001don't have to gamble, but we'll call the meeting for Tuesday, May 20th, our regular board meeting to order. And we'll start with roll call. Miss Jenkins. Miss Richards. Mr. Ter here. Miss Abrams here. Mr. West Morland present. Mr. Duncan here. Mr. Anthony here. Mr. Moore here. Mr. Piaza. Miss Dominguez. Okay, at this time we're going to have the pledge of allegiance. Uh, Mr. Duncan's put this together. Where did he get off to? He's talking right now. Oh, there he is. Mr. Duncan, you want to introduce the pledge for us tonight in the Excuse me. Everybody, please stand with us. So we have we have students from Hampton Westside that are going to share a song with us in just a minute as part of our program. But we have three students that are going to
002lead us to play. They're going to introduce themselves. My name is Adam. What grade are you in? Third grade. My name is Jana and I'm in second grade. Okay. My name is Jason. I'm in third grade. All right. So, can y'all y'all are going to lead us in the pledge? All right. Okay. Will you hold I hold it and then I pledge aliance to the flag of United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Now we're going to turn the program over to you to tell us about this uh special song that come. Thank you. It's on. Okay. And I think everybody can sit for the Thank you for the invitation on tonight. Uh when I was
003hired at Hammond Westside Mon School by our principal, uh Mr. Hugh Wallace who is here on tonight. Um I asked the question did the school have a school song? Uh and he said no they didn't have a school song. So two days before school started I sat in the classroom and the words and the melody came to me. Um the song is very unique. It it doesn't deal with race, color, uh uh religious like it has a lot and everything to do with uh academic success. And not only that, but um it has a lot to do with what Hannah Monasuri School expects as far as morality and behavior. And so tonight, uh, we're going to perform the song that I wrote and, uh, I think it's a great song. Uh, the song has gravitated
004to the school. Even the prek at the school know the song. So, everybody knows this song. Even the parents here, and I'm going to thank the parents for coming out and supporting. And [Applause] so, so tonight, I want to present Helen Westside Montasauri School Choir. and heaven uh westside Montasauri school song. All right, come on choir. We have first, second, and third graders. [Applause] Too cute. out of the way so I can get up. [Music] Good job. [Music] Take a picture. [Music] When the sky is full, we try to reach perfection as we follow all the rules. Perseverance is the key to our success and excellent and strong as we all do our best though [Applause] [Music] cheer we will [Music] s we have the vtory [Music] M I believe in dignity responsibility and integrity
005for me. May we lift our eyes in loyalty to thee. As we praise the Lord in our lives, heaven world. [Music] [Applause] Very very good. Very good. Excellent. [Music] A+ at this time um As an alum of Hammond Westside and loving that um that song, I would at this time ask the board to approve as the official song for Hammond Westside Monastery School. [Applause] What is the What is the name of the song? Mr. Jackson Westside Mon School Westside Monatory School. All right. So, I have a motion on the floor. Do I hear a second? Do I hear any discussion? Miss Rose did too. Well, as far as discussion, I want to say congratulations. U this song sounds great. I was listening to every word and the words are pointing exactly where we need to
006point our efforts. Um, so well done, Mr. Jackson. Well done, students. Any other questions, debate? You're welcome to speak up. All right, have hearing none. We'll call for a vote. Voting is open. My computer reset. Let's say yes 10 times. passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Item E, consider approval of the board minutes from May 6, 2025. Motion. Motion made by Miss Abrams, I'm sorry, by Miss Rose, second by Miss Abrams. Any discussion? Hearing none, call for a vote. Yes, for me. I'm trying to reboot. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Item F, consider approval of DRC appeal minutes from May 5th, 2025. Do I hear a motion to accept them? Motion to adopt. Motion to motion made by Mr. Westerland, seconded by Mr. Anthony. Any discussion or public input? Hearing none, call
007for a vote. Voting is open. Yes, for me. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. Go ahead, Mr. President. Before we proceed, um I would at this time ask the board to wave the rules so that we can add um an item to our agenda. Specifically under committee reports, I'm asking that the board allow us to um add our capital outlay. I believe it was capital out our capital outlay um meeting from tonight so that we have final approval of those emergency actions that we uh took a few moments ago uh specifically the Nissan project. Uh I don't want to hold that up for two weeks. So the motion is to wave the rules uh and add to our agenda the capital outlay report uh from May the 20th, 2025. Okay. Motion to wave the rules.
