Funding cuts felt in Lafourche’s middle schools

The Lafourche Parish School Board reallocated federal funds needed for parish school academic assistance and discussed overall district budget cuts for the 2007-08 school year at it’s meeting last week.

Last fall, Supervisor of Secondary Schools Julie Bourgeois released the school accountability report, which details the school performance for all the Lafourche Parish Schools. At that time, four of the school system’s middle schools were labeled “academic assistance” and two labeled “school improvement,” according to the Louisiana Schools Accountability Report.

Lafourche Parish has eight middle schools.

The four schools in “academic assistance” status are Golden Meadow, West Thibodaux, East Thibodaux and Larose/Cut-Off Middle schools. The two “school improvement” status schools are Raceland and Bayou Blue Middle schools.

Title I Supervisor Pam Folse addressed the board at last Wednesday’s meeting requesting that funds be allocated to the school district to provide professional development services to schools in order to assist in improving student academic performance.

Folse is in charge of federal and Title II funding, which is specifically earmarked for providing professional development services to the parish schools.

Lafourche Parish’s two middle schools in school improvement receive additional financial assistance from the district.

Folse said she had proposed using some Title II funds for literacy coaches in the middle schools in January. The curriculum committee had indicated that funds previously reserved in Title II for the continuing learning units (CLUs) were available.

“We want have to reserve as much funds for CLUs this year. I would like to reallocate those funds to the salaries of the assigned individuals to be able to assist Middle School Instruction Supervisor Chris Bowman,” Folse said.

“We don’t have enough money to provide a coach for every school. The plan would allow for the school system to pair the middle schools together sharing a literacy coach in conjunction with the No Child Left Behind strategists,” she said.

According to Folse, one person would be assigned to every two middle schools. Strategists will report to the middle school principals who will then determine the immediate assistance needs.

The board would have to approve the opening of three positions n two for middle schools and one for high schools, which will give the school system a total of four literacy assistance teacher. This total will also include Strategist Donna Pierce, who specializes in mathematics.

At the present time, the strategists are performing the duties of a literacy coach. According to Folse, they are being spread thin. She said they are not able to provide adequate assistance to all the schools.

The board will follow the literacy coach job description in the personnel accountability manual. According to Floyd Benoit, the literacy coaches will assist teachers in planning, facilitating and evaluating the learning progress of at-risk students and students with disabilities.

“We are trying to mirror ourselves with the state literacy plan,” he said.

The literacy coaches and strategists would have to be qualified, Folse said. “The highly qualified issue has come to pass and all of the teachers will have to be highly qualified come the end of the school year.”

According to Superintendent Jo Ann Matthews, nearly 85 percent of the teaching staff in the Lafourche Parish system meet those requirements. Matthews is expecting 100 percent compliance by the end of the school year.

In addition, the Title I budget is also being adjusted for the 2007-08 school year.

“Our projected 2007-08 budget can’t support all expenditures currently funded with the 2006-07 budget. This is a direct result of the salary increases implemented by the board in the fall of 2006,” said Folse.

The previously approved increases include a six percent salary increase for all employees; a $1,500 paraprofessional salary increase; and a $3,000 Master’s degree incentive increase.

“Along, with these increase, I’m having to account for a projected five percent decrease in the 2007-08 overall district budget. As a result, changes need to occur to balance the 2007-08 Title I budget,” Folse said.

According to Folse, the current Title I Budget supports mandatory set-asides that are taken out of the district budget prior to schools receiving their School Wide Title I allocations. These district set-asides include the Homeless Program, the Neglected and Delinquent Program, parental involvement activities, professional development activities, along with the Title I staff.

Two additional district level set-asides are the Preschool Program and the Reading Recovery Program.

“Attempts to increase the Preschool Program begin this year in order to support the Lafourche Parish School System District goals. In addition, we are currently working on an LA 4 Grant application to further increase our preschool classes in Lafourche for the 2007-08 school year. However, in order to qualify for this grant, we must maintain all current Title I and 8 (g) preschool classes and operate the LA 4 grant preschool classes in addition to these,” Folse explained.

“Once all salary increases and budget cuts are calculated, the projected 2007-08 Title I budget can’t continue to support all current programming for the 2007-08 school year. Therefore, Title I can no longer afford the Reading Recovery Program as a district set-aside. Thus, beginning with the 2007-08 school year, schools will now have the option to continue Reading Recovery as a reading intervention program at their school site,” she continued.

According to Folse, the remaining Title I funds that were previously set aside at the district level for Reading Recovery will now be added to the individual schools’ Title I allocations, thus increasing their school level Title I budgets for 2007-08.

“These budget amounts are based upon a per pupil allocation of free and reduced students for each school. With additional funding being added to their Title I budgets, elementary schools will decide at the school level which reading intervention program(s) they will operate through their Title I School Budget, which may include Reading Recovery,” she explained.

Folse said principals and school improvement teams that receive Title 1 funds are reviewing data on student performance and determining their schools’ needs. “Schools will then make a data driven decision on the expenditure of their Title I funds to support the needs of their at-risk students,” she said.