schools in St. Tammany Parish in mid-November as part of a professional development visit arranged by a former employee of the School System. The goal of the trip was to share ideas involving technology, teaching techniques, and other topics of mutual interest.

The Oklahoma educators visited the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville, several elementary and middle schools, the Central Office, and Jefferson East. They met with their educational counterparts and discussed Title I programs and services, behavior policies, reading and math instruction, developmental language curriculums, and classroom organization ideas.

Denise Blume, the former St. Tammany Parish School System curriculum specialist who now lives in Oklahoma, was part of the group that included an Early Childhood Education Coordinator, teachers from Pre-K through fifth grade, a music teacher, and a media center librarian.

During their two-day visit, the Oklahoma group also met with several St. Tammany administrators, including Superintendent Gayle Sloan, Assistant Superintendent Cheryl Arabie, Professional Development Coordinator Dr. Holly Broom, and Elementary Supervisor Francine Wood.

Ms Blume was involved at the “Share Fair” at Mandeville Middle School when she worked here, and the idea of sharing instructional ideas with her Oklahoma colleagues helped motivate the visit back to St. Tammany. While here, they also sampled crawfish, grits and other regional culinary favorites.

Robin Mullett took her seat on the St. Tammany Parish School Board November 12 after she was sworn into office by Board Attorney David Pittman. She will represent District 9 in the Slidell area after having been elected October 17.

The post became vacant when former Board Member Carmen Johnson resigned in January due to a change in employment. Michael J. Gambrell was appointed as interim Board Member for District Nine in February.
 
A graduate of Salmen High School, Ms. Mullett has lived in Slidell since 1969. She has three children and has been active for many years as a PTA officer and volunteer. She has worked as a paraprofessional in Special Education in St. Tammany Parish Public Schools and also served as a TAP Tutor.

The second annual Veterans Recognition Program was held November 12 just prior to the monthly School Board meeting and the day after Veterans Day. The atrium was filled with guests as student musicians played patriotic selections as well as original compositions. Trey Folse, Deputy Superintendent, emceed the special event.

To begin the program, the Marine Corps Junior ROTC from Mandeville High School presented the colors, with a student from Tchefuncte Middle School leading the Pledge of Allegiance and a student from Northshore High School singing the National Anthem. Talented Music Students from Northshore High sang “God Bless America” while photos of the flag flying over Preservation Plaza were projected in the background.

The Armed Forces Salute featured the Fontainebleau Junior High School 8th grade music students playing the theme songs from each of the four branches of the armed services. Members of those branches stood in the audience while their theme was being performed.

The program included John Lamarque, School Board President, reading a special resolution honoring veterans, those visiting and also those who work for the School System.

To view a high resolution copy of the attached photograph, click here.

To view a high resolution copy of last year's Veterans Day program group, click here.

The second annual Teaching Academies Conference took place at the Instructional Technology Center recently, bringing together 79 junior and senior students from several high schools for a look at career opportunities in education. They were led by teachers who conduct the Teaching Academies at their individual high schools.

Deborah Tonguis of Mandeville High, the 2009 Louisiana High School Teacher of the Year, was guest speaker for the event and a session leader.

The St. Tammany Parish Public School System offered the conference to familiarize students with the techniques and technologies associated with teaching in the classroom. The conference is a parishwide event that brings the students together once a year, but the teaching academies themselves are a daily class that follows the State Department of Education’s STAR curriculum.

The STAR Program stands for “Students Teaching and Reaching,” and it gives future educators a headstart on their careers by offering college credits in education while they are still enrolled in high school. Juniors at the conference were enrolled in STAR I  courses and seniors coming back for their second conference were in STAR II level courses. Classwork in the academies includes class observation and tutoring.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan welcomed those attending and expressed her appreciation for their taking part in the important program.

Human Resources Coordinator Roxanne Lagarde gave the students an overview of the event and then sent them to three different sessions relevant to the subject of teaching.

“The teaching academies also help in our employee recruiting effort by the School System,” she stated, “since we are always looking to hire good teachers when they graduate from college. If we can get them back to work in St. Tammany, that would be wonderful.”

Julie Matte, Supervisor of Technology, said that the conference was an important event for the Instructional Technology Center, since it gave prospective educators a first hand look at the technology they would be using in the classroom. “We need to mirror the technology tools they will find working in the schools,” Mrs. Matte said. “Holding the event here gives them a taste of what they will be integrating into their classroom lessons when they become teachers.”

The students are shown the many free technology tools available from the Internet so they may enhance their teaching techniques at little or no cost. They also receive packets of information about student teaching, a list of reasons why they should consider a career in education, and federal student aid information about teaching grants for educators interested in serving low-income community schools.

The new instant alert notification system informed thousands of parents and employees about the early school closures due to Hurricane Ida. The alert notifications service offers instant communications through text messaging, e-mail, or voice call alerts for any emergency situations which may develop at a school or Systemwide.

“In times such as this, the alert notification system proves to be one of the best and most effective ways to communicate to parents. We encourage all parents to sign up for this free service,” said Superintendent Gayle Sloan. “We continue to post emergency bulletins on our Website, Channel 13, and local news stations, but when school closings are announced, the text messaging and phone alerts are faster and reach people wherever they are,” she stated. 

Parents and employees may register for the service by going to the Alert Notification Log In Page, and clicking on the sign up link.

Registering for the service sends emergency information parents and employees special alerts to the phone numbers and other means of communications they choose, whether it is school-specific alerts or news about the entire district. It is used only in emergency situations or unscheduled school closings.

There is also You Tube video available for viewing that explains how the alert notifications service works.

St. Tammany Parish Public Schools closed three hours earlier than normal dismissal times, Monday, November 9, due to possible problems from Hurricane Ida.  After care programs and night time events were not held.

Students of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System will soon be offered swine flu vaccinations free of charge, in a project being held in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH).

In a report to the School Board this past week, Supervisor Cathy Aime and Dr. Parham Jaberi, medical director for Region 9, DHH Office of Public Health, explained that arrangements were being finalized to offer the H1N1 vaccine to students. The effort will focus upon children nine years of age and younger, a group at-risk for serious consequences from the Swine Flu. That age group will require two doses 28 days apart, and the vaccination campaign is being designed to provide that schedule.

Vaccinations will also be given to school children of other ages, as well as to School System employees.

Letters will be sent out to parents with more details about the program as they become available. The vaccination campaign will take place on Saturdays at several schools on both sides of the parish. Parents may bring their children to the most convenient site, and employees will be able to get the shots by showing their ID cards.

Dr. Jaberi noted that the Department of Public Health held a mass vaccination exercise a couple of years ago, and the St. Tammany program against Swine Flu will put into practice the lessons learned from that exercise. He thanked the School Board for being one of the first School Systems in the state to conduct such a campaign and leading the way for other parishes to follow.

“Children often catch the flu from other children at their schools, then they go home and give it to their family members. By vaccinating the children and making them immune to the virus, it helps cut down the spread of the flu through the entire community,” he explained.

Mrs. Aime said that school children were learning how to prevent colds and flu by washing their hands repeatedly during the day, sneezing into their elbows, and placing used tissues into the trash. Students who exhibit flu-like symptoms at the beginning of the day are screened and sent home if necessary to prevent the spread of disease. Teachers and janitorial staff are continuing extra measures to combat the spread of colds and flu.

Dr. Jaberi spoke to the School Board in the Spring when concerns over the Swine Flu first arose. Over the past several months, he has maintained a close working relationship with School health officials to monitor H1N1 in the schools.

Four thousand students seeking information about college and careers converged upon the annual College and Career Path Fair held recently by the St. Tammany Parish Public School System at Pelican Park in Mandeville.

Participants were able to talk with representatives from more than 125 universities, apprenticeship programs, community and technical colleges, military academies, and lending institutions.

“The Castine Center was packed from start to finish,” said Dr. Regina Sanford, Secondary Supervisor, in a report to the School Board this month. “It was a tremendous success, giving students from throughout the parish the opportunity to meet with representatives from scores of colleges, vo-tech schools, and community service agencies.”

The aim was to provide students with the latest information to make career or college decisions. This year’s turnout brought a substantial increase in participants over last year’s event, Dr. Sanford said.

Hosted by the School System’s College Counseling Center, the program was assisted by numerous volunteers from non-profit organizations. Two sororities provided volunteers to help with registration, four Junior ROTC Units helped with unloading tables and display booths from vehicles, and all high schools sent guidance counselors and graduation coaches to assist in manning the information booths.

School bus drivers helped by bringing busloads of students to the event from Pearl River High School and Slidell High School.

Several non-profit agencies in attendance gave students a chance to enhance their college applications by learning about volunteering opportunities in the area so they could add community service hours to their resumes.

A teacher recruitment booth manned by Dorable Dangerfield with Human Resources and several school principals distributed information on careers in education. Also in attendance were representatives from the Project Graduation programs on both the east and west sides of St. Tammany Parish.

Dr. Sanford gave much credit for the success of the event to the School System’s College Counseling Center, staffed by Annette O’Regan and Christine Woodard. “Our vision to employ college counselors has proven to be quite a dividend for our students,” she said. The center also hosted a junior high college and career fair this year.

After the fair event, feedback was received from college recruiters and the non-profit organizations to serve as the key for strategic planning for next year’s fair.
All students in Grades 9-12 in public, private, or home-school programs were invited, along with their families, to attend the College and Career Fair at no charge.

The list of participants included Agnes Scott College, Aveda Institute, Baton Rouge Community College, Baylor University, Belhaven College, Belmont Abbey College, Belmont University, Birmingham-Southern College, Capital One Bank, Centenary College, Christian Brothers University, Colgate University, Cornell College, Court Reporting Institute of LA, Delgado Community College, Delta College- Covington, Delta State University, Dillard University, Emory University, Emory College, Oxford College, Fordham University, Grambling State University, Gulf Coast Bank & Trust, Hancock Bank, Harvard University, Howard University, Huntington Learning Center, and ITT Technical Institute.

Also in attendance were representatives from Johnson & Wales University, Judson College, Kaplan, Louisiana Army National Guard, LA School for Math, Science, and the Arts, LA.Barber Apprenticeship- UFCW Local 496, Louisiana College, Louisiana Education Loan Authority, Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (TOPS), Louisiana Rehabilitation Services, Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, Louisiana Scholars' College, Louisiana State University - Alexandria, Louisiana State University, Louisiana State University ROTC, Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana Technical College, Louisiana Technical College Sullivan, Loyola University of New Orleans, LSU Health Sciences Center, School of Allied Health, Mark Anthony Institute, and McNeese State University.

Also present were MedVance Institute of Baton Rouge, Mercer University, Millsaps College, Mississippi College, Mississippi State University, National EMS Academy, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Nicholls State University, Northshore District Nurses Association, Northwestern State University of LA, Nunez Community College, Oglethorpe University, Ohio State University, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Our Lady of the Lake College, Princeton Review, Purdue University, Reed College, Rollins College, Samford University, Santa Clara University, Savannah College of Art & Design, Sewanee: The University of the South, Southeastern Louisiana University, Southern Methodist University, Southern University - Baton Rouge, St. Tammany Fire District 4, The Catholic University of America, Tulane Air Force ROTC, Tulane Army ROTC, Tulane University, Tulane University School of Continuing Studies,United States Air Force Academy, and United States Air Force Reserve.

Representatives were also on hand from the United States Army, United States Coast Guard Academy, United States Coast Guard Recruiting, United States Marine Corps, United States Military Academy at West Point, United States Navy, University of Alabama, University of Georgia, University of Louisiana - Lafayette, University of Louisiana - Monroe, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), University of Mobile,University of New Orleans, University of Notre Dame, University of Richmond, University of South Alabama, University of Southern Mississippi, University of St. Thomas - Texas, University of Texas Austin, Vanderbilt University, Vanguard College of Cosmetology, Washington & Lee University, Washington University in St. Louis, William Carey University, Wofford College, and Xavier University of Louisiana.

Omni Bank recently announced seven winning nominations in this year’s “Making the Grade” program, a nationally recognized initiative that highlights successful educational projects in schools in Jefferson, Orleans, St. Tammany and St. John the Baptist parishes. Among the winners chosen from 200 entries were Pontchartrain Elementary School, Covington High School, and the a³ Virtual Academy.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, a partner in the OMNI Bank program, gathered with bank officials in honoring the winners at a ceremony October 26. Each winner received a $2,000 check from the Brees Dream Foundation, along with an award from OMNI.

Pontchartrain Elementary School in Mandeville was nominated for its KidSense Playground, a play area for special-needs students. A first-of-its-kind at any public school, the playground helps over-stimulated children work out their energy, regain their focus and work smarter back in the classroom. The playground accommodates children of all abilities, with wheelchair pathways and Braille-patterned mosaics.

Covington High School’s Option 3 program also gained “Making the Grade” recognition. Students who struggle with academics at Covington High have an option that helps them stay in school, enrolling them in vocational classes that keep them working toward graduation. Option 3 students can graduate with a standard high school diploma, a GED or a certificate in a career field, giving them a wider range of choices for life after high school. 

The a³ Virtual Academy, a System-wide program was honored for its internet-based teaching. By offering on-line classes, the virtual school helps teens enhance their educational efforts.  Students who struggle with a course can re-take it over the Internet, while ambitious students can take extra classes.

“Improving the quality of education is one of our most important responsibilities,” Bank President Kyle Waters said. “Where there is excellent performance in our schools, we want celebrate it. Where there are opportunities to put creative ideas to work, we want to be part of the process. That’s why we’re proud to support the ‘Making the Grade’ initiative.”

The 2008-2009 school year was the third consecutive school year in which OMNI BANK and Brees are co-sponsors. Begun in the late 1980s, the program has earned national recognition for encouraging parental involvement, motivating businesses to become involved in education, and inspiring teacher and student imagination.

At its October meeting, the School Board passed a resolution declaring October 26-30, 2009, to be “Red Ribbon Week,” encouraging schools to take part in the nationally-recognized event presenting a unified and visible commitment towards creating a Drug Free America.

