Coker addresses chamber about parish schools
Ouachita Parish Schools Superintendent Don Coker updated community stakeholders on the state of education in parish schools Tuesday at a luncheon of the West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce.
West Monroe West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce President Courtney Hornsby told the Focus on Education luncheon Tuesday that education drives local business' ability to thrive.
"Any issues that deal with the economy, everything goes back to education," she said. "People who look at moving here, people who consider staying here, people who consider growing here in our community will look at our school system to know what our future workforce is going to look like."
Coker said the primary focuses of the district are ensuring safety and improving literacy.
Safety measures, he said, include safety glass, remote access to building security information, call buttons that patch employees straight to the pertinent security group, cameras and monitors and the presence of school resource officers.
In relation to school closures related to weather, Coker said, they will choose to err on the side of student safety.
Additionally, the schools conduct fire, tornado and lockdown drills. Coker said most people remember fire and tornado drills, but lockdown drills are a sad necessity.
"We're surrounded by stories of violence and unspeakable acts, and so, in Ouachita Parish we understand — we know that we are the guardians of our students," he said.
The lockdown drills are held once a semester, he said, and help the teachers and students be prepared.
The district is working to ensure all students can read, comprehend and respond on grade level. The literacy plan is multifaceted and includes thinking maps, reading and annotating texts and encouraging the ability to cite information from what was read.
Coker said three schools were noted at Top Gains Schools by the Louisiana Department of Education when the most recent school scores were announced. Swayze Elementary gained 11.9 points and moved up from an F to a D. Richwood High School moved from a D to a C, and Sterlington High School moved from a B to an A. He also highlighted Lenwil Elementary pulling its D up to a C.
He highlighted the many accomplishments of the educational and support staff. The superintendent said teachers learn better from other teachers, so the district encourages teacher leaders and mentoring. He also cited the success of encouraging new teachers through the Believe and Prepare program through Louisiana Tech University.
Coker said the business department has been recognized for excellence in financial reporting by the Association of School Business Officials International and the Government Finance Officers for Excellence for the past 27 years. The district maintains a good bond rating, which was upgraded in 2014.
"Significant rising costs for employee retirement and group health insurance have created the need in the past to reduce staff through attrition," Coker said. "It looks like some of these will continue to go up."
Also, the tax structure to support capital improvements is not uniform throughout the district. The western portion of the district is funded by a perpetual 1 percent sales tax. The east side is funded with limited property taxes that require voter approval.
The 1 percent tax on the west side, he said, funds many of the construction projects for that area. The restricted tax base, coupled with expected growth east of the river, could cause challenges.
Coker also unveiled the district's new logo, which sports a building bridges theme, inspired by the poem "The Bridge Builder" by Will Allen Dromgoole.
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