008Second. Second by Miss Dominguez. Is it just on C just for Cap? Uh, it's the whole report. It's adding it to D. Adding the whole report from tonight. Okay. Any discussion? This takes unanimous to the rules. Okay. Call for a vote. Okay, [Applause] voting is open. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. Excuse me. All right. Item 2 A. Oh, I'm sorry. Correct. We added it to the agenda. Now, we need to vote on the motion to accept the U capital outlay committee report from tonight. We can do it now. Move to move to adopt the report. Motion made. Second by Mr. Dominguez. Call for a vote. Voting is open. Specifically ask since we added it to the agenda, make sure there's not public comment before we any public comment hearing. Voting is closed. Motion passes
009unanimously. All right. Moving on to item 2A. Miss Abrams. Miss Tilly. Which one? JK. Oh, the above and beyond Jake Bailey. And I believe um we have Mr. Dawson Primes here tonight. Is Dawson here? Yeah. Miss Mr. Dawson Primes here tonight who submitted um or nominated uh one of our employees for the Above and Beyond award. I'm going to ask Mr. Dawson Primes uh to come up. Do you remember what you emailed or you want to just tell us about it? Yeah. You want you want you want to just do the email? That was the email. Just tell us about it. So, um, I was at a warehouse in Independence and was on my way back to my office and we were stopped on Highway 51 waiting for a person to turn and um, motorcycle
010came up from behind, was not paying attention, whatever it may be, and ran into the back of my vehicle going about 45 miles an hour when I was stopped. So, uh, the person who hit the person who was driving the motorcycle was severely injured and so flipped over the bed and the vehicle and it was um it was a it was a terrible situation. At the same time, Mr. Morris was passing by and he stopped and with complete calm and this is going from an old man. Um he had complete calm professionalism just kind of really took care took over the scene while I called 911 and was really instrumental in the care of that man that was there because he was bleeding a lot. Uh Mr. Morris got up in there with a cloth
011and was doing everything he could to stop bleeding the man's face and and really and helped until the medics got there. And then even then he even helped the medics to load him up onto the gurnie and put him into the ambulance before he left. So, I mean, it was it it was an amazing job and it was definitely above and beyond. And he didn't have he didn't not only did he not have to stop, he didn't have to do all of what he did. And I'm telling you, from everything we're laying down next to this man and doing everything he could to help him until the ambulances got there. So, it was pretty impressive. Mr. Brett Morris Thank you so much. Yes. [Applause] Thank you very much for that. And Dawson, thank you for
012taking the time out to send that email to let us know about it. So I applaud both of you. All right. Item 3A, Capital Outlet Committee of the Whole from May 6. Do I hear a motion that we accept that report? Motion made by Miss Abrams. Second by Mr. Westerland. Any public input? Any questions? hearing. None. We'll call for a vote. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. Item 3B, Finance and Audit Committee. The meeting held on May 6, 2025. Do I hear a motion to accept that report? I'll make the motion. Motion made by Mr. Anthony, second by Mr. Westland. Any public input? Any questions from the board? Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. And item C, policy committee of the whole.
013The meeting that was dated May 6, 2025. We'll hear a motion to accept that committee report. Motion made by Mr. Westerland. Seconded by M. Janice. Mr. present. I have um two things before we vote on that. One, just want to make sure that the board received the typed up version of the uh revisions that we made to FDC. Um so the vote to approve this report would approve that typed up version of FDC, which was the naming of schoolboard property. Uh unless anybody has any objection to that, but under um the first one, I believe it's facility. Sorry. So, action item A uh which is policy FE facility projects. Um the administration found some uh I think a typo. Um so I'm offering an amendment that um under the what was approved by the committee.
