Excellence Academy staff questions changes
Some Excellence Academy employees said they were unhappy with the way staffing information was being communicated with some saying the methods used are unprofessional at a Monday night meeting of the charter school's board.
Shandra Smith said she was informed that she would no longer be the principal of Excellence Academy via email Saturday night. She addressed the school's board of directors Monday night and said she hadn't had feedback from the board about her personnel review and lately her professional decisions had been challenged, overturned and disregarded.
The Rev. Roosevelt Wright. the school's executive director, said that email wasn't an official communication from the board but a personal notification that he would not be recommending to the board that they renew Smith's contract. There's no nice way, he said, to tell someone they won't be asked back.
Employee contracts, Wright said, terminate on May 31. He said Financial Officer Regina Millican will send out letters Tuesday either inviting employees or letting them know they are no longer employed by the Academy. Contracts, he said, are at-will, and there is an appeal process if someone is let go during the middle of their contract but not if the board declines to renew a contract.
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New class schedule
During the meeting, Wright said the school is moving to a new class schedule this fall. Students will take four classes per day with 100 instructional minutes per class. Students will take three "core" subjects and an elective. English and math will run for the whole year and science and social studies will each run for a semester. The plan, Wright said, is based on how colleges handle subjects.
Board member Kenya Roberson asked if this plan was legal with the Louisiana Department of Education, and Wright said it could be done.
Additionally, the daily schedule will have shorter breaks and the school year will have an extra 10 days of instructional time built in by eliminating long holiday breaks.
Willie Heisler, the special services director, asked how the move would effect special education students who have to have a study skills class throughout the year. Heisler is going to another job. Wright said he'd answer the person who will be the special services director. After the meeting, Wright said that will be the non-core class for those students.
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Staffing changes
The schedule shift will decrease the teaching staff from 16 to 12 employees, a move Wright said was handled through attrition. Four employee positions will be eliminated, and Wright said some teachers will have to double up to teach social studies and science.
The agenda listed 12 teacher positions and a music director, the principal, special services director, finance officer, guidance worker, four para-educators and two assistants for the board to approve.
One employee, Osaro Kyles, yelled at the board when he realized neither his name nor his position as a physical education and healthy living instructor were listed on the agenda for staff confirmations. He said physical education is a requirement for middle and junior high students that hasn't been accounted for in the current schedule.
He asked when he was going to be notified that he didn't have a job if he hadn't come to the meeting. "That's not professional," he said.
After adjournment, Wright said Kyles jumped the gun because not all employees were listed on the agenda. During the meeting, Wright said some names were only on the agenda for approval in case some current staff members decide not to return. Millican said her name wasn't listed on the agenda. Her title, however, was listed.
Social studies teacher Gary Perkins said some of the teachers being kept were not considered effective by the previous administration.
Crystal Cleveland, a highly certified math teacher, said she was upset with what she saw at the meeting and she's handed in her resignation letter.
"Good luck with what y'all have going on," she said as she left the room.
Roberson asked why there are no substitute teachers in the school's budget. Wright said the para-educators act as substitutes. The school plans to hire four, two of which will be dedicated to special services. Roberson asked what happens when more that four teachers are out and two of the paras are supposed to be working special services and was told that the administration figures out how to make it work.
Board President Robert Tanzy Sr. was authorized to negotiate independent contracts for arts instructors, most of whom will work partial days.
The board approved instituting a basketball program for a semester to draw more students. Wright said the team will be transported to recreation centers to practice.
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