Ouachita schools recommended for accreditation

A committee from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools on Wednesday announced that it would recommend the entire Ouachita Parish School District for accreditation.

Steve Oborn of AdvancED presented the organization's external review of the school system.

The eight-person team from AdvancED consists of education professionals from around the country. They spent time in several parish schools and observed classes Monday and Tuesday. They also interviewed 504 students, school board members, school and system leaders, staff members, parents and community partners before presenting their recommendation at a 2 p.m. school board meeting.

Oborn said the district's powerful practices include a strong commitment to protecting instructional time, the fact that leadership at all levels have the autonomy to meet goals and the district's commitment to safety and maintenance to ensure a clean, healthy environment.

In a seven-domain review of classroom instruction, the district had high scores for active and supporting learning environments. The lowest score was for digital learning environment, which accounts for student's interaction with technology. Oborn said all classes audited, such as choir or physical education, were part of the score and said the district already had a robust plan to increase technology in place before the accreditation team arrived.

Before listing the district's opportunities for improvement, Oborn said the district already had plans in place for most of the issues, which included developing, documenting and implementing plans to measure verifiable indicators of student learning from multiple data sources.

AdvancED also encouraged the district to institute a student advocacy program in which each student is known by an adult on campus.

In other action

The board also adopted a resolution to issue and sell general obligation school refunding bonds in the East Ouachita Tax district. Grant Schlueter said the sale will go through March 29. The refund is from the 2006 bond issue, and, as with previous bond refunds, all savings are to the benefit of the property tax payers in the east district. He said the net savings to tax payers will be approximately $1,487,000 over the life of the issue, which translates to about $185,000 each year.

David Soignier from Huffman and Soignier presented the audit report to the board. He said new accounting practices in how long-term liabilities are recorded a substantial effects, but all organizations are seeing a similar change in their financial records this year.

Ouachita Parish schools audit has 2 findings

The district hired Government Consultants of Louisiana, a firm out of Baton Rouge, to act as its municipal adviser on debt issues. While not, required, Juanita Duke, director of business for the board, said having a municipal adviser is considered a best practice.