014Uh we authorized that um 50 capital projects that are expected to cost $50,000 or more must be approved by the capital outlay committee. Technically the committees only make recommendations to the board. So that should say any capital project that is expected to cost $50,000 must be approved by the school board. And then the same thing um where we uh put a similar provision for maintenance or repair projects um what we approved in committee said that the capital howley committee could approve those but but really it should say school board. So I would offer an amendment that we make those technical additions. All right. So we have an amendment vote. We have amendment be made by Mr. Duncan do second on that amendment. Second by Mr. Westerland. Anybody have any questions on the amendment part? Changing
015the word from capital from the from to the whole board. Greg, could you read that? I don't think I received that email on the changing of the names, the naming of the facilities. Well, I'll come back to that. Let's do the amendment first, then we'll come back to the whole motion. Any other questions? Any public input? All right. Call for a vote on the amendment. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. So, the report has been amended. Do I hear a motion now to accept the full report as amended? Yes. Motion. So, move. So move from Mr. Duncan, seconded by Mr. Westerland. Now questions on the full amendment. I mean full motion as amended. So if you want me to go back. So So yeah, the the email y'all should have got
016was actually from Mr. Jenkins, but I'll read the the relevant portions. Um uh like I said, this was the typed up from what we talked about in committee. So uh it says therefore schools, school buildings or schoolboard facilities and other schoolboard property may be named or designated by a majority vote of the school board only after meeting the following requirements. Number one, a street that is maintained by the school board and is not a state or federal highway may be named in honor of a living or deceased person. A clap number two, a classroom, library, office, or any existing athletic facility that is not a school building like um at any school within the school board's jurisdiction may be named after or dedicated in honor of a deceased person. And number three, no school, school
017building, new athletic facility, or other public building shall be named after any living person. A school, school building, new athletic facility, or schoolboard building may only be named or dedicated in honor of a deceased person when a money or property is donated sufficient for the construction of the school, school building, new athletic facility, or other public building under uh period. Under this condition, the donor may designate a name pending a favorable community public hearing and a majority approval of the school board or B and then this all state from the previous policy a majority of the registered voters within the school district filing a petition etc etc. And then we added the provision that says upon approval of the naming or dedication of any school system property, the school system shall provide an appropriate plaque
018and signage for the designation. The plaque shall include a description of the honore and the justification for the honor. Robin, I'm going to speak for you and I I just sent you this so you can pull it up. Brett. Um, and and I might need you to answer this because when I read this the first time, it was different than when you just read it. I guess there might have I'm not saying it was changed. I'm saying I may have misunderstood. So, if a field one somebody wants to name a field after an individual, um, does that have to be one of the reasons under three A or B? No. And and look, yeah, there was that first paragraph. There was a typo that Miss Jenkins and I fixed I think after it got sent
019out to you, but a field is um would be under number two. So it's just it they just have to be a deceased person and the board has to approve it. And so that's the way and that like I specifically actually for that clarification said fields, track, courts, things like that. But we can't name the entire stadium or the entire auditorium building after somebody unless it falls into three. Okay. That being said, I think this accomplishes what it was that you were looking for, but if you want to glance over, you know, I sent you a copy. Sure. Okay. Any other questions? We have a motion and a second. Call for a vote. If there's no public input, voting is open. struggling. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Thank you. Before we go
020to item four, I do want to add one thing by see if we can wave the rules to add. Uh we need to renew our portable building contract. Uh Mr. Terry's been doing some research on that. We've if you remember, we've tabled this before, sent this back to him to do some homework. I'm sure Mr. Mr. Terry can give us an explanation of where we stand now. But um to put it back on the agenda at the last minute, I need to wave the rules to add it to tonight's agenda. But it is timely that we go ahead and do that. So move to wave the rules and add renewal of portable leases to the agenda for tonight. Okay. Motion made to wave the rules. Do I hear a second? I'll second. Okay. Motion second
