Terrebonne’s progress paved
January 27, 2015
Terrebonne schools improve scores in 2014: Common Core, 7-period day adjustments for students
January 27, 2015
Lafourche Parish schools get a gold star for their progress in building new schools to meet the needs of a growing populace.
The Lafourche Parish School District completed construction of two elementary schools in Raceland and Larose in 2014, and are scheduled to complete construction on the new Career Magnet Center in the fall, said school district spokesman Floyd Benoit.
South Larose Elementary was completed in the fall of 2014 and features computers and smart boards in every classroom. It is also very secure, with only one point of entry and security cameras throughout the school, Benoit said. The school educates students Pre-K through fifth grades.
North Larose Elementary, which used to be called Lower Larose Elementary, only educated Pre-K to second grade students, but now reaches students from Pre-K to fifth grade.
Construction on Raceland Lower Elementary, educating Pre-K through second grade is nearly complete and it will open any day now, said Ronald Pere, Lafourche Parish school board member.
The school board is also nearing completion of the Career Magnet Center at 6419 La. Highway 308 and should open in time for the fall enrollment, Pere said. The school will offer vocational certification in areas such as allied health, mechanical work, culinary arts, drafting and cosmetology to name a few. The magnet center will also offer advanced placement classes that earn college credit. Educators believe the school serves a serious need for Lafourche Parish.
“Industry is really behind us because a lot of the jobs in the area we have to bring [in] people from outside the area to man those jobs,” Pere said.
Only 30 to 40 percent of students in the area actually go to college, according to Pere, and the vocational school could save students who opt not to go to college the time it would take to get certified at a trade school.
The school district also approved plans last year to construct new elementary schools in Chackbay and Bayou Blue.
Pere said the district is currently in the process of acquiring the land. “Once we do that, we have the funds to construct the new schools,” he noted.
Last year was also a good year for Lafourche students’ standardized test scores, Benoit said.
“This year we’ve had the most perfect [standardized] test scores in the history of the school board,” the spokesman said. The district saw more than 100 students receive perfect test scores on various standardized tests.
The district’s overall performance scores have continued their slow but steady increase in 2014, earning a slight increase over 2013.
Challenges do exist, though.
The most notable hurdle the district faces is inarguably lowered budgets.
Benoit and Pere spoke about the looming threat of state budget cuts to education.
“This past year was the first time in about five or six years that we didn’t have massive [budget] cuts from the state level and it kind of leveled off,” Benoit said.
Any new cuts in state funding will make it “more and more difficult to make ends meet” for primary and secondary education budgets, Pere added.
Teacher Robyn Urette teaches fourth grade class math. Lafourche Parish schools have had a good year in 2014, scoring high in several testing metrics. Bayou Community Academy Charter School earned an ‘A’ in SPS Percentage Gain.