The theme for Red Ribbon Week this year was “Be Smart, Be Safe, Be You.”

Cheryl Arabie, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, told the School Board that Red Ribbon Week is an ideal way for the schools to show the community their stand against drug abuse. “During Red Ribbon Week each school holds exciting activities and programs,” Mrs. Arabie stated. “The week gives our students an opportunity to show their personal commitment to a drug-free lifestyle through the symbol of the Red Ribbon.”

Throughout the parish, students and staff wore Red Ribbons during the week to show their support of the event.

Kindergarten and first grade students at Marigny Elementary School in Mandeville were delighted when on the second day of Red Ribbon Week, a Drug Enforcement Agency helicopter landed at their campus. The agency takes part in a number of Red Ribbon Week activities at St. Tammany Parish schools. Each class was able to take a close up look at the Bell 407 helicopter and have their photograph taken in front of it.

At Covington Elementary School, the annual Just Say No Club parade and rally took place Friday morning with a large turnout from several schools and several law enforcement agencies. It was largest group ever assembled for one of the Red Ribbon Week events, said Laurie Caserta of Covington Elementary.Two helicopters landed on Pitcher Junior High Field, one from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office and the other from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. David Graham from Customs spoke to students in attendance from Covington Elementary, Lyon Elementary, Pine View Middle School and St. Peter’s School, telling them the importance of obeying the rules, having integrity and working hard in school. In addition, parked around the football field were over a dozen vehicles used in drug law enforcement from the Sheriff’s Office, Covington Police Department, ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), National Guard, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, including boats, armored humvees, and a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) van.  Special displays included K-9 units and the Sheriff’s Office robot used for the remote handling of hazardous materials.The School Board resolution also expressed gratitude to the community volunteer organization Amplified Resources for its involvement in providing leadership in teaching young people about the life altering consequences associated with drugs and alcohol. The group, formerly known as PRIDE, helps raise awareness of the problem and teach drug abuse education classes to parents and students.

Red Ribbon Week was established in 1988 to honor the memory of a drug enforcement agent who was killed in the line of duty.

In a special election held October 17 voters of School Board District Nine chose Robin Mullett, a longtime PTA member, to fill the vacancy left by Carmen Johnson when she resigned the position in January due to a change in employment.
 
Ms. Mullett is expected to be sworn into office within 30 days.
 
“I am very excited to be elected to serve on our parish School Board and work with all the people who provide the education for our students,” Ms. Mullett said. “It is a continuation of my work in a number of different areas of our school system.”
 
She stated that her personal goal is to be the voice for students and parents of District Nine and the community. 
 
A graduate of Salmen High School, Ms. Mullett has lived in Slidell since 1969. She has three children and has been active for many years as a PTA officer and volunteer. She has worked as a paraprofessional in Special Education in St. Tammany Parish Public Schools and also served as a TAP Tutor.
 
Her involvements include working with the School SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) recertification committee, the “Teen Focus on Safe Driving” program and as a member of several Slidell High School parent committees.
           
In addition, she was Director of the Slidell/Pearl River Project Graduation 2009 and is a Life member for the Junior Auxiliary of Slidell, chapter of National Association of Junior Auxiliaries, volunteering for several Junior Auxiliary projects in St. Tammany Parish elementary, junior high and high schools during her five years as an active member.

Michael J. Gambrell was appointed as interim Board Member for District Nine in February and has been serving over the past several months. He chose not to run for the position in last Saturday’s election.

Two Slidell elementary schools have opened bank branches for students to give them first hand experience in opening and managing savings accounts. The Bank at School project is popular at several St. Tammany Parish public schools, providing real life skills in handling their finances and teaching the importance of saving money.

Brock Elementary School offered a Bank at School prior to Hurricane Katrina, and recently began operating its bank program again.  Alton Elementary School held its Grand Opening of its own banking program recently.  Together the schools had a total of approximately 60 students who banked a little over $500 on the first day of in-school banking, according to Shirrelle Gordon-Jefferson, liaison for the program.

Bank manager Holly Hooker with Whitney Bank in Old Town Slidell partnered with Brock Elementary and Alton Elementary Schools to provide the guidance for the student bank branches. The aim of the program is to help students learn the opportunities and responsibilities of saving money, with fifth grade students providing the manpower for the “bank” which offers a counter and teller windows at which other students conduct their financial transactions.

Parents, teachers and students kept school bus safety a top priority by observing the week of October 19 through October 23 as “National School Bus Safety Week.”

The theme of this year’s week was “Avoid Harm, Obey the Stop Arm,” a reference to traffic laws motorists must follow when a school bus stops to load or unload passengers. Cars driving around stopped school buses have resulted in many tragedies throughout the nation.

Additional efforts to insure the safety of bus passengers includes training drivers to be always aware of dangerous situations around bus stops, as well as dealing with distractions caused by students misbehaving on the bus.

In St. Tammany Parish public schools, the second week in February is set aside to show special appreciation for school bus owner/operators and bus attendants for their contributions and service.

In the 2008-2009 school year, approximately 25,393 St. Tammany students were transported by public school buses daily. The average daily distance covered by the 368 school buses totalled 28,782 miles.

School System officials and members of the Joseph B. Lancaster family took part in ceremonies to break ground for the new Lancaster Elementary west of Madisonville Friday morning, October 16. The new school, located between Pine Creek Drive and Perrilloux Road off Hwy. 22, will bring 47 additional classrooms to the fast growing southwest St. Tammany area.

Lancaster was the first officially-recorded superintendent of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System and was known for his vision of an educational system designed to meet the needs of a growing area. A number of Lancaster ancestors, some from out-of-state, attended the groundbreaking.

Gasaway-Gasaway-Bankston of Hammond is serving as architect for the project, with Donahue-Favret Contractors building the $18.3 million facility. The total square footage of the two-story building will be 104,814. The new school’s grade configuration will be grades two through five.

The event took place two weeks after the groundbreaking ceremonies for a new elementary school in the Slidell area, the Henry Mayfield Elementary off U.S. 190 near Tammany Trace.

The School Board agreed last year to name the new Madisonville area elementary school in honor of Lancaster after Superintendent Gayle Sloan recommended him for the honor. She recounted his many contributions to the community as lawyer, district attorney, judge, and state representative. “He was a very high-achieving individual,” she said.  He was named Superintendent by the first School Board in September of 1900, after it became an organized set of schools with parishwide administrative supervision and community governance.

Five descendants of Lancaster attended last year’s School Board meeting to name the school after their ancestor, including Lancaster's grandson, Judge Peter Garcia of the 22nd Judicial District. “Lancaster was a grandson of General David Bannister Morgan, who fought in the war of 1812 with Andrew Jackson and who is buried in Madisonville. So it is appropriate to name a Madisonville area school after him, since he has very strong connections to the Madisonville community,” Judge Garcia said.

Lancaster served as Superintendent of Schools until September, 1904, and died in 1916 in Franklinton.

For a photo slide show of the groundbreaking event,click here. (Windows Media Player required to show WMV file)

Kathryn J. McInnis, the technology helping teacher at Monteleone Junior High School, has been named one of two finalists for Louisiana’s 2009 Presidential Awardee for Secondary Mathematics.

She was recognized for the honor and presented a certificate at the October School Board meeting by Cheryl Arabie, Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction.  She is a finalist with one other teacher from Episcopal High in Baton Rouge.  The winner will be announced next year. 

The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching program was established by the White House in 1983. The program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and identifies outstanding mathematics and science teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade in each state.

Award recipients serve as models for their colleagues and are recognized as leaders in the improvement of mathematics and science education, Mrs. Arabie said.

McInnis graduated from Louisiana Tech in 1995. She taught in Jefferson Parish and St. Charles Parish before coming to St. Tammany Parish public schools in 2003 as a mathematics teacher at Fontainebleau Junior High School. She joined the Monteleone Junior High staff in 2005, and in 2008, she completed her masters degree in education technology from Southeastern Louisiana University.

In observance of National School Lunch Week, St. Tammany public school cafeterias are hosting special programs and decorations along with serving nutritious meals to students and visitors October 12 - 16. The theme of the week this year is “All Star School Lunch.”

The School Board passed a resolution October 8 recognizing the event and the School System’s award-winning Food Service Program.  Special appreciation was given to the many Student Nutrition Advisory Councils, student groups who help food service personnel plan and present attractive and nutritious menus throughout the year.

School Board members and Central Office administrators traditionally visit the schools during National School Lunch Week to meet with the students and cafeteria employees, joining many parents who also visit the schools during the event.

The Food Service staff serves over 34,000 meals daily, 8,823 of those being breakfast and the remaining 25,116 being lunches.

In announcing National School Food Service week, Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse commended Sylvia Dunn, Supervisor of the Food Service Department, her cafeteria managers, and lunchroom technicians.

For photos of one school's cafeteria decorating theme for the week, click here.

The School Board recently adopted a new policy which sets up procedures by which employees keep track of communications with students via electronic means. The policy outlines the reporting responsibilities called for by the new law, Act 214, that requires teachers and administrators keep a log of communications with students at their school when using electronic means such as cell phones, text messaging or other electronic media. The policy aims to keep track of electronic communications so that there is no misunderstanding as to the nature of the contact. The policy requires that such communications be of an educational nature.The new policy is available for viewing by clicking here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF File). A committee headed by Supervisor Cathy Aime put together the proposed version of the policy over the summer. Several parents, administrators, teachers, supervisors, and the Board’s legal counsel served on the group who worked out the details.

When the new procedures are implemented, letters will be sent to parents and employees notifying them of the new reporting requirements.

The fifth “Teen Focus on Safe Driving” was held at the Castine Center in Pelican Park east of Mandeville, October 14, 2009, presenting students from throughout St. Tammany Parish a wide variety of information on the importance of driving safely.

The theme this year was "The Amazing Race To Save Teen Drivers."In addition to several presentations on stage and discussion groups, a "Jaws of Life" demonstration was given in the parking lot, showing participants how first responders work to save the lives of people trapped in wrecked automobiles.

The first Teen Focus forum was held in November, 2004, in response to several tragic vehicle accidents in which teenagers from public and private schools were severely injured or killed. School System organizers brought together a wide range of knowledgeable community representatives to present their case in the first forum of its kind.“The safety of our youth is a top priority not only in our schools, but throughout the community,” said Superintendent Gayle Sloan. “We are committed to finding ways as a community to help prevent these deaths and injuries among our teens.”

The previous four teen forums have met tremendous success, with approximately 300 students from 14 high schools in attendance at each forum. They bring the message home to their high schools and conduct several follow up programs on their own campuses. Speakers at previous forums have included emergency room doctors, insurance experts, law enforcement officers, and beauty pageant winners telling their own stories of close encounters with tragedy on the roads.Participants at the forums learn vital facts about the issues surrounding teen driving, hear first hand experiences from accident victims, doctors and paramedics, and also visit a number of display booths staffed by volunteers from various community organizations.

Exhibitors taking part in this year's event included Acadian Ambulance, Amplify Resources, Booze ‘N Cruise, You Lose!, Buckle Up Stencil Project, DriveZebra.com, Lakeview Regional Medical Center, the Louisiana Automobile Theft & Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority, the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, Louisiana State Troopers, the Mandeville High SADD Chapter, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Safety Council, Operation Drive Smart, Precision Driving Academy, Project Graduation, St. Tammany Fire District No. (Slidell) & Fire District No.  (Mandeville) –  Jaws of Life, St. Tammany Parish Hospital Parenting Center, and the Youth Service Bureau of St. Tammany.

After the presentations, the teams brainstorm to come up with ideas on how to share their experience with their classmates who did not attend. The result is a “plan of action” for each high school which has, over the years, proven effective in reducing teen injuries and fatalities.

School students went to the Parish Fair recently to celebrate 100 years of a “Clean and Green St. Tammany,” showcasing ongoing programs to recycle and reuse materials and become better aware of their environment.

Almost every public school participated in the setting up of educational booths at the fairgrounds, a tradition that goes back many years. Fairgoers were treated to exhibits in several areas, including horticulture, livestock, 4-H Clubs, and arts and crafts. The Parish Fair observed its 100th anniversary in 2009.

Each year, the educational booths illustrate and explain the various ways in which students learn about their community, including field trips, research projects, community service projects, and essay assignments. Exhibit themes in the past few years have ranged from recording historical facts about their schools to the responsibility of citizens to vote in elections. This year’s theme involved St. Tammany’s heritage of environmental concern, showing how going “green” has been a local objective for decades.

The booths are judged in four grade level categories, and among the first place winners in each category an individual “Grand Prize” winner is designated. This year’s Grand Prize winners were Mandeville Elementary in the Elementary Category; Sixth Ward Elementary in the Middle Grades Category; St. Tammany Junior High in the Junior High Grade Category; and Mandeville High in the High School Grades Category. Covington Pathways was named the Grand Prize winner in the Other Category competition.

Employees with the St. Tammany Parish Public School System conduct several community service projects throughout the year, particularly around the December holiday season. These efforts include food collection drives, clothing drives, and regular United Way contributions.

This year, a shortage of supplies at the Covington Food Bank prompted Central Office staff members to hold a special food drive in September, gathering donations of red beans and rice and cornbread mix from throughout the various School System support offices.

In addition, individual schools are active in a variety of charitable projects throughout the School Year to help specific local, regional, and national causes. 

In keeping with a tradition nearly 100 years old, the St. Tammany Parish Public Schools System will close on the second day of the Parish Fair, Friday, October 2. The parish fair is observing its 100th anniversary this year, celebrating a century of bringing to local residents the best in horticultural exhibits, livestock competition, community arts and crafts, home economics and examples of excellent local efforts in many other fields.

Designated as “School Day” at the parish fair in Covington, the October 2 holiday will give students and their parents the opportunity to visit the many educational exhibits at the fairgrounds and attend other special events and family-oriented attractions. The fair begins on Thursday, October 1, and runs through Sunday, October 4.