021by Mr. Anthony. This has to be a unanimous vote for us to put it on tonight's agenda and discuss it. So hearing no questions. Call for a vote. I will. Go ahead. All right. So, are we making are we voting on this is a voting just? No, this is just a motion to get it on the agenda so we can discuss it. Motion is closed. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. So, we have the motion. We have the item on the agenda now. Uh Mr. Valerie, do you want to give us some more information on this before we get a motion and decide? Right. Yeah. real quick. Um, I wasn't able to go visit all the campuses like I wanted to with the prepping for the federal judge walk and then uh but there's a there's a
022couple of portable buildings that that do need to be moved from a couple of schools. Uh, and then I think we should just do a six-month renewal for these contracts because when the contracts were originally made, there's language in the contracts that state if we remove a building, then we have to pay out the remaining months of all of of the contract. So, we start a contract and then have 10 months left, we have we're on the hook for that. So, so right now we're the plan is to renew the leases that we currently have. Yes, sir. Six months. Okay. Are they going to allow the six months? I don't know yet. Yeah. We have to have a year, right? Uh but when we when we get phase two built a year and a half
023or so a little about a few uh then with the plan that was drawn up three years ago for that we're losing 56 that's what I have. Okay. I know there was some questions before about some of them that need to be replaced because they were just in such poor shape. Uh is that something we can visit with the when we have those conversations with the owners? Okay. I'm sure we probably would incur the cost of moving those out, replacing a new one. We just need to see if that's beneficial. If it's if they need to be replaced, we need to replace them. But okay. Any Well, first of all, I need a motion. Are there any of those buildings that we actually don't I've had a chance to walk all the campuses to look
024at that's what I want to do. That's what I plan to do two times ago and then things pop up and but obviously if we're not using one we don't want to we don't want we don't want to I thought I was going to have time to go out and do but I've had more things pop up my time. Okay. So do I hear a motion that we accept the administration's recommendations as far as the renewal of the current leases? I'll make a motion. Motion made by Mr. Anthony. Second. Second by Mr. Westland. So we do this with the understanding that we're not necessarily doing all of the contracts all we're authorizing administration to make the best. Yeah. As long as necessary. Correct. And by authorizing administration to do their recommendations. If they can do
025six months, do six months. If it has to be a 12. Mr. Uh, yes, Mr. Anthony made the motion. Any other questions? Mr. West. If they let us do six months, Mr. Toll, I'd like to make a comment. When the judge was walking through um Independence High, one thing that the principal there said was that he puts his classes that aren't um core core core classes, he puts them in the portable building. So maybe we need to tell our teachers and our principles that they need to put like arts and crafts or or you know something that's not a core subject in these portable buildings and move their classes around because that's what Dr. Sanders is doing over at Independence. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Hearing none. We'll call for a vote. Voting is open.
026So like your idea about having a pre-esigned Yes. classroom structure never have to do build it. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Thank you. We'll move into the superintendent report item 4. Close. All right, good. Uh, item 4 A is to consider approval to refer policies E FAA which is the technology acceptable use policy. Um, also to refer FA which is facility expansion program goals and objection objectives policy. Also IDFA which is intercolastic athlete athletics policy, J C DB which is the dress code policy and J D which is discipline uh policy and J DDD which is the policy for suspension uh all to the policy committee. Motion to approve. Okay. Motion to approve by Mr. Westerland. Do we hear a second? Second. Second by Miss Abrams. You already have suggestions on some
027of these things. Yes, some of these are um well the technology use policy is one we do every year. Uh there is something on on that one we have to update. The other ones are related to the unitary status uh in the five areas. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any other questions? Any public input hearing? None. We'll call for a vote. Voting is open. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. Right. 4B. Yep. 4B. consider approval um of the certificate of substantial completion for the Kentwood High Schools. Um it's the science lab renovation project by Brunt Construction Incorporated. All right, great news. And we got a chance to see that the other day. U so we saw pictures of it, too. But u do I hear a motion? Motion. Motion made by Miss
028Richard. Second. Second. Second by Miss Abrams. Any questions, comments, or public input? Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. Voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. Item 4 C, general updates. just to um say and remind that May the 23rd, which is Friday, is the last day of school. Uh I know that our teaching staff, they all know, our schools know this already. Uh it's a half day for students. Um we wish everyone a safe uh and fun summer. Um today on the coffee talk, Sheriff Sticker joined me on the Facebook live coffee talk which you can watch uh the recorded uh version of that where he talked about summer safety. Just you know talking to parents and families about how to keep students safe during the summertime. Uh almost every year we lose at least
