The LaSalle Parish School Board agreed to allow Superintendent Jon Garrett to proceed with plans to form a new Safety and Security Council, consisting of varying individuals including members of the public, during their December 5 regular meeting last week.

The Superintendent noted that following public input during the Board’s recent sales tax proposition, he realized the need to have more system and community involvement in various aspects of the district.

“Requests were made for us to have something like this for our district,” Garrett told the Board. “One of the things community members asked for was to just be a part of things and know a little bit more about things. Some people don’t want to come be a part of a formal meeting but they wouldn’t mind doing it in just a ‘sit around a table and talk about it (format).’” The proposal the Superintendent presented had representatives from each side of the parish, including board members, administrators, teachers and students, and representatives from the district office, including the Superintendent, and CWA, Maintenance and Special Education supervisors.

The new council would also have members from the community, such as law enforcement, mental health providers, parents and community members.

According to the information distributed at the meeting, the council’s purpose would be to “support schools in ensuring that all students and employees feel safe, both physically and emotionally, and feel welcome, supported and respected by students and adults.”

Garrett noted that the council would not have any powers, such as policymaking or governing and would not have a vote to make changes, however, the council would serve a tremendous purpose in helping the Board implement changes where needed for the betterment of the entire system.

Although school system personnel to serve on the council would be appointed, public members would be selected at random.

“We plan on placing an online application form on our website where people who are interested in serving can fill out and submit,” he said. “Once we get those in, we’ll simply have a random selection process by geographical location in an attempt to get as many different people as possible on the council.”

The council will likely meet bi-monthly during evening hours, with alternate sites between each side of the parish.

The Superintendent said work will continue on the formation of the council for the next month and he will report back during the January meeting about their progress.

All of the Board members seemed to like the idea of having the special council, especially the part of having more members of the public involved.

“I love the idea of having more community involvement,” Board Member Jessica Lasiter said.

Board Member Jonny Fryar also agreed and said while this council may begin by focusing on school safety and security, it could branch out to other areas.

“This could be a stepping stone to something else,” he said. “Who’s to say that if this works out well that we couldn’t look at some other aspects that we could involve the same type of procedure.”

Also at the short December meeting, the Board voted to approve payments of stipends to those employees evaluated as Highly Effective during the 2022-2023 school year.

During the Board’s Finance Committee meeting the week prior, it was explained that there are two ways teachers can receive the designation of Highly Effective.

The first is for teachers who teach testing subjects such as English 1, English 2, Algebra I, Geometry, and for fourth-eighth grade subjects of Math, English, Science and Social Studies.

Because these subjects are testing during state-wide testing, the Louisiana Department of Education gives each teacher who teaches one of these subjects a score and from that, they can be designated as Highly Effective.

Because this is a much harder designation to obtain, the stipend for these teachers is set at $500.

Other teachers in the system who do not teach these state testing subjects receive a score based upon evaluations and observations that occur throughout the year by administrators and supervisors. Because this score is more subjective, the stipend for these teachers is set at $300.

All of the stipends will be paid with the December payroll disbursement.

In the only other action item for the meeting, the Board voted to approve the Superintendent’s Personnel Report for December.

The report showed that Ronnie Price was hired as a custodian at Jena Elementary effective December 1, 2024, replacing Rodney McLendon and Abbe Prather was hired as a teacher at LaSalle Junior High School effective November 28, 2023, replacing Mason Deen.