Ville Platte- Evangeline Parish School Officials Wednesday took exception to recent comments made by representatives of the Louisiana Department of Education over the issue of teacher tenure. Some officials have been complaining that there is not enough teacher tenure hearings held to “weed” out unsatisfactory teachers.
Supervisor of Personnel Mike Lombas told the Evangeline Parish School Board that he disagreed with the conclusion by Education Department officials that local school boards are not doing enough to remove bad teachers.. He said last year, the school system prepared four tenured hearings however in every case, the teachers resigned so there was no need for the hearings.
Superintendent of Schools Toni Hamlin reported that there were only 52 teacher tenure hearings for the entire state last year which sounds astonishingly low. She felt teacher tenure will be a hot topic around the state during the new school year.
Lombas said our principals are doing a good job weeding out teachers who are not doing their job. “Our teachers are being monitored closely,” said Lombas.
In another issue, Superintendent Hamlin said she was very pleased with the results of school performance scores. She announced that there were no schools in the district that had a negative rating such as academically unacceptable (AUS). She complimented the principals and the school staffs for doing a good job.
In other action the school board:
--approved the interim appointment of Liz Chatelain as new Assistant Principal at Mamou High School;
--received news that sales tax collections for the month of July showed a $20,000 decrease over the same period a year ago