029one student over the summer for with an accident. um you know whether it's a drowning or um you know three-wheeler accident or um gun they they got a hold of a gun in the house and accidentally shot a sibling. Um so we he talked today on the coffee talk just about how to stay safe over the summer. Uh next week on the coffee talk we're going to talk about um hopefully have the parish library uh Mr. Barry uh Bradford on with us to talk about all of the programs, all the reading uh activities and things they have this summer uh for our children. So that'll be for next next week. Okay. Item 5A, consider authorizing the superintendent to execute a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Tancho Parish government for funding to construct a press box/conession
030stand at Ponchatula High School. Mr. mean, I'm going to ask the table that because I don't see Coach Harper here tonight, so he must not be Oh, I saw him and I was messing with him. Um, this is an agreement with Tangible Parish government that uh while Councilman uh currently Representative Kim Coats uh through the Esser money, each councilman was given money to spend in their district, she pledged $150,000 toward building a softball concession stand. Uh so that's that's what this cooperative endeavor does. Uh we will uh we will oversee the construction. The parish will fund it. Uh because it is over 125,000. Even though it's not a penny of our money, it does have to have court approval. So we ask for your approval of this tonight. Okay. Do I hear that in the
031form of a motion? I'll make that motion to accept. Mr. Dominguez and Mr. Anthony seconded. Any questions, comments? Mr. Robert, would you like to say anything? I don't know that I've ever had a problem saying anything. Can you sing it for us? You can do that. Um, this agreement's been a long time in the works for us. This agreement's been a long time. Works for us as a as a program. Uh, we currently have no bathroom facilities for our softball field. We can walk to the football area because there's track meet going on. That gate has to be locked. Uh, we have no way to have fresh concessions. a little a little shack that we built a few years ago. Uh Miss Representative Coats came saw that she had this available. Um she has been
032working very hard for the past three years to get this done. We have plans that are drawn and ready to go. We don't know how much it's going to cost. We haven't bid it bid it out yet. She has as much as $140,000 to spend on this. Uh again, I know that takes court approval and I know that's more red tape. Uh so anything you guys could do to allow us to get that rolling uh for our season for the opportunity to make this facility truly uh one of the the it's already on the field one of the nicest facilities in my opinion in the state of Louisiana as far as natural services go. Uh but you add that concession stand the opportunity to have that there to sell merchandise the opportunity to have a
033press box on top of that for our fans to hear. Our last playoff game, we had probably 300 people at the playoff game and we had stands for 100. So, they were down the field. So, there's lots of great things happening in all of our schools in this parish. I can only speak, but I can tell you one thing, Lady Wave softball is on the brink of something really amazing. So, thank you guys so much for considering that. Glad to do it. Roll. We have a motion, a second. Any other discussion? Any public input? hearing. None. We'll call for a vote. Voting is open. And Kim could have put this money anywhere. So, if y'all get a chance to see her, make sure you thank her for voting is closed. Motion passes unanimously. All right.
034Item six, board member comments. We'll start down here. Mr. Moore. Okay. So, I would like to give a shout out to our teachers, principles, and uh to the administration for another, you know, excellent year. uh with all the struggles and the things that we've had uh you guys have proven once again that you can get the job done and what I've seen you do I know that we'll be able to continue that. So I wish everybody has a wonderful summer and uh see y'all back next year. Oh well actually in the fall. I just want to thank Greenville Park and our principal for hosting us. They did a wonderful uh job. Everything was set up so nice. Would encourage board members before you leave tonight to to walk the halls and see the campus. They
035keep this campus, I think, exceptionally clean and nice and and do a lot of great work here. Uh and thank our principal for for being here uh and and being such a great host. Can I say something? Absolutely. I just want to congratulate our Punchula High School U principal, Dr. Anna Feay Camita, who's our who's on the finalist. We got notified today that she's a finalist for the uh state uh high school principal of the year. So, I think they're down to six maybe uh in the state now. And and she's one of the top six. And so, we'll find out um I believe it's in July um at the uh dream teacher event uh Gayla if she is um wins the top honor of uh principal of the year for high school. said we
036are very proud of her and her accomplishments. Fantastic. Come back to you last. I'm good. Good. Wow. Well, I would like to just again uh Mr. Harper, thanks for being here tonight. This has been a long project waiting. I appreciate Kim coach for doing that as well as you know Dr. We gave some money a while back too for the athletic field uh that to help with the FEMA money and the state money for that. But uh also congratulations to the girls softball and the boys softball at Poncho High School for going to state championships and almost getting that title. We we appreciate y'all's hard work and y'all had a great season. I know it was a lot of hard work, a lot of extra, but uh y'all did a great job. So, thank you
