The Evangeline Parish School Board held its bi-monthly meeting Wednesday night in the School Board Media Center.   The School Board Members and those in attendance heard from Supervisor, Roxanne West and Principal, Kelli Lafleur, about a new community based employment program that will be put in place for certain high school students with disabilities.  The focus on the program will be Customer Service where students can earn an “Industrial Based Certification” and they will learn:

·        Information about the retail industry;

·        How to delivery excellent customer service;

·        Strategies that drive sales;

·        Business operations; and

·        Getting and keeping a job.

Coach Tracey Jagneaux has been trained extensively in the program and will be the teacher to the students.  The group had previously come to the Board to ask to be able to apply for a grant to fund the program.  They received that grant and now have purchased a bus specifically for the program and Jagneaux will also be the driver during the program.  West stated the group spoke to the Rotary Club and had a very positive response from business owners in the community.  These students will work inside area businesses to learn planning, problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, professionalism and respect.

Superintendent of Schools, Toni Hamlin, spoke about the Every Student Succeeds Act and how far Louisiana students have come from the workings of ESSA.  She pointed out that Louisiana’s fourth-grade students achieved the highest growth among ALL STATES on the 2015 NAEP reading test and the second highest growth in math; the Louisiana Class of 2015 showed the greater improvement than any other state using the ACT as their state test; since 2012, the number of African American students achieving a college-going ACT score has increased by 40%; Louisiana’s 2015 high school graduation rate was an all-time high at 77.5%; and Louisiana’s class of 2015 Advanced Placement results showed greater annual improvement than any other state but Massachusetts and the number of African American students earning credits since 2012 has increased by 160%.

500 teachers will be attending a Summer Institute the week of July 18^th in Lafayette for individually based certifications.

School for students begins August 10th.