The School System has partnered with the parish fair association for decades to give students the day off so they could participate in many key fair activities such as providing marching bands in the fair parade, taking part in livestock shows, and displaying  4-H Club and FFA Chapter projects. For many years, the parish fair parade included entire classes of school children walking to the fairgrounds for opening ceremony festivities.

In addition to the wide variety of programs designed for youngsters, the fair also offers more than 40 large educational exhibit displays put together by students from schools across the parish. These exhibits feature student work in grade levels kindergarten through 12th grade. The theme of this year’s educational displays will be “Green and Growing: Celebrating 100 Years of A Clean and Green St. Tammany.”

School System support offices will also close on Friday, October 2. They will re-open and classes will resume on Monday, October 5, 2009.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new 38-classroom Henry Mayfield Elementary School west of Slidell were held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Located at 31820 Hwy. 190 West, the new Mayfield Elementary School is the final construction project approved under the 2004 bond issue, with Polk Construction Corp. to do the work under a $18.9 million contract.

The school, which will relieve crowding at Bayou Woods Elementary and Carolyn Park Middle schools, will be on the south side of U.S. 190, just west of the Northshore Shopping Center and about a half mile east of Tranquility Road near Slidell. Plans for the school include 38 classrooms, a covered bus drop-off site, special education classrooms and music rooms. The  87,000-square-foot facility will be located on a 71 acre site adjacent to Tammany Trace.

The name for the school was proposed by Superintendent Gayle Sloan in August of 2004, following a request made by several retired educators that the Board consider naming a building to honor Henry L. Mayfield.    In 2007, representatives from the architectural firm of Coleman and Partners presented plans for the facility.

Mayfield Elementary is scheduled to open for the 2011-12 school year. The name for the school was proposed by Superintendent Gayle Sloan in August of 2004, and in 2007, representatives from the architectural firm of Dale Songy of Coleman and Partners presented plans for the facility.

Henry Mayfield was known as an academic leader in the parish. He began his career in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System in July, 1926, serving as a teacher for one year and as principal of Slidell Grammar School for eight years.  He was appointed the System’s first instructional supervisor in the Central Office in January, 1935. 

He served as a Supervisor of Instruction for 31 years.  Mr. Mayfield served as Assistant Superintendent from April, 1965, until his retirement in June, 1968. 

Before his retirement, Mr. Mayfield served with three Superintendents.  Mr. Mayfield also taught at Tulane University for more than ten years.  He died in 1992 at the age of 88.

According to former colleague Henri Ferrer, Mayfield worked as a “behind the scenes” leader whose expertise, dedication, and broad range of work helped make the St. Tammany System a leading school system.  Mr. Ferrer noted that Mr. Mayfield was recognized throughout Louisiana for his work in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System and in the field of education.  He was a frequent speaker at education conferences. 

“He could have worked in any university or school system in the country, but Henry opted to stay in St. Tammany,” said Mr. Ferrer.     

Grandparents from across St. Tammany Parish were invited to schools over the past four weeks to visit with and eat lunch with their grandchildren. Students invited their grandparents or any older adult they wanted to share the Grandparents Day special occasion with.

At Cypress Cove Elementary, the turnout was tremendous. “We have always had a great turnout for Grandparents Day,” said Principal Lisa Dial. “In fact, we offer the lunch on four different days in September, and often the same grandparents will come twice if they have more grandchildren.” On September 17 this year alone, there were 280 reservations, and many more without reservations, she said.

Students at the Kindergarten through First Grade school look forward to the event each year.

“It’s a fabulous thing,” Ms. Dial stated. “It’s an opportunity for the grandparents to visit the schools, and the kids love seeing their grandparents in school.” She made sure all the grandparents felt welcomed and told them that Cypress Cove Elementary had won many awards for its outstanding lunch menus. “The salad bar with fresh fruits and vegetables are always a hit with the grandparents. “

Many of the visitors come up afterwards to thank her and her staff for the event. “The first time we did this fifteen years ago, we did it all on one day, and we were still serving lunch at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, there were so many visiting grandparents,” Ms. Dial said. It has grown even more popular over the years.

National Grandparents Day was September 13, and different schools throughout the School System designated different special days for grandparents to be honored with programs, lunches, and classroom visits.

The week of September 21 is Grandparents Week at Mandeville Middle School, September 14 was Grandparents Day at Riverside Elementary School, and many other schools offered programs to honor, entertain, and recognize grandparents.

President Jimmy Carter first declared Grandparents Day a national holiday in 1978.

The Broadcasting Club at Florida Avenue Elementary got off to a great start Thursday, September 17, when WWL-TV News Anchor Lucy Bustamante served as guest host for the morning school news broadcast.

She took the place of Principal Ramona Carlin during a surprise visit to the school. After the morning broadcast, she met with all the sixth graders in the Broadcasting Club and told them about her experiences in television news.

During the morning broadcast, Gary Bennett, the computer lab technician at the school, manned the video camera and helped coach the four students from Sixth Grade Teacher Katy Vorenkamp’s broadcasting class, while Principal Carlin introduced Ms. Bustamante. The morning broadcast featured the date, how many days left in the school year, weather news, and a tip on how to save energy.

Ms. Bustamante talked to the sixth grade students about the challenges and opportunities presented in broadcast journalism, everything from overcoming nervousness to interviewing heads of state. She explained how she and her crew listen to police and fire radio scanners all the time in an effort to catch the next big news story, and she reminded the students that every news story has a what, where, who, and how. Among the people she has interviewed are Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush and movie star Brad Pitt.

When the students asked who was the most interesting person she had ever interviewed,  she couldn’t name any particular person. “Because everyone is interesting in their own way,” she responded. She recently returned from New York where she was able to interview Regis Philbin, who is recognized as one of the most watched men on television.

Being a popular local news anchor means that she is often recognized in stores, she added.

With the encouragement of her mother, she got her start on the local television show for high school students, then moved on to an internship with a New Orleans television station where her news writing duties gradually increased. She stressed that knowing how to write well was essential, since news reporters and anchors have only a short period of time to clearly communicate important news to viewers who may be facing numerous distractions as they watch the news.

Ms. Bustamante also told the students that checking their facts is another key part of the business. “We have to be sure to use credible sources and reliable people,” she said. “There’s always the chance that someone will come along later and ask us where we got our information from,” she explained. Even information from the internet has to be checked out and verified as coming from a reliable source, she said.

The students asked several questions about careers in television news, how to get started, and what were the hours and salaries that could be expected.

Later this year, the students may take a field trip to WWL-TV news studios as a result of an invitation from Ms. Bustamante.

Principal Carlin said the daily presentation of school announcements has changed over the years, going from a general assembly of all the students to her delivering a newscast over the intercom in radio broadcast style. When they asked how many sixth grade students wanted to be involved in the new video broadcasting class, practically everyone raised their hands.

She hopes that as interest builds in the broadcasting class students will begin doing video features on the events and programs at the school. The visit by Ms. Bustamante will help focus attention on the great projects the broadcasting students can start thinking about, she concluded.

The St. Tammany Parish Public School System website now has a new “mobile” version available for better viewing on cell phones equipped with internet access.

The web pages on the new website are specifically designed for clearer viewing on the smaller cell phone screens. The address of the new website is http://mobile.stpsb.org.

The mobile web site features reformatted versions of key School System web pages, giving on-the-go access to important announcements, school addresses and phone numbers. The home page on the mobile site features links to four main categories: Breaking News, Important Numbers, School Directory, School Calendar, and Emergency Information.

For more detailed information, graphics, and photographs, parents can continue to visit the main School System website and/or the individual School webpages.

The fifth “Teen Focus on Safe Driving” will be held at the Castine Center in Pelican Park east of Mandeville on Wednesday, October 14, 2009, presenting to students from throughout St. Tammany Parish information on the importance of driving safely.

The first Teen Focus forum was held in November, 2004, in response to several tragic vehicle accidents in which teenagers from public and private schools were severely injured or killed. School System organizers brought together a wide range of knowledgeable community representatives to present their case in the first forum of its kind.

“The safety of our youth is a top priority not only in our schools, but throughout the community,” said Superintendent Gayle Sloan in announcing the date of this year’s Teen Focus on Safe Driving. “We are committed to finding ways as a community to help prevent these deaths and injuries among our teens.”

The previous four teen forums have met tremendous success, with approximately 300 students from 14 high schools in attendance at each forum. They bring the message home to their high schools and conduct several follow up programs on their own campuses.

Speakers at the forum have included emergency room doctors, insurance experts, law enforcement officers, and beauty pageant winners telling their own stories of close encounters with tragedy on the roads.

Participants at the forums learn vital facts about the issues surrounding teen driving, hear first hand experiences from doctors and paramedics, and also visit a number of display booths staffed by volunteers from various community organizations.

After the presentations, the teams have the opportunity to share their thoughts and brainstorm ways to help reduce teen accidents on the highways. The result is a “plan of action” for each high school which has, over the years, proved effective in reducing teen injuries and fatalities.

The forum is also accompanied by an art poster contest with the Teen Focus on Safe Driving theme.

For more information on the event, contact Terry Meyer at the St. Tammany Parish Public School System, 985-892-2276.

Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek visited teachers and students at Abney Elementary School in Slidell on Wednesday, September 9, to tour classrooms and learn about the new STARS program and local efforts to establish a Teacher Advancement Program.

He had been invited by Principal Mike Alford to see the progress being made at the school after Pastorek came to St. Tammany earlier in the year. Pastorek spent over an hour at Abney talking with teachers, students, and administrators, including Superintendent of Schools Gayle Sloan and School Board President John Lamarque.

Most of his visit took place in the STARS classroom where 15 students are given extra instructional time to help them transition to the second grade.  Abney Elementary’s STARS pilot program provides extra tutoring and special attention to students entering the second grade by providing three weeks of classroom time prior to the actual start of school. The smaller teacher to student ratio, plus the use of the FastForward computer reading program, enables much improved progress at the start of the school year.

The class will remain together for the entire year, with never more than 15 students in the group. Principal Alford said that next year he is planning to expand it to three additional classes in third and fifth grade.

Alford had also visited the new Teacher Advancement program at a Rapides Parish elementary school and came back to Abney with plans to implement the professional development program at his own campus. A trip is now being planned for some of his teachers to visit the program in Rapides for a first-hand look at the program in action.

Schools throughout St. Tammany Parish took part in a variety of programs held in observance of Patriot's Day September 11, when special appreciation is expressed to law enforcement officers and firefighters for their dedicated service to the community.

In keeping with the day’s theme, students made banners, cards, and welcomed visiting police officers and fire district officials on campus throughout the day. Superintendent Gayle Sloan encouraged principals at the beginning of the School Year to plan special events in keeping with the significance of the day.

At Pontchartrain Elementary School in Mandeville, police officers and firefighters greeted children as they arrived at the school from the car line and came off the school buses.

Several firefighters from Fire Protection District No. 1 and area police officers were guests of honor for lunch at Fontainebleau Junior High School. The entire student body took part in creating decorations for the event in the cafeteria.

Patriot's Day was first established to honor the police and emergency personnel who lost their lives in the 9-11 World Trade Center tragedy in 2001. Some social studies classes viewed videos about the memorials being planned for those who lost their lives in the attacks.

A program to boost interest and skills in reading is underway at Covington High, with students and teachers taking part in several activities through the Readers Are Leaders program. One of the activities is an observance of September as “National Literacy Month” with September 8 designated as “International Literacy Day.”

Now in its third year, the Readers are Leaders program at CHS offers students various incentives for achieving pre-determined benchmarks in reading and recognizes the accomplishments of those who read a certain number of books during the school year.

Recently, three community leaders and Mayor Candice Watkins participated in a panel discussion at the school on the importance of reading and how it impacted their jobs. Mike Smith, the school’s closed-circuit TV channel director, had his Broadcasting Class students video-tape the interview sessions with the community leaders.

Mayor Watkins shared with student host Mary Myers how reading has been a challenge throughout her life. “I am a slow reader today because I didn’t read a lot when young, “she said. “Although I love to read for pleasure, I don’t have much time for that. That’s what I do on vacations, read.”
 
“In my job, I have to read over a hundred emails every day,” Mayor Watkins went on to say. One important factor in reading well is that it means being able to remain aware of opportunities that become available to us, the Mayor stated. She also noted that existing literacy improvement programs for Covington citizens are bringing about good results.

She read a proclamation for National Literacy Month that pointed out that the gift of reading opens the door to a world of imagination, lifetime experiences and enhances economic opportunities. “The ability to read is fundamentally necessary to leading a full and productive life,” the proclamation stated. “We want to stress the importance of literacy to achieving your dreams and enhancing your lives,” the Mayor concluded.

The other guests were a professional offshore surveyor, Greg Ryals; Pastor of the Greater Starlight Baptist Church, the Rev. Mallery Callahan; and the Youth Services Librarian for the Covington Library Branch, Ms. Jane Perreault.

Lisa Jamieson, the reading teacher at CHS, is coordinating the program this year, its third year at the school. The Readers Are Leaders program was implemented to motivate all the students to read. It calls upon them to keep a log of books read, with medals and certificates given for outstanding reading accomplishments.

Results have been impressive over the past few years, Jamieson stated, with students showing a new appreciation and passion for reading.

On September 8, the interviews will be aired on the school’s closed circuit television channel and may be aired on Channel 13 as well.

The school has partnered with the St. Tammany Parish Library in Covington in reaching out to the community to demonstrate to students the importance of reading as it pertains to literacy.

An educational television segment that showcases healthy cooking for children filmed at Cypress Cove Elementary School last year has won a Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications.

The "best practices" video entitled "Cooks for Kids" was part of a series being put together by the National Food Service Management Institute (USDA) and was created by Running Pony Productions out of Memphis, TN. It won in the category of Educational, Informational or Training Video Production - Longer than 15 minutes.

