Update: Contempt issue delayed until September
A hearing into a request that the Monroe City School Board and Superintendent Brent Vidrine be held in contempt of court regarding the ongoing consent decree has been continued until 9 a.m. Sept. 13.
The court used the already-scheduled hearing to take testimony on the district's compliance. Vidrine was the only person called to testify.
MCSB attorney Doug Lawrence and a DOJ attorney questioned Vidrine about progress the district had made on the decree.
After the hearing, School Board President Rodney McFarland said he thought the district had made more progress on the consent decree, and teacher assignment is a big priority. The board, he said, doesn't have the ability to make staffing decisions, so it all comes from the superintendent.
Board Vice President Brenda Shelling told The News-Star that she had no comment but granted multiple interviews with other media outlets.
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Vidrine said compliance on teacher staffing is a moving target. Before 10 teachers resigned in the past week, Vidrine said only three schools were not yet compliant. He said he does not yet know how the resignations have affected all the schools and plans to work on that soon.
He said the DOJ informed the district in June that it had been incorrectly computing the ratios to determine racial makeup, so the district had to recompute goals for the high school, junior high and elementary levels.
A "critical teacher shortage," Vidrine said, has made meeting the goal more difficult, but the district is working with three local universities to recruit new educators.
The DOJ attorney asked if the information provided regarding staffing ratios and vacancies was outdated. Vidrine said it was, if it was older than a week. The numbers, he said, shift daily.
Regarding the Carroll High School Medical Magnet Program, Vidrine said the district has made progress on most of the recommendations of the medical magnet experts and the consent decree, but some, such as retrofitting the building the program uses, cannot be completed by the time school starts. The district has hired Land 3 Architecture to look at the retrofitting project.
Vidrine said the district implemented almost all of the recommendations made by Ritha Bookert, the medical magnet expert hired as part of the Educational Planning Group. The only suggestion not followed would have removed the current program director, Shandria Newton. Vidrine said a second recommendation to hire a counselor was not applicable because Newton can also fill that role.
The DOJ attorney asked several questions about the way information for the Carroll High School Medical Magnet Program is listed online. The DOJ notified Lawrence in April that the homepages for all three high schools' websites do not list all the information required by the consent decree. The information, according to the DOJ correspondence, was "buried three mouse clicks away."
Vidrine held that the setup being used was suggested by Bookert. He said if the DOJ will clearly define what information it wants where, the district will update the websites as soon as possible to meet its requirements. James asked the DOJ to meet with Vidrine on the issue after the hearing.
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The DOJ attorney asked if the Intercultural Development Research Association found that the district doesn't have a good grip on why so few African-American students qualify for gifted classes. IDRA noted, she said, that teachers were not aware of the district's policy on gifted testing.
Vidrine said the district has held a training session for school administrators on gifted testing, drafted a handbook on the gifted and talented program and plans to teach staff about it more in August development sessions.
Regarding rigorous high school courses, such as AP, Vidrine said all courses are offered at each high school, and the district has started working on identifying high-performing minority students at the elementary and junior high levels to determine who could be prepared for more difficult classes. This approach, he said, should lead to better-equipped students coming into the intensive high school classes and improve success rates.
Among other information, the district will include information on teacher qualifications and the races of students enrolled in special high school programs, including the medical magnet program.
McFarland said there will be no school board meeting this week because two board members will be out of town.
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