001Thunderbird. The yellow Thunderbird. >> Oh, okay. >> They storm them up every so often. >> I have to listen into the school. two like the first >> file BCB school board meeting rules of procedure. An individual speaker who appears at a school board meeting to speak on agenda item must register prior to the meeting and will be allotted three minutes to speak on the agenda item prior to the schoolboard discussion on agenda item. I will now call to order the meeting of the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board agenda meeting. Uh I do want to put that the this is live stream and the link is at the top of the paper. >> Miss Debbie, can you do roll? >> Mr. Arseno, Mr. Borlong here, >> Mr. Brook House here, Mr. Dobson here, >> Mr. Doies
002here, >> Mr. Fry here, >> Miss Jones, >> Miss Paula Lern here, Miss Summer Lern here, >> Mr. Patterson here, >> Mr. Petri here, >> Mr. Trhan >> here, Mr. Walker >> here. >> You do have a quorum, sir. I have had no requests for public comment. >> Thank you. We will now stand and Miss Callie Patterson will leave us in prayer. >> Lord, I come to you this evening thanking you for all you've done. As we celebrate those who have battled breast cancer this month, I thank you for healing and the healing that succumb to these wonderful ladies. Please continue to guide, strengthen, and be near to those who are battling this disease. Please give the board guidance for their leadership this afternoon. I ask that you would be with us tonight and protect
003us while we travel back home. I pray this in your name, Lord. Amen. >> Amen. I'll now ask uh Miss Rachel Pearson, Julie Pickle, Kimberly Pratt, Charmaine Tero, and Kim Brisco to the podium, please. Can y'all lead us in the pledge? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank y'all can stay right there, guys. We just uh just want to take this time and just thank y'all for coming out tonight. Uh this is something that just came on me. It's October. I said, why don't we send out an email so we can get anybody to come. So, I do appreciate y'all coming. I just want to, you know, just say
004that we're standing by y'all to for the past, the present, whatever is to come. We appreciate everything y'all do for us. And we just like to say if y'all like to say your name, maybe what school y'all are at, and anything else you want to tell us about y'all, whoever wants to start. >> Kim Brisco, and I'm at Welsh Elementary, and I'll be uh 13 years in December. >> Awesome. Um, Kim Pre retired, but uh, I seem to just not leave teaching. So, I'm there for the first half of this year, and I am a 20-year survivor, and I also have the Melissa Doy's Breast Cancer Foundation. Shine Ontario, Lake Worth High School, 11-year survivor. >> Rachel Pearson, Jennings Elementary. It'll be one year October 30th, 2025. Uh, I'm Julie Pickle. I'm a school psychologist
005with Pupil Appraisal. I coordinate the Welsh schools, but I also um I've been at all the schools in the parish. I've been here um over 25 years. Um, and I was diagnosed two years ago and uh totally cancer-free um October 18th uh two years ago. >> Praise God. little gift on the behalf of uh Hobos Valley uh Rocket Drive in Greens Cafe. My daughter is also the 2025 Miss Queen of Peak out of Lake Charles. So, she goes a lot and does this a lot. She did it on the behalf of our employee, uh Mr. Amber McFarland. So, that's why she wanted to do this. So, she's just going to hand y'all stuff out and then we'll probably get some pictures and stuff, guys, with all the board members and everything. >> Thank you for
006coming. Appreciate >> y'all. 31 years. >> Thank you. >> All up there. >> Let's go, guys. >> Up here. We're going to take a picture of these bird legs. We come back again. >> Get behind him. room. >> Are you ready? that pink shirt. >> Thank you very >> t-shirts. I'm going to help you guys. everything just take it back. Thank you all again for coming ladies app sister do this bag back home >> wait till the party was over terrible I want to thank all of y'all too for coming along and doing this with us too guys I appreciate the support that I get from y'all too for this just want to say thank you >> I think it was a nice gesture >> absolutely yes >> all right I Going to need a
007motion, a second to approve the schoolboard minutes of our regular meeting. I got a motion by Mr. Walker. Second by Mr. Stro. Any board discussion? Hearing? None. We will now vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose. >> Eyes have it. Motion passes. Need a motion, a second to vote to change the order of topics to be addressed and to add. I got a motion by Mr. Blake. >> Got a second by Mr. Russell Walker. Any board discussion hearing? None. We'll now vote. All in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. We've already did uh six, so we will go to seven. We have a presentation by the Wel High School Renaissance team. >> Welcome. >> Thank um I guess was it a month ago? Uh we had