The Cypress Cove segment focuses on local school cafeteria preparation of a regional favorite, gumbo made with a greaseless brown roux. Videos were shot of food preparation, students in lunch lines and the dining room, and interviews with students, Principal Lisa Dial, Food Service Manager Robin Blakeman, and Food Service Supervisor Sylvia Dunn.

Additional video was shot of a nutrition education class, physical education class, and general campus views at Cypress Cove Elementary.

The purpose of the program "Cooks for Kids: Healthful Cooking Across America" is to address the problem of childhood obesity by offering ideas for healthier food preparation through school food service departments. Food service employees were the primary audience for the videos being produced. Teaching healthy food habits to children that will carry the wellness message into the home is a goal of the thirty-minute showcase of recipes, techniques, and practical solutions that schools can adopt to prepare healthier and tastier meals.

The Clarion Award honors excellence across all communication disciplines, with judging based on substance, style, originality and achievement of objective. The award will be presented on October 17 at the 2009 AWC National Conference in Seattle, WA. This year the competition drew nearly 500 entries, and 97 Clarions were awarded in a variety of categories.

In response to a recently passed state law concerning employee communications with students via electronic means, the School Board is currently reviewing a draft version of a new policy which will outline the reporting responsibilities under the new law.

A policy dealing with the new state law must be established by November 15. The Board is expected to discuss the proposed policy at the October 1 Committee As A Whole meeting. For public review, the proposed policy and guidelines are available by clicking here. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF File).

The new law, Act 214, requires that teachers and administrators keep a written log of contacts with students at their school when using electronic means such as cell phones, text messaging or other electronic media. The policy aims to keep track of electronic communications so that there is no misunderstanding as to the nature of the contact. The proposed policy would require that such communications be of an educational nature.

A committee headed by Supervisor Cathy Aime put together the draft version of the policy over the summer. Several parents, administrators, teachers, supervisors, and the Board’s legal counsel served on the group who worked out the details.  When the new procedures are adopted, letters will be sent to parents and employees notifying them of the new reporting requirements.

To provide public comment on the proposed policy, email remarks to public.comment@stpsb.org or click here.

The legislative bill calling for the new procedures was introduced by Rep. Frank Hoffman earlier this year.

The football stadium at Mandeville High School was officially dedicated to Coach Sidney Theriot in ceremonies Friday, September 4, 2009.

A large crowd of former students, administrators, colleagues, and friends and family were on hand to help celebrate the occasion. A plaque with Theriot's name and likeness was unveiled at the stadium, and afterwards, in a program at the school's auditorium, a video was shown of his career featuring interviews from his colleagues.

At a meeting in April, the School Board voted to name the stadium in honor of Coach Theriot, the long time coach and math teacher who started the first football program at the school in the mid-1960’s. He was given a standing ovation at the meeting for his more than 40 years as a coach and educator. A plaque with Theriot’s name and likeness has been installed at the Mandeville Skippers home field.

A Mandeville High School graduate who played on the school’s first football team in 1967 first proposed that the Mandeville High stadium be named after Coach Theriot, and widespread support for the idea came from former students, administrators, and former football players in Theriot’s athletics programs over the years.

Mike Dobson said that Theriot had “incredible positive impact” on the lives of those student athletes who were under his direction. He recounted the first season played by the team, the challenges they faced, and the life lessons they experienced. Many MHS alumni also remember Theriot as an excellent math teacher, he said.

Dobson recalled that in the first year of football at Mandeville High,  “Coach Theriot laid out the field, planted, watered, and cut the grass, lined the field before home games, washed the uniforms after the games, prepared scouting reports of the next games, wrote the articles that appeared in the paper, and many times drove the team bus. He had tremendous work ethic, taught us the value of teamwork, and was unselfish with his time and effort.”

To view a Quicktime movie of the stadium dedication ceremonies, click here.

In previous recognitions of contributions by area coaches, Covington High Stadium was named after Coach Jack Salter and Slidell High School Stadium was named in honor of L. V. McGinty, Sr.

Marigny Elementary School, the newest elementary school in St. Tammany Parish, hosted its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, September 4.

A large number of parents, teachers, T-1 students and guests gathered in the school's auditorium to hear a welcome by Principal Leslie Martin, the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem presented by Kitty Cleveland,  and remarks by Superintendent Gayle Sloan. Beverly Muller and Stephanie Ross, PTA Co-presidents, also gave welcoming comments to those present.

Several administrators, School Board members, and individuals involved in the construction of the facility took part in the ribbon cutting ceremonies.The school opened August 7 to Pre-school, Kindergarten and T-1 students from Magnolia Trace Elementary. The new school is located at 1715 Viola Street in Mandeville, near Magnolia Trace Elementary and Lake Harbor Middle School. It was named in honor of Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville, the founder of Mandeville.

A starfish serves as the school mascot, and light blue and red were chosen as the school colors. At the ceremony, the students told why they had chosen the starfish as their mascot.

The campus was designed by the Gossen-Gasaway-Bankston architectural firm and built by Woodrow Wilson Construction Co. Inc.

The football stadium at Mandeville High School will be officially dedicated to Coach Sidney Theriot in ceremonies Friday, September 4, 2009, at 5:30 p.m., an hour before the first home game of the 2009 season against John Curtis High School.

A large crowd of former students, administrators, colleagues, and friends and family is expected to attend to help celebrate the occasion.

At a meeting in April, the School Board voted to name the stadium in honor of Coach Theriot, the long time coach and math teacher who started the first football program at the school in the mid-1960’s. He was given a standing ovation at the meeting for his more than 40 years as a coach and educator. A plaque with Theriot’s name and likeness has been installed at the Mandeville Skippers home field.

A Mandeville High School graduate who played on the school’s first football team in 1967 first proposed that the Mandeville High stadium be named after Coach Theriot, and widespread support for the idea came from former students, administrators, and former football players in Theriot’s athletics programs over the years.

Mike Dobson said that Theriot had “incredible positive impact” on the lives of those student athletes who were under his direction. He recounted the first season played by the team, the challenges they faced, and the life lessons they experienced. Many MHS alumni also remember Theriot as an excellent math teacher, he said.

Dobson recalled that in the first year of football at Mandeville High,  “Coach Theriot laid out the field, planted, watered, and cut the grass, lined the field before home games, washed the uniforms after the games, prepared scouting reports of the next games, wrote the articles that appeared in the paper, and many times drove the team bus. He had tremendous work ethic, taught us the value of teamwork, and was unselfish with his time and effort.”

In previous recognitions of contributions by area coaches, Covington High Stadium was named after Coach Jack Salter and Slidell High School Stadium was named in honor of L. V. McGinty, Sr.

A variety of summer programs offered to students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade keep St. Tammany Public School System teachers and campuses pretty busy during June and July, according to Julie Matte, who gave a summer program report to the School Board recently.

Matte’s report brought Board members up to date on the large number of educational opportunities offered throughout the parish this past summer, everything from reading camps and band practices, to LEAP Remediation and Spanish language camp.

Summer programs for pre-kindergarten students were designed to continue their educational training in language-development, thinking skills and social development. “Teachers and paraprofessionals worked hand-in-hand to provide enriching and engaging experiences for the young students,” Matte stated.

Camp READ is a popular summer program for third grade children who seek additional instruction in building reading and writing skills. Special techniques are used to help develop confidence in their reading ability. This summer’s program had a theme revolving around “Ancient Rome,” which was carried out in various interesting ways.

A five week program, Camp Learn-A-Lot was held for the Alton Elementary School learning community and offered hands-on activities and group instruction, with individual instruction provided where needed. Math and science were the focus of the lessons presented. This was the second year Camp Learn-A-Lot has been offered, Ms. Matte stated.

The ESL (English as a Second Language) summer program was held at Chahta-Ima Elementary, Mandeville Elementary, and Whispering Forest Elementary. The goal was to immerse students from Kindergarten through Sixth Grade in the English language so they could continue acquiring skills through the summer. Chahta-Ima Elementary also offered ESL instruction for junior high and high school students as well as any interested adults.

At Honey Island Elementary, a two week Spanish language camp was held for the first time. Students participated in a variety of activities that enriched their learning of Spanish, including game-playing, arts and crafts, dancing, geography lessons, and cultural studies involving several different Spanish-speaking countries.

A new three-week program offered for the first time this summer was Second Grade Stars (Students That Are Ready To Shine). It helped students entering second grade to fine-tune their first grade skills in reading, writing, and math before making the transition. Classes were kept small to enhance small-group and individual instruction, and once the regular school year started, students in STARS found that their second grade teacher was the same person who had worked with them during the summer.

Other summer programs meeting the needs of specific groups of students included the Extended School Year program, LEAP Summer Remediation for 4th and 8th Grade students, and GEE Summer Remediation and Retesting for high school students. More than 750 students took part in Summer Band Camps offered at high schools across the parish.

The School System’s Virtual Academy hosted several online programs for a large number of  students wishing to take advantage of the additional instruction and extra courses available during the summer.

Elementary Summer School and High School Summer School helped students overcome deficiencies on their report cards and gave many participants help in strengthening areas in which they need additional instruction.

Community education classes were also available at seven schools across St. Tammany for students from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade. Classes range from Square Dancing and arts and crafts to a variety of other interests.

After the presentation, Superintendent Gayle Sloan told the Board members that with the full slate of summer programs being offered students and the community, the School System does offer year-round educational opportunities in a wide selection of subjects and activities.

Marigny Elementary School, the newest elementary school in St. Tammany Parish, will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, September 4, at 10:00 a.m.

The school opened August 7 to Pre-school, Kindergarten and T-1 students from Magnolia Trace Elementary. The new school is located at 1715 Viola Street in Mandeville, near Magnolia Trace Elementary and Lake Harbor Middle School. It was named in honor of Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville, the founder of Mandeville.

A starfish serves as the school mascot, and light blue and red were chosen as the school colors.

The campus was designed by the Gossen-Gasaway-Bankston architectural firm and built by Woodrow Wilson Construction Co. Inc. with funding being provided by the 2004 Bond Issue. Work began in November of 2007.

A separate road for school buses provides access from La. Hwy. 59 to the side of the school site, keeping buses and private cars apart as parents drop off their children at the front of the school.

Principal Leslie Martin and Assistant Principal Marcella Caesar spent the summer getting things ready at the new elementary school and were on hand with the rest of the staff to welcome new students to the facility the first day of school.

Public schools in St. Tammany Parish will close Monday, September 7, 2009, in recognition of the traditional Labor Day Holiday. School System support offices will also be closed that day.

After the three-day weekend, support offices will re-open and classes will resume on Tuesday, September 8.

Initial classroom counts are showing an increase of 527 students attending St. Tammany Parish Public Schools this year.

A preliminary student count earlier this month showed that the largest increases came at four schools, Madisonville Junior High School, Abney Elementary School, Slidell High School, and Salmen High School. Those four account for approximately half of the total increase, with the other half spread out among the rest of the School System.

School System leaders had expected some growth and took that into consideration when hiring teachers before the school year began.

Student counts are held on the first day of school and then on several subsequent Fridays. Administrators are closely examining the initial enrollment figures to determine where additional teachers may be needed or where teachers can be shifted to better serve the new student population. Since classes started, eight new teachers have been added parish-wide.

Administrators say they will continue to look at future counts to see if any additional staffing will be needed due to the increased enrollment.

A professional development program to train future administrative leaders for the St. Tammany Parish Public Schools has now been enhanced with ten interactive sessions and in-the-field experience.

The new LEAD Academy will offer exposure to a wide variety of on-site administrative practices to create better understanding of what is expected of St. Tammany Parish administrators and make participants more knowledgeable of the day-to-day activities of school operations. The focus is on first hand, interactive experiences.

“The year long program widens the scope of our existing Prospective Administrators Academy,” said Roxanne Lagarde of the Professional Development Office in Human Resources. The School System began its administrative training program in 1987.

In the newly-designed sessions, supervisors and principals will meet with participants throughout the year to discuss the leadership qualities of highest importance to administrators, as well as discuss various scenarios that principals and assistant principals may face from time to time in their daily administrative responsibilities.

“The program gives an overview of the ideas involving administrative leadership that we in the public school system believe are essential to school operations,” said Brandon Clanton, Human Resources supervisor. “We emphasize many of the daily interactions that principals and assistant principals will have with the various departments and personnel within each school as well as how to interact with parents, the public, staff members and students.”

Academy participants will also spend 35 hours in field experiences with their site administrators, everything from chaperoning events, helping with the School Improvement Plan, learning and possibly participating in the school budgetary process and other activities that occur inside of a school setting that as non-administrators, they would not be exposed to on a frequent basis.

Among the topics to be discussed at the sessions will be the School System’s vision, the emergency preparedness plan, sexual harassment policies, discipline procedures, job applicant interviews, positive work environments, staff evaluation, special education, bus transportation and school food service operations.

Certificated employees may apply to take part in the leadership training program even without specific administrative certification. “It is open to any certificated person with a desire to learn more about administrative responsibilities and gives them a chance to learn first-hand if that is a direction in which they want to go in their professional career,” said Lagarde. The program will welcome people who are already working on their administrative certification and those who already have that certification.

Officials expect from 20 to 30 persons to take part in this year’s new LEAD Academy. LEAD is an acronym for “Leading Effective Administrative Development.

Application forms for taking part in the LEAD Academy are available by clicking here.

St. Tammany Parish Public Schools are continuing to use universal precautions in order to prevent the spread of all types of infections, including the H1N1 virus and the flu virus. Dr. Parham Jaberi, MD, medical director for Department of Health and Hospitals (Office of Public Health Region 9) told the School Board Thursday night that the H1N1 virus, commonly called Swine Flu, has proven to be fairly mild for most normally healthy people.

He gave an overview of the Swine Flu situation, how it is affecting schools statewide, and precautions parents and educators can take to prevent the spread of infection. “The concern is out there,” he said, referring to an Open House meeting he attended at Tchefuncte Middle School the night before. “There were over 1000 people present, and we were able to assure them that the swine flu is similar to regular season flu, somewhat milder, and requires the same precautions and methods of treatment.”