037for that. Uh good luck to all the new graduates and everybody um you know, all the teachers and our students. We hope you have a great uh summer. Yes, congratulations to all of our graduates. Um you're going to do great things. I know that. Uh hope everybody has a great summer. Try to be safe. Um always u know your surroundings because you never know what's going on. And um be safe with that. I'd like to say I went to NISM's eighth grade graduation this morning. And I was so impressed with the GPA average that we have at Niss School. Most of those kids in that school had um in eighth grade class had a 3.5 or higher and um a lot of them had a 4.0. I know one of the little uh guy that
038got student of the year is going to be going to the IB program at Hayman High. And um they were just a great class. They were just so respectful and just very well behaved and and just you could tell that they wanted to be more than what they could be. And um I was impressed by that. I wanted to tell Dr. Austin that uh she's doing a great job there at Nissan School. So we got to get that electrical done so they can keep on doing good things there. But everybody else have a happy summer. Okay. I'd just like to say congratulations to the 2025 graduates also. Um it was it was it was a pleasure to be in the midst to see the graduates and the excitement that they had. Uh and we just
039wish you well and we want to say to you just like uh superintendent said that please be safe over the summer. be aware of your surroundings because, you know, we normally do have a tragedy during the summer of one of our pupils. So, we're hoping that we won't have one this year. Also, I just I just want to say to Hammond Westside Monastery, that song really just touched me. That that is just great. And uh I just like to see the a song written across the the parish. I really would. That that was a good idea. Oh, and for the um the Jake Bailey Award, um and I can't remember what was his name, Brett Morris. Morris that that received it as a motorcycle rider. Um my heart just bled when he said because I
040I if you look and you're not paying attention when you're riding, there's nothing between you and that road but air. So, we need to be careful and watch out. But to there has been times where I've come close and it's like, "Oh my god." And then to see and to hear his story and somebody actually stopped and respected and helped cuz most of the time the motorcycles riders don't get any respect. They come over on us in traffic and all of that. So, at that I'd like to say please be aware of the motorcycle rid. I just want to say one more thing. Um, Mr. President, I forgot to to say this, but not for any otherbody's graduation. Everybody has a great graduation. All of our principles do a great job in our our teams,
041those people who, you know, put those graduations on. But since Jeremy Harper's in the house, and I actually mailed him a card because he for an hour and five minutes said a name, I figured it up. He did eight names in a minute. And it was still an hour and five minutes of non-stop name calling. And every name he said, good name calling, not bad name. It was absolutely their name. Like they were the only kids name he announced all night and made every child there. 510 or 11 kids feel like they were the only one graduating. And kudos to you, Jeremy Harper. That was an excellent, excellent job. here that um I'm going to make a correction to what Rose just said. Um he was what impresses me by coach Harper is that and
042Mr. Jingo was sitting next to me. It averages like 6.5 seconds and I started counting after a while I kind of just you know so many names it's like it's perfectly done. It's just incredible. That is a lot of names. So but 6 seconds does work out very close to you know that many kids per minute. six or seven. Anyway, also while we're talking about Mr. Harper, um I just want to thank him for going out of his way to do all the work he's done on this press box and secure the funds for it. I mean, how often does that happen? Not very often. So, thank you for working with us and thank you for your patience while we do get through this process. Um the Greenville Park students, that was very touching. I
043was just it was touching. There's no other way to describe it. Those kids, they came and poured their heart out. I'm glad we adopted that as their song. Um, also want to say congrats to Dr. Tamita and I truly believe she deserves that. You know, that's a huge school. It's it's a lot to to keep that a bee high school. In addition to that, I mean, she's got the discipline doing I mean, she's heading the right direction with that school in terms of discipline. Pretty much every every way you can measure her success, in my opinion, she's she's passing the benchmark. Um, last but not least, the Judge Lamel visit. Um, I don't know if he left here impressed by our parish and our students, but I certainly did. And I think that what he
044learned is that our facilities are in need of a lot of work parishwide. And I think that he probably noticed as well that the this board and and the superintendent and our executive team have never um neglected at least not this board and not this superintendent have never neglected a school based on any demographics in that school. Now our schools neglected in some way shape or form probably. So, but one reason for that in my opinion, uh, I need to carefully state this is that we've had so much work to do regarding DEG and and regarding making reports and and filling things out and and hiring practices and things like that that facilities kind of fell behind a little bit in my opinion. So, um, now that we have unitary status, we can really dig