008asked permission to take some students to a Renaissance conference and it was in uh Katie, Texas. >> So we had to get y'all's permission and I was told that a lot of you were asking what is what is this? What is Renaissance? What are we allowing them to go to? So I was asked to come and just kind of give you a little overview of what Renaissance is. We go to we go to this conference every year. Um, and it started off as we found out that Ununice High School had a really great awards day ceremony. And it wasn't your typical where you walk in and see the students all sitting and the ones that are 4.0's get up and get their award and then the ones that are this award get up and it's
009the same student that you see over and over and over getting up and then you see the teachers in the background correcting the students that are bored because they're not getting any awards. That's your typical awards day. uh that you have at every school. So, we go to Ununice and observe this and it was just it was more like a pep rally um where they're recognizing and and rewarding students like 90% of their students got recognized that day and it was awesome and it was faster than any awards day I had ever been to. Uh they rolled through it. So, we took that and we implemented at our school and we thought that's what Renaissance was. Well, the Joins's reps come around and somehow they find out that we're doing this Renaissance and they're like,
010"Well, that's us, Joins's, the people that sell rings and your Letterman jackets." Um, they they said, "That's our thing. That's Renaissance." And and then we found out that there's a uh a national conference every year. So, we're like, "Well, let's let's go to the conference and see what it is." So, we we ended up going to this conference and it just blew our mind. So, I'm trying to give you a little rundown of what it actually is. Um, it's a lot more than an awards day. Um, it's run by Justin's Renaissance. So, any school that is just, it's free. The whole program is free. And I said that wrong because I said the word program. They will correct you right away when you say the word program. They say programs start and they end. And
011you find another program to run. They said this is not a program. And it's not. They call it a framework and basically what it is is it's a mindset to change the culture and climate of your school and it's basically once you implement it it's there for life. It's not something you change because it becomes the culture. Um, so what it is is it's basically a positive mindset that supports not only students, but it supports the whole, we call it, we made up a word, which I had a problem with because I'm an educator and we don't make words up. You see all these teens nowadays texting and they creating these new words and nobody knows. It's like they have their own language. So we created a new word and it's called staffy. Um, and
012that's from Renaissance. But what it does is it it combines staff and faculty together. And what it what it's for is it it wants them to feel like we're all together because you go to so many schools and there's clicks. You know, you have all these clicks with the students, but then you look at the staff and the faculty and there's clicks there, too. You have your cafeteria people that never leave the cafeteria. You have your bus drivers that get left out a lot. You have your staff that's divided into departments. math, English. So there's all these clicks. So they created this word staffing and what it's there for is to include everyone as one working together for whatever you feel is important at your school. Okay. So basically they have a results formula. They
013use the six Rs. Uh the first one is respect and that's basically respecting what you decide is important at your school. It could be different across every school that does Renaissance, but for the main po for the main purpose, there's three. Um, every Renaissance school is going to respect academic performance, character development, and the staffy. Okay, that's the three that they really harp on that you need to respect. The second or is recognize. Uh we recognize achievements and basically anything that deals with those three things that we find important. We're going to recognize it and we're going to blast it out on social media. We're going to blast it out through the school and we're going to recognize them people. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the things we recognize in a
014minute. The third thing is reward. You want to recognize and reward from the beginning of the year all the way to the end. And we try to find things to reward for not only what we accomplish, but effort. That's really big. Just the ones that are showing effort to improve and to get where we want them, we we reward that. We reward uh behavior that we value that we we find valuable to the school. We're going to reward that. The fourth R is reinforce. Um, this is basically uh if you walk into Welsh High School, a a lot of schools you walk into and you just see halls, you know, and doors and it's just blank. There's just walls and doors and floors. You walk into Welsh High School, there's pictures everywhere. There's banners everywhere.