Dr. Jaberi has been closely monitoring the situation and staying in contact with School Officials for the past few weeks, and he told the Board that the community can be sure that the Office of Public Health and the School System is doing everything they can do. “We are on the right track,” he stated, noting that carefully monitoring of the situation will continue as the regular flu season approaches.

A video featuring Dr. Jaberi's remarks at the School Board meeting is available for viewing by clicking here. (Quicktime Movie Player needed to play video.)

School Board member Donald VIllere thanked Dr. Jaberi for his update, and especially for his attendance at the Tchefuncte Middle Open House. “It helped our parents to hear his view of the situation. We don’t want to overreact,” VIllere commented.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan told the Board about the week’s higher than normal absences, believed to be caused in part by parents keeping their children home because of the concern over swine flu. She explained how the high level of concern over swine flu in the Spring has eased somewhat as more information about the disease has been brought out. “Since we now know that Swine Flu is actually milder than originally thought, we wanted to get good information out to the parents so they can take the proper precautions,” she stated, “and make sure we are all on the same page about what is being done and what we need to do.” Superintendent Sloan will continue to follow the directions of the Office of Public Health as the season progresses and more information is gathered about the flu situation in general.

School nurses have been instructing students on the proper way to wash their hands and cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough. Special supplies have been brought in to enhance the current cleaning efforts by school custodial staff members.

Little was known about the H1N1 virus when it first emerged in the spring, or how seriously it could affect people's health, so medical workers and school officials were encouraged to proceed with an overabundance of caution, resulting in several school closures throughout Louisiana and the nation. The CDC is no longer encouraging the closure of schools due to cases of Swine Flu. If a child has a fever, medical experts are recommending the child remain out of school for 24 hours after the fever and major symptoms are gone.

A video interview with Dr. Jaberi and Superintendent Gayle Sloan is available online by clicking here.

Superintendent Sloan sent a letter to parents home with students Thursday giving additional details. An online version of this letter is available by clicking here.

Dr. Jaberi serves as the public health medical official for the region, which encompasses Livingston, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes. He is responsible for addressing any disease and health-related concerns that arise in this area and coordinating the response with the state health officer, state epidemiologist and other OPH officials.

For more information about swine flu symptoms, click here.

The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for St. Tammany Parish's newest high school was held on Friday. Lakeshore High School hosted a number of visiting local and regional dignitaries, School Officials, parents, students, and school personnel for the event.

Principal Brennan McCurley welcomed visitors, and the Lakeshore Titans band and Dance Team helped with the festivitives. Several School Board members and Superintendent Gayle Sloan participated in cutting the silver and black ribbon held across the front door of the new school for the official ceremony.

Lakeshore High is on a 60 Acre Site west of Hwy. 1088. The 158,550 square foot facility provides 39 classrooms, nine computer and business labs, and six science labs. The campus consists of a main classroom building, a gymnasium, Agri-science building, parking lots, a bus loop, and entry roads. The cafeteria features a full service kitchen and three service lines, with seating available for 336 students. The gymnasium offers General Assembly seating for 1,100 and basketball game seating for 1,000. The gym also has two classrooms, Coachs' offices, and locker rooms. The Agri-science building features an Autotech shop, a Woodwork shop, two classrooms, and one drafting classroom. Parking lots accommodate 216 faculty vehicles, 24 administration and visitor cars, and 590 student vehicles.

The athletic facilities are now nearing completion, and they will provide a football stadium with 1900 seats in the Home Section and 1,000 seats in the visitor bleachers. The playing field will be artificial turf, a first for St. Tammany Parish public schools.The stadium will feature an eight-lane track for track and field events. Two practice fields, four tennis courts, a field house, concession stands, and additional parking are also a part of the athletic complex area. Adjacent to the football stadium, the project includes a Baseball Field, Softball Field, Field House, and Concession Stand.

An auditorium is planned in the future with a seating capacity of 500 persons, a stage, dressing room, and orchestra pit.

Three new avenues of communication will be available to parents and employees of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System this School Year, an instant alert notification service for emergencies, an informative e-newsletter to be sent out periodically, and a mobile version of the School System web site designed especially for cell phone access.

The alert notification service will offer instant communications through text messaging or voice call alerts for any emergency situations which may develop at a school or Systemwide. Parents and employees may sign up for the service by going to the Alert Notification Log In Page, and clicking on the sign up link.

Registering for the service means that, in emergency situations, parents and employees will be sent special alerts to the phone numbers and other means of communications they choose. School-specific alerts will be sent out for the individual school sites checked by the person registering during the sign-up process. This will be used only for emergency situations and unscheduled school closings.

To view an informative video showing how to sign up for the alert notification service, click here. (You Tube video)

The second new means of communication, the e-newsletter service, will offer up-to-date information about events and programs of interest to the St. Tammany Parish Public School System parents and employees. Scheduled to be sent out quarterly, the news articles will focus on exciting programs happening within our schools and important dates and information for parents and community members. To sign up for this service, go to http://www.stpsb.org/CommServices/indexcommsystems.htm

The mobile phone web site features a reformatted version of the regular School System web site, giving on-the-go access to school directory information, district phone numbers, and other convenient information. It is designed to be viewed over cell phone screens with clear easy-to-read type and links. More information on this service will be released as the date nears for the official launch of the mobile website.

The alert notification service and e-newsletter registration processes are scheduled to begin on the opening day of school August 7.

All students in Grades 9-12 in public, private, or home-school programs are invited, along with their families, to attend the 2009-2010 College and Career Fair on Wednesday, September 30, beginning at 6:00 pm.

This free event will be held at Castine Center in Pelican Park in Mandeville and is open to the public.

Participants will be able to talk with representatives from more than 125 universities, apprenticeship programs, community and technical colleges, military academies, and lending institutions. Printed information will also be available for many other programs of interest to college-bound high school students.

For more information on the College and Career Fair, please call the College Counseling Center, 227 N. Jefferson Avenue in Covington, at (985) 898-6478.

The annual fall Coaches Event held by the St. Tammany Parish Public School System featured a talk by Van Chancellor, Head Coach of the LSU Womens Basketball Team.

A veteran head coach of 30 years at both the collegiate and professional levels, he told how coaches can have a powerful positive impact on young people’s lives, especially in junior high and high school grade levels.

The event took place at the Instructional Technology Center, with hundreds of coaches and assistant coaches attending. The purpose of the meeting is to give local coaches a chance to hear from one of the most successful coaches in the state and also to meet each other prior to the beginning of the various sports seasons.

Chancellor led the United States to a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics Games, won four WNBA titles with the Houston Comets and 14 NCAA Tournament appearances at Ole Miss. In his first season at LSU, the Lady Tigers went to the Final Four for the fifth straight season. He guided the team to its third Southeastern Conference regular season title in four seasons, and for his efforts Chancellor was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year by both the coaches and the media and was one of four finalists for the Naismith National Coach of the Year award.

In addition to his 2007 induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Chancellor is also a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. During his ten years as head coach of the Houston Comets, he was named the WNBA Coach of the Year three times, and his team posted a 211-111 record, making him the winningest coach in the history of the league. In addition to his coaching duties, Chancellor has also spent time serving as a television analyst for women's college basketball, working for both ESPN and SEC-TV.

Click here for additional photos from the event. (Windows Media Player file)

Parents will want to mark their calendars for next year’s dates for the standardized tests required by the Louisiana Department of Education. LEAP, iLEAP and GEE testing will take place the week of April 12 through April 16, 2010, throughout the St. Tammany Parish Public School System.

LAA-2 Testing will also take place the week of April 12 through April 16.

The three major standardized tests now used in the State accountability program include the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP), administered in grades 4 and 8; the Graduate Exit Exam (GEE), administered in grades 10 and 11; and the integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (iLEAP), administered in grades 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9.   All these tests are built on the Louisiana Grade Level Expectations (GLE’s), with the exception of a portion of the iLEAP test, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which is norm- referenced.

Standardized testing in the St. Tammany Parish Public School System is linked to the Louisiana Accountability Program.  In 2005-2006, the accountability program was modified to comply with Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements.  The requirement to test every student using a criterion-referenced test, beginning with the third grade, is one factor that has prompted a major change in the State testing program. 

Teachers use the results from these tests, along with evaluation of the daily classroom performance of students, to help assess needs and improve learning.

Three new avenues of communication will be available to parents and employees of the St. Tammany Parish Public School System this School Year, an instant alert notification service for emergencies, an informative e-newsletter to be sent out periodically, and a mobile version of the School System web site designed especially for cell phone access.

The alert notification service will offer instant communications through text messaging or voice call alerts for any emergency situations which may develop at a school or Systemwide. Parents and employees may sign up for the service by going to the Alert Notification Log In Page, and clicking on the sign up link.

Registering for the service means that, in emergency situations, parents and employees will be sent special alerts to the phone numbers and other means of communications they choose. School-specific alerts will be sent out for the individual school sites checked by the person registering during the sign-up process. This will be used only for emergency situations and unscheduled school closings.

To view an informative video showing how to sign up for the alert notification service, click here. (You Tube video)

The second new means of communication, the e-newsletter service, will offer up-to-date information about events and programs of interest to the St. Tammany Parish Public School System parents and employees. Scheduled to be sent out quarterly, the news articles will focus on exciting programs happening within our schools and important dates and information for parents and community members. To sign up for this service, go to http://www.stpsb.org/CommServices/indexcommsystems.htm

The mobile phone web site features a reformatted version of the regular School System web site, giving on-the-go access to school directory information, district phone numbers, and other convenient information. It is designed to be viewed over cell phone screens with clear easy-to-read type and links. More information on this service will be released as the date nears for the official launch of the mobile website.

The alert notification service and e-newsletter registration processes are scheduled to begin on the opening day of school August 7.

The first day of the 2009-2010 School Year went smoothly for public schools across St. Tammany Parish Friday, as teachers and school administrators greeted new and returning students from First through 12th Grade.

The School Board heard a Back-To-School report by Superintendent Gayle Sloan at its Committee meeting held the night before, with updates by Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse and Assistant Superintendents Cheryl Arabie and Pete Jabbia.

Janitorial and maintenance crews were praised for their efforts in the schools all summer, as they completed repairs, maintenance projects, and custodial work. Information Technology staff members upgraded technology systems, ran new wiring,  and installed wireless networking and security video cameras.

Transportation Director Ron Despenza reported that his bus route phone Hotline had received hundreds of calls all week from parents as the first day of school approached. Now in its second year, the Bus Transportation Hot Line provided parents with information about school bus routes and the name and contact information for their children’s bus drivers.

Mrs. Sloan commented, “Teachers and administrators have spent weeks getting our 56 schools ready for the first day of classes and all of that work paid off. The first day of school here in St. Tammany Parish went extremely well.”

Two new schools opened, Lakeshore High School on La. Hwy. 1088 and Marigny Elementary School on Viola Street, both in the Mandeville area. Officials reported successful start-ups in both cases.

The first day of the 2009-2010 School Year will be Friday, August 7, for public schools across St. Tammany Parish. Teachers and school administrators have been meeting for the past two weeks to get ready for the influx of new and returning students from Pre-Kindergarten through 12th Grade.

Bell times and supply lists by grade level for each school are available on the School Directory web page.

Janitorial and maintenance crews have worked in the schools all summer, carrying out needed updates, repairs and custodial work. Information technology staff have been upgrading technology systems, installing security video cameras, and, in some schools, updating computer network installations.

Two new schools will be opening that day, Lakeshore High School on La. Hwy. 1088 and Marigny Elementary School on Viola Street, both in the Mandeville area. Brennan McCurley will serve as principal of Lakeshore High, and Principal Leslie Martin will welcome her students at Marigny Elementary.

Now in its second year, the Bus Transportation Hot Line will be available to parents beginning Sunday, August 2, from 1:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., and Monday through Friday, August 3 through August 7, from 8:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. By calling the Hot Line at 985.898.3373, parents may get information about school bus routes and the name and contact information for their children’s bus drivers. For more details about bus stop locations and pick-up and drop-off times, parents may call the bus drivers themselves.

Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students will be screened between August 7 and August 12, and those classes will start full-time on August 17.

Parents may want to be aware of roadway construction that may cause traffic delays when they take their children to school the first day.

 A St. Tammany Transportation Hot Line is now available to help parents get information about school bus routes for the 2009-2010 school year. The Hot Line opened August 2 and is continuing this week, August 3 through August 7, from 8:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. The telephone number for the Hot Line is 985.898.3373.

Parents can call the Hot Line to get the name and contact information for their children’s bus drivers, which will allow them to call drivers to find out bus stop locations and pick-up and drop-off times.

“The Hot Line is a great tool for parents. It allows them quick access to bus information and provides details they will need for the first day of school,” said Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse.

Parents can click on the Bus Transportation link on the School System's web site home page to find bus routes, bus driver contact information and pick-up points. Folse added, “Our Transportation Department is striving to be customer-friendly to our students and parents. We implemented the Hot Line and web link for the first time last year and both proved to be very helpful. We believe by providing the information again this year, it will make the start of school as smooth as possible for our students who use bus transportation.”

More than 3200 educators met in Lacombe recently to attend professional development workshops as the St. Tammany Parish Public School System geared up for the start of school on August 7.

Dr. Tim Tyson spoke to the teachers on how integrating technology into the classroom helps engage students and prepares them for entering the 21st century workforce. He addressed four different groups of certificated employees, each session with over 500 persons in attendance.

The annual professional development sessions go towards helping teachers meet the required six hours of workshop time per school year.

“Dr. Tyson has addressed our School System employees before, and we always have requests to bring him back,” said Cheryl Arabie, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. “His message brings home the importance of effectively using new and innovative instructional technology with a view towards the global economy and the workforce needs of the future.”

Tyson, formerly principal at Mabry Middle School in Cobb County, GA, has become a much sought-after speaker on guiding educational systems as more technology becomes available for use in the classroom. He has worked in the field of education for nearly 30 years as a teacher and an administrator, and he is internationally-known for providing educators with valuable knowledge of the free resources and techniques available from the internet.