045into and focus these facilities and I hope that's the plan and I know it is. But um just real quick, while we were while he was here, we got food by ProStar. They made dessert for us. They served us. People thought we were kings and queens. It was just I was really impressed by them. The little band came out and this tall benny played for him. Um we had a nice welcoming committee at Independence. So the hospitality parish wide when he was here to me, um I was just so proud by it and I hope he left feeling the same way. So I want to thank everybody that was involved with that. Can I say something about ahead? Because I I don't think we said it. I wanted to mention that Brett Morris that we
046recognized for Above and Beyond is one of our um coaches and teachers at Ameat High School. I think he specifically works, if I remember correctly, with um with special needs children. Um and and he is just a super guy. But he also I wanted to mention comes from exceptional stock. His dad as I recall was a coach in our school system for like 40 something. I mean really at Niss, right? I mean he uh he was just a huge pillar of that community for I don't know Ryan you think it was about 40 years. He said today. Okay. So, so 35 years and then of course Brett's mom is just, you know, the best of the best just as one of the greatest ladies you'll ever meet. So, um, so anyway, just wanted to mention
047that and, uh, make sure that we've recognized just that that whole family. Um, absolutely. Uh, I too echo about graduations. U, I got I was fortunate this year to get to go to all of our high school graduations with Miss Dilly. We had good attendance from the board members. So, I I appreciate y'all showing up and attending them. Um, some of my takeaways and I've already shared those with the superintendent and I think her team's already working on ways to improve it. U because we can always improve on anything. You see things in one program that looks really good and you didn't think about it. Um, and you see things in other programs that you don't want to see next year. Um, that happens all the time and we're going to make some of those
048small corrections uh for next year. Uh, one thing I will say that we need curriculum in is we have some very confident students that know how to shake hands and look you in the eye and then we have a lot that do not know how to shake hands and look you in the eye. So, parents out there, work with your kids on how to shake someone's hand. I know that seems like a trivial task, but um, but we had the pleasure of shaking a lot of hands and um, it was good to do that. On Judge Lamel's visit, I echo what Mr. Anthony just said. Um, I hope he left with a good impression because I think for years he's probably u I don't know that he's ever gotten a full uh picture of what
049our parish looks like. And I was glad to get them on the north end and go to Spring Creek. Glad we stopped by Kentwood and we made a lot of good visits throughout this parish. But I'm hoping that he saw that our schools, like Miss Anthony said, we have some great schools, but they all have facility needs regardless of who goes to school there. and our older schools need more that need more help. So, um you know, the first thing we did at Spring Creek was walk at a hot gym and u he started taking his jacket off and tie off. So, uh you know, he saw some facility needs at at our highest performing elementary school. Um but the kids are still learning there. So, uh hats off to him for coming, spending the
050day with us, and once again, thank you for the food that Independence helped us with and rode a school bus with us as well. So, a lot of good conversations. I didn't know he was a veteran, so I had a good conversation with him about his time in the calvaryary. So, um, a good visit all in all with Judge L. And I hope I know you said unitary status, but we're not quite there yet. We still have facilities to do. And I'm hoping that, um, with that visit and with the motion that we have to file here soon that we'll have announcements coming sooner rather than later. And then I can take my Mr. Harper comments and throw them away cuz you already beat me to the punch on that and I don't want his
051head to get any bigger than it already is. Um, Greenville Park, uh, thank you for hosting us today. I really appreciate the fact of us I know it's hard. It's really hard to set these meetings up outside of our normal place, but um, the work that it takes to do that. I've never been to this campus. You know, I work in Hammond here every day, but I've never walked through this campus. And I'm really pleased even though it is an older campus, it is wellmaintained. The floors look good. We need some lights replaced in here. Um, but there's some things going on. So, it's a beautiful school and I'm glad that we take our school board meetings on the road like this so we can see these campuses and I'm get a little better feel
052of what our pairs looks like. So, any last chance? Um, you might want to add or miss anything? Hearing none, we'll go to item 7A and I'll entertain a motion enter executive session to consider the case of Wilson versus TPSB. All right. Motion made by M Duncan. Any oppose? Hearing none. Channel 17, proudly serving the Florida parishes. Call the meeting back to order. Coming out of our executive session with no action needed and no recommendation. So hearing no other business, we will adjourn the meeting.