015Right when you walk in, we hit you what we feel like important. We have academics, we have athletics, we have pictures of clubs. Right when you walk into the doors, you see our students doing stuff on the walls. We have art hanging all over the walls. We decorate all over the place. We have a theme every year and everything is based on that theme. Um, last year was games. So, everything we did from athletics to clubs to events all dealt with some sort of game. This year our theme is movies. So, we have all kind of different uh movie genres that we have posted everywhere and go through. So, homecoming, everything we do is based prom is based on movies. That's the movie theme for the whole year. Um, relationships is number five. Uh, this
016is one of the most important to me and this is one of the most things that I value at our school is relationships. Um, the reason why I became an educator is because I want to make a difference in people's lives. That's all the way up from the students to the staff. staff would eat everybody. And I try to implement that into my teachers at the beginning of the year, those beginning of the year meetings that we have. And then every time we meet, I'm like, whose life are you making a difference in? And I tell my teachers, pick someone. Pick somebody in your class, pick somebody in the hallway that you see that you think you can make a difference in their life. You might spend the whole year working on one student. You
017might make a difference in their life, you might not. But I want you to try once you reach that goal, pick another kid. You might pick five kids, but pick at least one to make a difference in. Then we talk about it sometimes. And we had one teacher that this student was brand new to our school. Difficult student and was very difficult in her class. And then I reminded her, you're here to make a difference. And her and that student became very close. And he actually moved. He went to another school. yesterday was his last day and he could not leave school without talking to her because she had made a difference in his life. It was amazing to see. Um so relationships, that's one of my my big ones. Um the the sixth one
018is results. Um and some of the results like I think the we we're on year three of implementing this. The first year we implemented it our our hugest result was our Tories. We focused on that. We had a lot of Tories. Drastic change in the number of tories we had that first year. Year two, we changed uh retention, teacher retention. That was the first year we we hadn't lost the teacher since I had been there. All teachers came back to Welsh High School. Now, we did have one leave us uh to move up uh last year. I think in September, he left to become an assistant principal at another parish. But in April, I got him back. >> So, he's my AP now. So, we we're 100% retention since last year. You know, we've kept
019everybody. And I think that's awesome. That's hard to do with schools. I mean, I've been an educator for 24 years, and you you rarely see 100% retention. So, we're doing something there. Uh I'll be interested when we look at our data at the end of the year to see what we've improved on this year, but every year we're looking to improve something. Um, so I that's kind of what it is. Um, at the national conference that we go to, um, there's over 3,000 people that go to this conference and they're across I mean, it's not just the United States. Canada's there. Is it Australia? I think Australia came this year, too. We had a couple people from out of the country. But one of the hugest things as educators that we do, we go to
020all these PD days and the biggest thing that we usually get out of PD when we go to where there's multiple schools, multiple teachers is just talking to one another and stealing great ideas. Well, when there's 300 educa 3,000 educators plus in a building, there's all kinds of stuff to steal. You know, I was a coach for a long time. We used to go to PDS and we would tell ourselves if we can come back with one thing that we can implement that's a successful PD. We might spend three days there and we're looking for one thing to come back with. I went to this conference and it's from what time we start 910 in the morning. >> Oh yeah. Second day. >> Yeah. About 9 or 10 in the morning and it ends about
0215 or 6. And I think then this is three days three-day conference. I think there were two meetings I went to that I didn't get anything out of and that was because we already did what they were talking about. Everything else I walked out of every meeting with a new idea. And that's what is amazing about this. There's so many great ideas that you come back with to implement at your school. Every year we come back with something new and great. Um, one of their big quotes, just to give you an idea of the positive mindset, is that we want every student to know that the staffy sees them. We recognize them. We see what they're doing. We see their effort. We want them to know that we hear them. Whenever they have a problem,