Teachers were excited about how many of his ideas such as podcasting, blogging, and video production can be used as tools to reinforce what is learned in the classroom.  The new emphasis on student-produced materials gives them a chance to show what they have learned and share it with other students around the world.

Dr. Tyson visited the School System last year for an overview of how technology can be used and was a guest speaker at the 2009 Administrators Conference held at the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville in July.

More than 2000 teachers signed up to take part in the recent 2009 Summer Institute, a two-day professional development program that provided St. Tammany Parish Public School System teachers opportunities to enhance their knowledge of content and best teaching practices. A total of 137 different seminars were offered.

Session presenters included teachers, special education facilitators and coordinators, textbook consultants, curriculum specialists, and NASA representatives.

The institute included sessions at several sites, including Fontainebleau High School, Covington Elementary School, Bonne Ecole Elementary School, Lake Harbor Middle School, the Educational Center in Covington, and the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville.

Teachers were enthusiastic about the variety of topics covered and the instructional details provided. “DIBELS was fantastic,” said Clancey Anderson. “I learned how to interpret reports and the excellent resources that are available.”

Michelle Herring said the session “Write from the Beginning” was great. She was taught how to create mini-lessons and how to use them to the best effect with her students. Other teachers were excited to learn how to more effectively utilize the technology they are receiving this coming year. Curriculum specific sessions were especially popular, such as one entitled “Science Mysteries” and several presentations on teaching math.

Attending the seminars enable teachers to begin acquiring the six hours of required professional development credits for the school year and to receive Continuing Learning Credits (CLUs).

For the second year in a row, staff members at the St. Tammany Parish Public School System’s Channel 13 have earned top honors in the annual New Orleans Press Club awards.

A first place award was presented July 18 to John Harrison for his segment on the legendary Abita Opry, and a third place award went to David Williams, Kevin Mumphrey, and Charles Edwards for their school-oriented programming efforts. The honors were announced at the Press Club’s awards ceremony.

Channel 13 provides daily local educational television programming over the Charter Communications cable television system and is housed in the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville. Channel 13 shows are also available for viewing on the internet as webcasts here on the School System website.

Melody Swang, Director of Broadcasting for the School System, said her staff was honored to be nominated several weeks ago. “We were in competition with all the New Orleans broadcast stations, so it was quite a moment when we won top honors,” Mrs. Swang said.

Harrison won first place in the entertainment category for his piece telling the story of  “The Abita Opry.”  Williams and Edwards earned third place for their documentary “Coaching the St. Tammany Way; From Good to Great” while Mumphrey’s public affairs PSA “Threats at School: No Joking Matter” won a third place certificate.

Mrs. Swang said she was especially pleased that Grant Yenni, a student intern at Channel 13, was able to join the group at the awards presentation for his contributions to the channel.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan said, “Channel 13 has always been a great communications tool for our School System, and receiving first place awards from the New Orleans Press Club proves its professionalism and effectiveness. We congratulate the whole team, the staff, student interns and Director Melody Swang, on their wonderful accomplishment.”

All the videos competing in the awards program were judged by other Press Clubs from throughout the nation.

The crew at Channel 13 were competing in the Press Club’s regular television media categories, not in a special educational channel category, so the awards meant even more to Mrs. Swang and her staff. “This was a wonderful highlight in our careers,” she said. “I am so proud of my staff.”

Last year the Channel 13 staff won two first place New Orleans Press Club awards, one in the Public Affairs category for its documentary “Teen Focus on Safe Driving: Survivor” produced by Mrs. Swang, John Harrison and Trevor Cassidy, and the other a first place award in the Sports Action Photo Category for a video produced by staff member David Williams featuring Slidell High School football star Matt Forte’.

The group also won an “honorable mention” last year for its video on Dr. Margo Guilott’s retirement.

Seventy children took part in a special two-week summer camp that featured Spanish culture, customs, language and games. It was the first year the event was held at Honey Island Elementary School in Slidell.

During the two one-week sessions, the children enjoyed arts and crafts, games, music, and basic language lessons, and on Fridays, activities included a fiesta complete with dancing and taking a swing at candy-filled pinatas.

The first day of camp all participants were given Spanish names, and they were greeted at the door each day by a Customs and Immigration table where they were handed their passports with the day’s country ready for its stamp. The campers themselves made the passports, as well as drawing each country's flag, putting a flag book together to display the flags, and decorating hand-made sombreros.

Three certified teachers who work in the School System were on hand to guide the educational activities such as game-playing, arts and crafts, dancing and language practice.

Each day, the campers were first introduced to a world map where they were given the chance to see exactly where the county of the day was located. Denise Nelon was Camp Coordinator, and participants in the project included Deana Cantin, Alissa Davies, Jennifer Madona, and School Board Member Mary K. Bellisario.

“And there were seven wonderful teen volunteers who really made whole thing happen,” Mrs. Bellisario said.

Every day was a different country, and during the session the kids were shown the flags, tasted the foods, and learned the characteristics of Spain, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Peru, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Chile.

Future camps may be offered with other cultural themes if enough teachers and volunteers can be gathered who are familiar with the language and customs.

For a slide show of photographs from the Spanish camp, click here. (Windows Media Player required to show file.)

 A St. Tammany Transportation Hot Line will be in place before school starts to help parents get information about school bus routes for the 2009-2010 school year. The Hot Line will be open August 2, from 1:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., and August 3 through August 7, from 8:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. The telephone number for the Hot Line is 985.898.3373.

Parents can call the Hot Line to get the name and contact information for their children’s bus drivers, which will allow them to call drivers to find out bus stop locations and pick-up and drop-off times.

“The Hot Line is a great tool for parents. It allows them quick access to bus information and provides details they will need for the first day of school,” said Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse.

Parents can click on the Bus Transportation link on the School System's web site home page to find bus routes, bus driver contact information and pick-up points. Folse added, “Our Transportation Department is striving to be customer-friendly to our students and parents. We implemented the Hot Line and web link for the first time last year and both proved to be very helpful. We believe by providing the information again this year, it will make the start of school as smooth as possible for our students who use bus transportation.”

Registration for all students entering the St. Tammany Parish public schools for the first time during the 2009-2010 session will be held at the school the student will attend according to the schedule listed in the fourth paragraph. 

Students changing schools within St. Tammany Parish (other than students going to another school because of grade promotion), students who are entering the School System from home schooling, and parents or court-appointed guardians who do not have the required proof of residency must complete an Assignment/Transfer Request Form at one of the Child Welfare and Attendance Offices.  They must obtain an Assignment Letter from this office before registering at the school they will attend. 

Every child, as a prerequisite to enrollment in any first grade of a public school, shall meet one of the following criteria: have attended a full-day public or private kindergarten for a full academic year; or have satisfactorily passed academic readiness screening at the time of enrollment for first grade. Students who have completed kindergarten at an accredited private school must furnish proof of attendance. Any child born before October 1, 2003, will be eligible for the first grade, and any child born before October 1, 2004, will be eligible for kindergarten.

Registration Schedule

The hours of registration will be 9:00 a.m. until noon on the dates listed: 

Monday,  July 27, 2009    

     Covington Elementary School  
     Covington High School
     Fifth Ward Junior High School
     Folsom Junior High School
     Fontainebleau High School
     Honey Island Elementary School
     Lake Harbor Middle School
     Lee Road Junior High School
     Little Oak Middle School
     Mandeville Middle School
     Northshore High School– 1st Registration
   
Wednesday, July 29, 2009    

     Abita Springs Elementary School
     Abney Elementary School
     Alton Elementary School
     Bayou Lacombe Middle School
     Bayou Woods Elementary School
     Boyet Junior High School
     Brock Elementary School
     Carolyn Park Middle School
     Clearwood Junior High School
     Cypress Cove Elementary School
     Florida Avenue Elementary School
     Folsom Elementary School
     Fontainebleau Junior High School
     Lyon Elementary School
     Madisonville Elementary School
     Magnolia Trace Elementary School
     Mandeville Elementary School
     Mandeville High School
     Marigny Elementary School (Marigny Elementary Students
                               will register at Magnolia Trace Elementary)
     Monteleone Junior High School
     Northshore High School– 2nd Registration
     Pearl River High School
     Pine View Middle School
     Pontchartrain Elementary School
     Riverside Elementary School
     St. Tammany Junior High School
     Salmen High School – last names A-L
     Slidell High School
     Slidell Junior High School
     Tchefuncte Middle School
     Whispering Forest Elementary School
     William Pitcher Junior High School
     Woodlake Elementary School

Thursday, July 30, 2009    

     Abita Springs Middle School
     Bonne Ecole Elementary School
     Chahta-Ima Elementary School
     Creekside Junior High School
     Lakeshore High School     
     Little Pearl Elementary School
     Madisonville Junior High School
     Mandeville Junior High School
     Salmen High School– last names M-Z
     Sixth Ward Elementary School
 
Registration Requirements

 The following items are required for student registration:

  1.  State Certified Birth Certificate
  2.  Proof of Residency
  3.  Social Security Card
  4.  Health Record of Required Immunization
  5.  Report Card/Records from last School/LEAP results (for in-state
        transfer)
  6.  Assignment Letter (if applicable)
  7.  Custody Papers (if applicable)

State Certified Birth Certificate.  Those who do not have a birth certificate may contact a St. Tammany Parish School Board Annex in their area for information on how to obtain one.  Contact the Covington Annex at 985-898-3370 or the Slidell Annex at 985-646-4917.
 
Proof of Residency.  Proof of Residency must be established, using at least three of the documents listed below.  Documents that are suspect or inconclusive may be disallowed and additional documentation may be required.  All documents must be the most current available.

Documentation may consist of a current utility bill (butane, electric, gas, water, cable, or satellite), the current year W-2 form, the most recent federal or state income tax return, a vehicle insurance print-out from the parent’s or guardian’s insurance company, a signed residential building contractor agreement, a signed real estate lease agreement, or signed mortgage loan documentation.  All documents must show the name of the parent or guardian, the utility service address (if using utility bills), and the street or road address of residence.  Lease agreements must show street or road location and must be from a real estate office, apartment complex, or mobile home property, not from an individual.
 
U. S. Post Office box numbers, printed checks, or drivers’ licenses are NOT considered proof of residency.
 
Social Security Card.  The Social Security number serves as a student identification number on all records.  The Social Security number written on a piece of paper cannot be accepted.
 
Health Record.  State Law requires that all children attending school in the State of Louisiana have the following immunizations.  This requirement includes students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12.  Included are students who are coming into the St. Tammany Parish Public School System from another parish, state, or nonpublic school.

1. DTP  (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis or Whooping Cough) – A minimum of four (4) doses is required.  The last DTP or a booster is to be given after the fourth birthday.          Polio – A minimum of three (3) doses is required.  The last polio or booster is to be given after the fourth birthday. MMR  (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) -  One (1) dose is required at twelve to fifteen months of age.  A     second MMR is required before entry to school. Hepatitis B – Three (3) doses are required for first time enrollees into Louisiana public schools. HIB – Four (4) doses or proof of at least one dose after fifteen (15) months of age are required for pre-kindergarten   and noncategorical students to enter school. Varicella (Chickenpox) – Two (2) doses or a history of the disease is required for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.
2. MCV4 (Meningococcal Conjugate) – Required for all students entering grade 6 or eleven (11) years old in any other   grade.  These students must also have proof of booster doses of Tdap, MMR, and Chickenpox.

Dates of the above required immunizations must be recorded on an official immunization form and presented to the school at the time of registration.  Contact the Slidell Health Unit at (985) 646-6445, the Covington Community Wellness Center at (985) 871-6030, the Greater New Orleans (GNO) Immunization Network Mobile Unit at (504) 733-3268 for immunization information.The immunization policy of the St. Tammany Parish School Board dictates that no child be allowed to enter school without proof of immunizations.Report Card/Records from Last School/LEAP Results.  To ensure correct grade placement of new students, a report card and standardized test reports from the last school the student attended must be presented.  Students entering fifth and ninth grades from in-state public, nonpublic or any home schooling program are required to show evidence that they have passed the English/Language Arts and the Mathematics sections of the LEAP (Louisiana Educational Assessment Program) test, as mandated by the State of Louisiana.  All students entering grades other than fifth and ninth from home-school programs are required to take the home-schoolre-entry test.  For more information about the LEAP requirements, contact the St. Tammany Parish Public School System Testing Coordinator at (985) 898-6481.Assignment Letter.  Students who are transferring within the St. Tammany Parish Public School System (other than those being promoted to a higher grade from feeder schools), students who are entering the School System from home schooling, and parents or court-appointed guardians who do not have the required proof of residency (see Proof of Residency for requirements) must obtain assignment letters from a St. Tammany Parish School Board Annex in their area.  Contact the Covington Annex at (985) 898-3370 or the Slidell Annex at (985) 646-4917 for additional information.  The Child Welfare and Attendance offices are located at 406 East Boston Street in Covington and 980 Ninth Street in Slidell.Custody Papers.  Parents or guardians granted custodial rights of a student must present at registration the custody papers granted through a court system.
 
