School board addressing need for certified teachers

Breaux Bridge – The St. Martin Parish School Board addressed the need for certified teachers at several points during its Feb. 7 meeting

The finance committee recommended a $1,000 sign-on bonus for certified teachers who commit to employment at the parish’s two planned magnet schools

The school board then approved that recommendation at its regular meeting for both the St. Martin Early STEAM Academy and the St. Martin STEAM Academy

School Board President Frederick Wiltz then assured District 7 School Board member Richard Potier that the parish also has plans to provide inducements to attract certified teachers at lower-preforming schools in the parish that have trouble attracting and keeping qualified teachers

 “To Mr. Richard’s point, there is a contingency plan for those particular schools that have consistently struggled with retaining or attracting certified teachers, but we’re going to present that at a later meeting,” Wiltz said. “We do have plans in place.” The school board also heard about the Educators Rising program, which looks to encourage students to become teachers in their home parish

 “As you well know, there is indeed a teacher shortage nationwide,” said Shawne Taylor, the parish’s Educators Rising instructor. “Where 60 percent of teachers teach within 20 miles of where they themselves went to school, it is integral that we here in St. Martin Parish grow our own

“Educators Rising is cultivating a new generation of highly skilled educators by guiding young people on a path from high school through college and into their teaching careers.” Taylor introduced a few of the students in the program, who spoke briefly about their experiences in the Educators Rising Club and the curriculum

Twenty-five students are participating in the program, including 10 seniors. Five of those seniors will be entering colleges of education in the fall

Several of the students will participate in competition at the state Educators Rising conference in Monroe at the end of February. Categories include children’s literature, interactive bulletin boards and TED talks

“I absolutely love my students and the progress we’ve made together,” Taylor said. “This has been an amazing half year for us.” Taylor said she is looking forward to the continued growth of the program “and pray that through these efforts we can continue to grow our own (teachers) here in St. Martin Parish.” The school board also approved the Louisiana School Teacher Retiree Return to Work Resolution, which is asking the state to remove penalties assessed to retired teachers who wish to return to work either full time or as tutors

Teachers must wait a full year after retiring before returning to work at full salary and full retirement benefits

Math Textbooks The school board approved the adoption of the i-Ready Classroom curriculum for grades K-8 and the enVision Mathematics curriculum for grades 9-12

The state required the school system to select a new Tier-1 curriculum as the previous math textbooks the parish used are no longer Tier-1 compliant

The board had delayed adoption of new textbooks at its January meeting in order to get a fuller explanation of the programs from the administration, and District 10 board member Mark Hebert said during the finance committee meeting that he had heard different reports about whether the K-8 textbooks were the ones that the teachers were comfortable with

A committee that included several teachers went through all of the textbooks offered and picked the ones that best fit the parish’s needs, school system staff members told Hebert

The K-8 students already must meet i-Ready benchmarks in testing three times a year, so using the i-Ready books would be the first time the parish’s curriculum aligns with the benchmarks, a teacher said during the board meeting. The i-Ready curriculum also gives non-certified teachers everything they need to be successful in teaching math to students, she said

ESSER funds will pay for the majority of the textbook costs with the school board paying for the remaining $200,000

The three-year option for the K-8 plan would cost $875,965.05, a savings of $920,099.95 over the cost it would be if purchased yearly. The cost would be $150.98 per student

The total cost for K-8 math materials, supplies and professional development is $1,012,368.05

The enVision three year licenses and hard copy books for Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry would cost $189,056.37 ($110 per student) with the total cost for high school math materials, supplies and professional development at $200,256.37

Total cost for the K-12 math adoption is $1,212,625.42

The school board must use the ESSER funds by Sept. 30, but also must decide on which textbooks to use before then so that teachers can go through Professional Development training for the new books before the end of the current school year so they can work with the new curriculum over the summer, staff members said

In Other Business The school board also recognized its Students of the Year, with students in grades 5, 8 and 12 from each school honored and one student in each of those grades selected as the Division Winner

The board also heard from a parent who wants the school system to reconsider its cell phone policy to allow students to keep a cell phone in their back pack that is turned off so they can contact parents when they are released earlier or later than expected from after-school activities

Board members asked her to present her proposal to Wiltz, though they also said that in the past that had been tried and students abused the privilege by using their phones during class.