St Mary School Board 5/14

St. Mary Parish School Board members learned Thursday the federal government has allocated $5.1 million in stimulus funds to the district.

Schools Superintendent Donald Aguillard informed the board that they are required to budget the full amount for the 2009-2010 school year, however, what they do not spend will carry over to the 2010-2011 academic year.

Aguillard said some of the areas he is planning to use the money for include allocating $310,000 for LEAP/GEE remediation programs and dividing $300,000 among the parish’s schools, for their own individual plans, also spending $381,774 for early intervention plans, and $260,000 for college and career programs.

He also wants to make improvements in teacher effectiveness and in the equitable distribution of qualified teachers for all students, particularly students who are most in need. And he would like to provide intensive support and effective interventions for the district’s low performing schools.

He said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lift education to a new level. It provides an unprecedented level of funding for educators to implement innovative strategies that improve education for all students and eliminate the achievement gaps,” Aguillard said.

In other business, Aguillard said he has received several inquiries regarding the possible purchase as well as intergovernmental title transfers, of G.W. Hamilton, Baldwin, Mary Hines and Thomas Gibbs, four elementary schools that the board is closing at the end of this school year, due to the consolidation of the four schools into Raintree Elementary, which is slated to open this fall.

The interested parties are: Ottis Johson, a native of the area now residing in Texas, who is interested in purchasing Thomas Gibbs Elementary into an assisted living facility; Baldwin Fire Department Chief Gene St. Germain who said the department who would like to purchase Baldwin Elementary School; St. Mary Community Action Director Alemetra J Franklin who would like to use G.W. Hamilton Elementary in Baldwin as the site of two head start centers – Mickey Mouse and Bambi; LSU Ag Center County Agent Jimmy Flanagan who is interested in G.W. Hamilton Elementary to locate their offices and programs there, which are presently located in the St. Mary Parish Courthouse in Franklin, Sixteenth Judicial District Judge John Conery, who would like to turn the Thomas Gibbs School into a Juvenile Justice Center; Parish Councilman Rev. Craig A Matthews, representing the Dream Again Foundation, Inc., who would like to lease the Thomas Gibbs School as a youth empowerment center; and Eltonnette Brimidge, president of the Charenton Community Outreach organization, who would like to lease the Mary Hines Elementary School in Charenton as a multipurpose facility for the benefit of the Charenton community.

And in another matter, the School Board honored Miriam McCoy of Centerville, for being recognized by State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek, as the Outstanding School Support Employee of the year.