All public schools in St. Tammany Parish will open Friday, August 7, 2009.PRE-KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATIONPre-kindergarten classes are being offered at 21 school sites during the 2009-2010 school year for four-year-old children who meet program criteria.  Registration for all classes will be held at the school the child will attend, with the exception of Marigny Elementary School. Registration for Marigny Elementary School will be held at Magnolia Trace Elementary School.   The schools and registration dates are as follows:Monday, July 27, 2009       Whispering Forest Elementary SchoolWednesday, July 29, 2009       Bonne Ecole Elementary School
    Chahta-Ima Elementary School
    Covington Elementary School
    Fifth Ward Jr. High School
    Lee Road Jr. High School
    Little Pearl Elementary School
    Sixth Ward Elementary SchoolThursday, July 30, 2009       Abita Springs Elementary School
    Abney Elementary School 
    Alton Elementary School
    Bayou Woods Elementary School
    Brock Elementary School
    Florida Avenue Elementary School
    Folsom Elementary School
    Lyon Elementary School
    Madisonville Elementary School
    Mandeville Elementary School
    Marigny Elementary School (will be held at Magnolia Trace Elementary School)
    Pontchartrain Elementary
    Woodlake ElementaryTo qualify for any regular education pre-kindergarten class, a child must meet the following criteria: 1. has reached four years of age (48 months) before October 1, 2009;
 2. resides within the attendance area served by the school site; and
 3. has a family who agrees to participate in activities associated with the program and who will sign a contract stating   that agreementIn addition to the other documents required for registration, pre-kindergarten applicants must provide income verification – using at least one of following documents:  Food Stamp Card, TANF eligibility, McKinney Vinto eligibility, most current W-2 form, or two most recent pay stubs.

Other criteria must be met for some pre-kindergarten programs.  For specific information about student eligibility, placement or the screening process call the St. Tammany Parish Pre-Kindergarten Office at 898-6483, ext. 208. Families who do not meet income eligibility may be charged $400 tuition per month to attend a pre-kindergarten class.

An annual program was held recently at the Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville to help teachers new to the St. Tammany Parish Public School System become acquainted with overall goals, instructional strategies, and specific curriculum initiatives. In attendance were 120 new educators recently hired by the School System.

Holly Broom, coordinator of professional development, said the four-day session introduces new teachers to the local educational culture and helps provide a climate of understanding for what is expected of them.
 
“We show them some of the programs we are using to improve student performance,” she said. “The sessions are taught by the grade-level teachers who have a first-hand understanding of the various programs and how they work in the classroom setting.” New teachers meet in small group sessions led by a “master teacher” for each curriculum topic, and some of the meetings are one-on-one for specialized subject areas.

A full day was spent on familiarizing new teachers with the latest techniques for encouraging student engagement so that a meaningful learning environment is assured. The School System’s current “Working on the Work” initiative is also explained. In that effort, educators and administrators work in conjunction with the national Schlechty Center’s recommendations for improving student performance.

Topics range from LaTAAP and online teaching tools to special education and STI, an Internet based procedure that enables parents to check their children’s grades from home.

The new teacher induction program is now in its sixth year. Each year the new teachers are asked to evaluate what portions of the session were most valuable to them, and next year’s program focuses even more attention on those areas. It was recently scaled back from five to four days as year-to-year refinements were made based on feedback from the participants.

This year, there will be a new section in Blackboard, the School System’s intra-communications system, just for new teachers. It will contain information of interest to new teachers and allow them to exchange comments and questions.

More than 200 people gathered Thursday night, July 16, to take part in dedication ceremonies for Preservation Plaza at the C. J. Schoen Administrative Complex in Covington.

 The  ceremony for the new architectural feature on the Jefferson Avenue side of the former middle school building involved the cutting of several ribbons attached to the top of the flagpole in the center, with children and adults holding the ends of the ribbons around the circle similar to the May Pole activities of years ago. Hundreds of bricks make up the Plaza design, with many of them inscribed with the names of employees who have retired.

 The dedication program included recognition of employees who had retired in the past School Year, as well as those who had been honored by having their names inscribed in those bricks for the Plaza construction. The commemorative project honors the contributions and memory of those who have worked for the School System in the past 110 years.

 A video produced by Channel 13 featured several interviews with local educators, both active and retired, which illustrated how one educator will mentor another, and how past associations with outstanding administrators will inspire teachers to become administrators themselves. Thus the never-ending cycle of how established employees continually provide encouragement to younger employees was the reason why the Plaza was designed in a circular shape.

 Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse emceed the annual retirement recognition program, School Board President John Lamarque read an official resolution dedicating Preservation Plaza in honor of those who had worked for the School System and made it what it is today, and Superintendent Gayle Sloan reviewed how the devestation caused by Hurricane Katrina motivated school officials to protect, preserve, and electronically archive the papers, photos, and official documents of the School System.

 She mentioned that the Channel 13 interview show “Reflections” is taping interviews with many retired teachers and administrators, giving them the opportunity to recall the history and progress of the School System during their years of service.

 The emphasis on the heritage of the School System is also reflected in the naming of new schools, as plans and construction are now underway for Joseph B. Lancaster Elementary School in Madisonville, Henry Mayfield Elementary School in Slidell, and Bernard deMarigny Elementary School in Mandeville. 

 A new Archives section of the School System website also premiered at the event. The new web pages feature digital scans of a number of photographs in the School System archives housed at the C. J. Schoen Administrative Complex. Internet visitors may access the website at www.stpsb.org/PhotoArchives, enjoy viewing the old photographs and then provide more details for any pictures on which they may have additional information.  

 In the School Board resolution, Preservation Plaza was dedicated to the lasting memories of the thousands of committed individuals who, for more than a century, have dedicated their talents to making the St. Tammany Parish Public School System the success that it is today. “They have provided these young people with the educational tools and knowledge that will serve them over the course of their lives,” the resolution stated. “These retired employees have shared their knowledge, experience, creativity and care with their students, their families and the community,  and they continue, in their retirement, to serve as volunteers in support of the School System and its students.”

 Local Artist Bill Binnings was noted as the sculptor of the first bronze statue in the new plaza.

Seventeen high school students from the St. Tammany Parish Public School System took part in an intensive one-week Summer Video Institute recently, learning video production techniques from shooting raw footage and standup commentary in the field to final editing procedures in the studio.

The eighth annual summer video program brought outstanding broadcast journalism students together with the experienced staff members of Channel 13, the School Board’s educational cable television channel. Each staff member led a group of students as they created a video documentary from beginning to end. The institute included instruction on how to best tell a story employing camera handling techniques, lighting and music overlays.

A video festival held on the final day of the institute premiered the student-produced films.  One showcased the inner-workings of the St. Tammany Parish Justice Center; another the Dew Drop, an Old Mandeville jazz hall; another toured an alligator farm and learned the value of  raising and releasing alligators back into the wild; and the fourth video asked the question, “What is Art?”  The student produced videos will be broadcast on Channel 13 as well as the website.

Melody Swang, Director of Broadcasting for the School System, said, “We had a wonderful week. This has been the best institute we’ve had yet. The students came to us with some valuable experience from their school broadcasting programs and worked really hard for us.” Instructors agreed that the “kids were awesome” and they were proud of what they had accomplished.

Learning the basics of camera work, editing, and post production, the students came with a wide range of experience. Most of them are interested in professional broadcast journalism careers, so the institute is an extra boost to their education.

Students in the fourth grade WIN class at Riverside Elementary School in Pearl River have found that digging in the dirt can be more than just fun. They have planted a tomato garden and learned a number of invaluable lessons along the way.

Their teacher Jennifer Bennett asked a local gardening expert, her father, to visit the class and give students tips on how to make a garden box, how to prepare soil for planting, and how to use fertilizers. A former high school teacher, he spoke about the importance of using recycled materials when possible. The students were also told the benefits of using natural compost.

The week before Easter break, the class was split into groups of two or three each for the planting effort. Ms. Bennett said that the task seemed to be a stress reliever for some of her students who had taken part in high-stakes testing earlier in the day. “I chose this day because I felt that the students had worked so hard preparing for the test, they were very anxious about taking the test, and that this would be a good way for the students to focus on something other than testing, yet still be learning.” Ms. Bennett explained.

The class had been studying plants in science and had recently completed a Junior Achievement Day that taught students about personal finances.  “I thought that we could incorporate the two learning concepts into the gardening project where students would study first hand the growing process of plants and then the economic aspect of selling the grown produce to faculty and staff members at our school,” Ms. Bennett said.

“Each day we go out to the garden to make observations,” she went on to explain. “The students count the number of flowers, green tomatoes, and red tomatoes.  They also record any evidence of bugs or caterpillars.  Each Friday they record the height of the plant.  We will use this data the last week of school to create and compare different graphs about the plants.” This is generating discussions on possible number of tomatoes, why some tomatoes are green and others are red, etc.

The students really seemed to enjoy the experience and looked forward to checking on our plants each day.  Ms. Bennett found the response from parents as very positive.  “We had people in the local community donate the needed materials and supplies for this project,” she said. 

“But most importantly, the students are gaining first hand knowledge and experiences that they can use in their everyday life.  A few students have even begun a gardening project at their own home,” she reported.

Some follow-up activities that the class will engage in will be a food tasting to compare the tomatoes we grew to those purchased at a local food store and comparing the taste of green tomatoes to the taste of red tomatoes. “We may even generate some recipes or have students bring in dishes that they have made from home using tomatoes,” Ms. Bennett stated.

At the end of school, the class plans to sell the tomato plants in the teacher’s lounge, which will give them the opportunity to learn money management by voting what to do with the project’s financial proceeds. “My students are definitely getting a great sense of satisfaction out of growing their own food,” Ms. Bennett stated.

Riverside Principal Mary Lou Jordan said she was pleased when Ms. Bennett came to ask about planting a vegetable garden. Everyday, it creates quite a buzz in the third, fourth, and fifth grade students when they walk pass by the garden plot, she said.

“Ms. Bennett’s students have been so excited that their enthusiasm has spread across the entire school,” Ms Jordan commented. “On top of a beautiful healthy garden, they are planning to sell their produce as a fund raiser for their classroom.”

The tomato garden project has even gotten the 4-H club thinking about converting its rose garden in the front of the school to a vegetable garden next year.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan has asked all principals to encourage their teachers to start planting gardens such as this one with their students.

Click here for a photo slide show showing the vegetable garden project. (Windows Media Player is required to play slide show.)

WIN is a locally developed alternative program within regular education that serves at-risk youth in the elementary grades. In a self-contained, fifteen-student setting, students work on individual academic and social needs. The program encourages parental involvement and addresses areas of need as determined by standardized tests.

A revised budget for fiscal year 2008-2009 was submitted by Superintendent Gayle Sloan to the School Board Thursday, May 7, for its review and consideration for adoption at its May 21 meeting. 

For more information on the proposed budget revisions and to view a copy of the document, click here.

Graduating high school seniors across St. Tammany Parish are receiving their diplomas at several ceremonies held by the St. Tammany Parish Public School System this week.  A complete list of graduations for the 2008-2009 School Year, in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Covington High School will hold ceremonies beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13, at Southeastern Louisiana University at the University Center facility in Hammond.

Fontainebleau High School seniors will also receive their diplomas at Southeastern’s University Center, with their ceremony scheduled for Saturday, May 16, at 5:00 p.m.

Students graduating from the G.E.D. Adult Education program will meet at the Castine Center in Pelican Park in Mandeville at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26, to participate in the awarding of diplomas.

Mandeville High School graduates will take part in their graduation ceremonies on Tuesday, May 12, at Southeastern’s University Center facility, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Northshore High School seniors were awarded diplomas on Saturday, May 9, at the University Center on Southeastern Louisiana University Campus

Pearl River High School will hold its graduation ceremonies on Friday, May 15, at 7:00 p.m. at the Northshore Harbor Center southeast of Slidell.

Salmen High School graduates will receive their diplomas in a 7:30 p.m. ceremony to be held at Northshore Harbor Center tonight Monday, May 11.

Slidell High School diplomas will be distributed to graduating seniors on Thursday, May 14, beginning at 8:00 p.m. in the stadium at Slidell High School.

For a printout of graduation dates and times, click here.

John Blake, a second grade teacher at Woodlake Elementary School in Mandeville, has been named a “Tech4Learning Innovative Educator" by a company that encourages technology use by young students.
 
“I was awarded the honor because of the videos my students made about conservation,” Blake said.
 
A company spokesman said they were thrilled to recognize the work that he was doing with various graphics software programs, thanking him for his continued support in educating 21st century students with advanced technology tools.
  
His work was commended for having an outstanding impact on student learning, and he will receive a special certificate and a symbolic badge for his website.
 
Dr. Jean Krieger, principal of Woodlake, said the school was proud of his latest in a series of recognitions for technology implementation in the classroom.
 
The Tech4Learning Innovative Educator program is designed to recognize the work that exceptional classroom teachers, community organizations, and principals are doing with Tech4Learning products.
 
Teachers named as Tech4Learning Innovative Educators are often invited to join beta software testing teams and to speak at educational conferences.
 
Nominees for the award submitted classroom-produced images or movies that were judged on the completeness of the story told about their classroom innovation, the creativity of submission (video, digital documentary, etc.), and the use of effective instructional strategies, such as differentiation, meeting of multiple intelligences, and a UDL approach.

The horticulture program at Lakeshore High School will get off to a good start next year thanks to a $29,000 grant from the state Department of Education that will help pay for a greenhouse on the new campus.

A 30 foot by 60 foot greenhouse has been added to the list of the school’s facilities to be ready by next fall, enabling it to offer instruction in the planting and care of flowering plants as well as edible produce. It’s part of an effort to emphasize new “green” concepts into the curriculum, especially the skills of gardening and greenhouse management.

“We see this as a way to give our students a variety of learning opportunities in horticulture and agriculture, from decorative flowers and bedding plants to ferns and growing their own food,” said Senior Secondary Supervisor Denise Parker. “This is the best way to use the grant’s funds since it teaches green skills, conserves energy, and produces food all at the same time.”

Greenhouses have become a standard feature at high schools across the parish, and the state money will enable Lakeshore High to start its horticulture program with a greenhouse of its own. The structure will feature a concrete slab, a sidewall height of six feet, ventilating fans, a heating system, and overhead sprinkler system. It will be located near the existing agriculture building.

St. Tammany Parish Public School System officials continue to closely monitor news and public health alerts related to the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and several states. They are staying in contact with local public health agencies and following the advisories of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as the situation progresses. School nurses are instructing students on the proper way to wash their hands to prevent the spread of infection, and students are being reminded to cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough. All schools across the parish are also viewing a video provided by the CDC that details the proper way to wash hands.“Our students have always been encouraged to wash their hands before eating breakfast or lunch, and we are reminding them the importance of doing so in the present situation,” said Meredith Mendez, Director of Public Information.

For more information about swine flu symptoms, click here. To view the video provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on the proper way for washing hands, click here. To play the video, you will need the free Quicktime player installed on your computer.

St. Tammany Parish Public School System officials are closely monitoring the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and in the United States.
 
“We are following the advisories of the Centers for Disease Control and staying in close contact with public health officials in St. Tammany Parish,” said Meredith Mendez, Director of Public Information for the School System. 

While there have been no cases of the swine flu reported in Louisiana, the schools are doing everything possible to protect the health of our students. Schools already practice a number of measures to prevent the spread of disease among student populations. “All employees and students are urged to use ‘universal precautions’ in dealing with sickness in the schools, especially by washing hands frequently and using sanitizers when possible,” Ms. Mendez said.

For more information about swine flu symptoms, click here.

To show gratitude for the services provided by substitute employees, schools across the parish took time on Wednesday, April 22,  to thank their substitutes and acknowledge their contributions to the continuity of education in the community.

Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Pete Jabbia told the School Board at its April meeting that it was important for the schools to be “substitute friendly,” encouraging the recognition of substitutes for their dedication and hard work.

“Our substitute program has grown to approximately 3,850 active employees who support teachers, paraprofessionals, bus operators, clerical, lunchroom technicians, custodians, and other support personnel,” Jabbia stated. “Each school has been asked to submit a nominee for Substitute of the Year to recognize outstanding substitutes for their service and positive impact in our schools.”

A resolution passed by the Board declared April 22 as “Substitute Appreciation Day.” It mentioned the diversity of their talents, the contribution they make to the education of children when called upon, and the flexibility needed to adapt to different grade levels, classroom settings, and instructional plans on a day-to-day basis. “Their efforts to meet the needs of the children when teachers and other personnel are away from school is a meaningful contribution to the community,” the resolution stated.

For a slideshow of Substitute Appreciation Day photos, click here for wmv file. (Requires Windows Media Player to see photos)

Schools throughout St. Tammany Parish took part in Louisiana School Lunch Week April 20 through April 24 with special programs during lunch. Visitors were invited to come to the schools and enjoy a meal with their children or grandchildren, accompanied by entertainment such as singing, dancing and skits presented by the students.

All year long, nutritional information about healthy food choices are presented by the schools using special bulletin board displays, classroom visits by lunchroom personnel, and the student-oriented Nutrition Advisory Councils which help personalize school lunches while insuring healthy choices.

School Lunch Week focuses on the fun aspects and importance of eating a healthy breakfast and lunch.

Giving students a role in learning about nutrition, designing appealing menus, and showing what they have learned has made the St. Tammany Parish Public School System Food Service a nationally-recognized leader in student nutrition.

The international observance of Earth Day on April 22 made its mark in schools across St. Tammany Parish as students participated in a large number of events from planting trees on campus to classroom lessons about the environment.

Activities included arts and crafts projects using organic materials, viewing videos about Earth Day and the reasons behind it, and assembling and planting flower beds around the school buildings complete with stepping stones and benches.

Planting trees was a popular activity with the students, and at one school all the students were given the chance to throw a handful of mulch on the ground around the new trees at their school. Students also built bird feeders, made papier mache Earths, and read books about conservation of natural resources. 

In a community clean up project, students were asked to bring items to school to put in recycling bins, and other neighborhood beautification events were also held.

For photographs of Earth Day activities, Click Here. (Windows Media Player wmv file). Additional photos may be found on the Photo Gallery Page.

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recently named the K-12 Schools that met or exceeded growth target goals in the state's Accountability Program for the 2008-2009 School Year. Twelve St. Tammany public schools were on the list.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Cheryl Arabie reported at a recent School Board meeting that five St. Tammany schools had been honored for their “Recognized Academic Growth” and seven schools had been named to the list for “Exemplary Academic Growth.”

The purpose of this program is to recognize those schools that meet or surpass their growth target for the performance of specific groups of students. The growth targets are determined by a school’s performance score baseline and how well it has done in the past year in improving its academic instruction.

Schools in St. Tammany awarded the “Recognized Academic Growth” label this year were Abita Springs Elementary School, Fontainebleau High School, Lake Harbor Middle School, Madisonville Elementary School, and Madisonville Junior High School. Schools earning the “Exemplary Academic Growth” designation were Bayou Lacombe Middle School, Boyet Junior High School, Carolyn Park Middle School, Fontainebleau Junior High School, Little Oak Middle School, Mandeville Junior High School, and Sixth Ward Elementary School.

A “Recognized Academic Growth” school met its growth target for the year, and schools given an “Exemplary Academic Growth” label have met state-designated growth targets and have grown at least 2 points in the assessment indices for specific student groups.

A community service program partnering middle school students with senior citizens at a Northshore nursing home has won the 2008-2009 Superintendent’s Award for Outstanding Character and Citizenship.

The Tchefuncte Middle School fifth grade’s K.I.S.S. (Kids Interacting with Seniors Successfully) project was recognized at the Thursday, April 9, School Board meeting as the winner of the award which seeks to spotlight individuals and groups taking part in character-building activities.

The K.I.S.S. program won recognition also as a Learn and Serve intergenerational grant project put together by teachers Heidi Rhea and Ceres Kitchens. Its purpose is to build relationships between two fifth grade classes at Tchefuncte Middle School and their “senior buddies” at a Mandeville area nursing home. Twice a month, students visit the nursing home and take part in birthday parties, conduct interviews which will result in the students writing their senior partner’s biography at the end of the year, and the development of communication skills, acceptance, open mindedness, and tolerance.

Friendships result from the community interaction, and students come away from the encounters with a greater awareness of the need for courtesy, respect, and concern, said Ms. Rhea.

Finalist honors in this year’s Superintendent’s Award program went to the Random Acts of Kindness Club at Abney Elementary School in Slidell.

Teacher Alison Ryan said the project was to encourage showing kindness among students with the setting of monthly goals. “There are no external rewards given for our students when participating in our activities,” Ms. Ryan stated. “The aim of the club was to enable students to experience the intrinsic good feelings of being kind and showing respectful behavior.”

Students are “caught” by others who see them showing kindness, and after five random acts of kindness are credited to them, the student becomes an official member of the club.  “We have close to 936 students who have been recognized for doing some type of kind act,” Ms. Ryan commented.

A special award was also presented at the School Board meeting as Superintendent Gayle Sloan recognized Brock Elementary School for its “remarkable resilience and dedication following Hurricane Katrina.” The school was heavily damaged by the storm four years ago, and after moving from campus to campus hosted by other schools, the student body and staff returned home to a newly-repaired and renovated Brock Elementary last December.

Several public programs have been held since to give the community a look at the restoration of the historic downtown Slidell educational landmark.  Students and staff have expressed their great appreciation to local, state, and federal officials who helped provide the funding to rebuild the structure, which at one point was considered for demolition due to the extensive damage resulting from Katrina.

The Superintendent’s Award for Outstanding Character and Citizenship was initiated in 2003 to give the School System an opportunity to reflect on the many outstanding acts of character and/or citizenship by individuals and groups. The program aims to encourage and recognize the value of teaching and modeling good character and citizenship among the educators, staff, students, and groups within the System.

The football stadium at Mandeville High School has been named in honor of Coach Sid Theriot, the long time coach and math teacher who started the first football program at the school in the mid-1960’s. A plaque with his name and likeness will be installed at the Mandeville Skippers home field, with a special ceremony planned in the fall.

Coach Theriot attended the April 9 School Board meeting where the honor was bestowed, and he expressed his appreciation for the recognition. His work and dedication earned him a standing ovation at the meeting and an outpouring of gratitude from the community which benefitted from his more than 40 years as a coach and educator.

Widespread support of the proposal to rename the stadium came from former students, administrators, and former football players in Theriot’s athletics programs. Mike Dobson, who played on the school’s first football team in 1967, spearheaded the request to rename the facility and asked the School Board at its April 2 meeting to consider the action.

Theriot had considerable positive impact on the lives of those student athletes who were under his direction, Dobson said. Fontainebleau High School Principal Johnny Vitrano agreed with the renaming proposal and noted that Theriot still serves today as a substitute teacher at his school.
A new state law allows the naming of athletic facilities after individuals while they are alive, while other types of public buildings cannot be named after an individual until a year after their death. Prior to the new law, special legislation had to be passed to name Covington High Stadium after Coach Jack Salter and Slidell High School Stadium after L. V. McGinty, Sr.
In his comments about Theriot, Dobson said that few people have ever had to overcome the hurdles associated with starting a football program from scratch.  “St. Tammany Parish has grown exponentially since the football program was started at the then very small MHS in the spring of 1967,” he commented. “Every new school that has been started since then has at least had some students that had a prior opportunity to participate in organized football.  Coach Theriot did not have that luxury, in fact to my knowledge none of the 30 plus players had any prior 11 man football playing experience.”
That first year of Mandeville High football Theriot and his volunteer assistants taught the new players how to properly put on the equipment, learn the basics, give maximum effort, and compete with dignity and class, Dobson went on to say.  “Coach Theriot laid out the field, planted, watered, and cut the grass, lined the field before home games, washed the uniforms after the games, prepared scouting reports of the next games, wrote the articles that appeared in the paper, and many times drove the team bus,” Dobson recalled. “He had tremendous work ethic, taught us the value of teamwork, and was unselfish with his time and effort.”

The week-long Spring/Easter break for St. Tammany Parish Public School students began Friday, April 10.  Students do not have to report to school  through Friday, April 17. Classes resume on April 20.

School Board support offices were closed Friday, April 10, and Monday, April 13, and re-opened on April 14.

The new Kindergarten and first grade school on Soult Street in Mandeville has been named Marigny Elementary School in honor of Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville, the founder of Mandeville.

Principal Leslie Martin appeared before the School Board on April 2 to propose the name following March meetings of a naming committee made up of parents, teachers, and a supervisor. The Board voted April 9 to make it official.

The committee sent a letter out to ask for input from all Magnolia Trace Elementary parents and employees who will be making the move to the new school, and several possible names were suggested. Marigny was a well-known Louisiana political figure active in the development of the Mandeville area.

Principal Martin also reported that the committee decided they would like to designate the starfish as the school mascot and light blue and red as the school colors.

The new school is scheduled to open next fall. Located not far from Magnolia Trace Elementary, the $15.8 million project was designed by the Gossen-Gasaway-Bankston architectural firm and is being built by Woodrow Wilson Construction Co. Inc. with funding being provided by the 2004 Bond Issue. Work began in November of 2007.

A separate project is placing an access road from La. Hwy. 59 to the school site.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan told the Board that Principal Leslie Martin was doing a wonderful job of getting things ready at the new elementary school. “It’s a big job to get a new school open, and while Ms. Martin is still working at her post at Woodlake Elementary, things are coming along very well,” she said.

Bernard de Marigny was a French-Creole American nobleman born in 1785 in New Orleans. He served on the New Orleans City Council between 1811 and 1814 and was president of the Louisiana Senate between 1822 and 1823. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1828. Marigny was active in subdividing and selling land parcels in New Orleans and on the North Shore.

A Mandeville High School graduate who played on the school’s first football team in 1967 has asked the School Board to name the Mandeville High School stadium after Coach Sid Theriot. The Board will consider action on the request at its April 9 meeting.

Mike Dobson said that Theriot had “incredible positive impact” on the lives of those student athletes who were under his direction. He recounted the first season played by the team, the challenges they faced, and the life lessons they experienced. Theriot was credited with going door to door that first year to drum up public support for the creation of the football team. Even outside the sports program, many MHS alumni remember Theriot as an excellent math teacher, he said.

Fontainebleau High School Principal Johnny Vitrano agreed that Theriot deserved the honor and recognition being proposed, and that he still serves today as a substitute teacher at his school.

Mandeville High Principal Bruce Bundy has reviewed the request and agrees with the proposal, according to Superintendent Gayle Sloan. She told the Board that new state legislation allows the naming of athletic facilities after individuals while they are alive. Generally, state law prevents naming public facilities after persons until a year after their death, and special legislation had to be passed to name Covington High Stadium after Coach Jack Salter and Slidell High School Stadium after L. V. McGinty, Sr.

A newly revised proposed Booster Club policy was presented to the St. Tammany Parish School Board April 2 following public input on the document first introduced last month.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan told the board in March that while booster clubs provide substantial assistance to schools, an official policy was needed to safeguard the trust of those who spend much time and effort in working in those booster clubs. She introduced new text into the proposed policy that addressed comments and concerns received from parents, administrators and booster club members.

No one objected to a uniform set of rules for booster clubs, she said, and many agreed that a definite policy would help assure parents that the booster clubs they joined as their children progressed from one school to the next would operate in a sound fiscal manner.

The School Board has no direct oversight over booster club operations, but officials felt that such clubs would benefit from the new policy. Particular attention is being directed towards clubs that incorporate the name of the school itself into the organization’s name. The policy proposes that clubs wishing to use school’s name will have to get written permission every year from the school principal to continue using the name.
 
While acknowledging that booster clubs contribute to the educational and extra-curricular mission of the schools, the policy and Superintendent guidelines call for the organizations to use responsible procedures for the collection and handling of monies. Since many of the projects conducted by such booster clubs require and enjoy administrative support, the policy encourages school administrators to cooperate with the fund raising and other efforts, while providing a “clear understanding” of what is expected of them.

To read the policy and related documents, click here.

Principals have commented that the new policy will help clear up some issues, particularly in those situations where outside sales organizations try to give the impression that they represent the school in some way.

School System officials are continuing to monitor how high water conditions are affecting access to schools in the area east and north of Slidell.

Emergency management officials warned the School System earlier this week of possible flooding when the West Pearl River crested Thursday morning.

Schools began administering LEAP testing on Wednesday. Parents are assured that if students miss any LEAP tests as a result of access problems due to flooding, there will be time in next week’s schedule to make-up any missed tests.