022when they have to speak up or have a question, we're going to listen to them. We're going to listen to them. We're going to value what they have to say. And then we love them. Now, of course, we're not running around telling everybody we love them. But I tell my teachers that that's you caring about that student. You trying to make that difference in their life. They know you care about them. That's the love that they know that we have for them. So, their big thing is, "We see you, we hear you, and we love you." That's one of their big quotes that's popular across the board for Renaissance. So, now that I gave you just a little overview, I'm just going to throw out a couple of things that we do. And I I
023could talk about this forever, but I know y'all got to move on, but uh just a couple things we do at Welsh High that we've implemented uh since we've been this. We have a beginning of the year pep rally. Usually the beginning of the year, the first day of school, your teachers sit the kids in the room. The kids are excited to be at school that one day. That's probably their most exciting day to be there because you know the kids, they end up I don't want to be here. I don't like school. That first day, they want to see their friends. They want to know who their teachers are. They want to know their classes, right? They're excited. and the teacher gets them in the room and they sit down and shut up. I'm
024going to hand you a syllabus and we're going to read it. That's what they get the first day of school, you know, in every class they go to. So, they went from walking into the doors excited to I can't say nothing and here's the syllabus I got to read that I really worried about. We quit doing that. I told my teachers, "Do not hand out a syllabus that first day." So, what we do is we meet in the in the gym and we have a pep rally. We spend about three hours in the pep in the in that pep rally where we're just school spirit shoving it down their throats telling them what's important to us going over all the positive fun things we're going to do all year and then they go and meet
025all their teachers but I I still tell them do not hand a syllabus out till day two just meet your kids talk to them because now the day is shortened we break the rest of the day up so that we spent three hours in a pep we've divide the rest up and they see all their teachers so that's our first day um we have a Christmas day pepper rally. Uh, and usually, you know, you think pep rally, you thinking athletics, football, football, football. Somebody told me we was going to do an academic pep rally. I was like, "What? What are you talking about?" What we do at these pep rallies, we shove school spirit down their throats, but we all we also recognize, which is one of the ores, as many accomplishments as we can.
026Anything they did over the summer, we're we're finding out. We're going to recognize that student, that teacher, what they did. Christmas Pepper, we recognize them for everything they did the first half of the year. Okay? Okay. And then at the end we do the same at awards day. So we're recognizing students. Um we have Renords which is huge. Uh a renord is just a reward system for our kids. They have to get points throughout the nine weeks and then they get a cord with their rewards depending on how many points they have. They get rewards for going to school events. Uh we'll pick this is how we kind of fix our tories. We'll pick two weeks every nine weeks and say these two weeks are toies. No Torries. You get this many points. These two
027weeks are attendance. you don't miss school this many points. These two weeks are discipline. You don't get a referral this many points and we just keep alternating that throughout the year. Um band another thing we did band hardly ever gets recognized on a big level. Okay. Uh we did this two years ago. Last year we had a schedule conflict but two years ago um we talked to our football team. We said look band travels all over to support you guys. I said, "They have a band competition in Magnes. We're going to load the bus and we're going to this competition." We took ours and it blew their mind. Yeah. Mr. Hall was there. Uh it blew the band community's mind. The the people at McNiss had never seen that support before and the band didn't
028know about it. It was a surprise. So, they were excited. It was awesome to see. Um, our bus drivers, we give them a snack and a drink one day in the mornings. Uh, we have a teacher staff of the month award where it depends on our theme. Uh, last year we gave them, it was games. We made a big old court of ace, big playing card, and they sign it when they get it and they display it for a month and they have to pass it on to another teacher and it can't be in their department. That's part of that staffy thing. You got to give it outside your department. some math would have to give it to like English or a janitor. A janitor would have to give it to a cafeteria worker or
029secretaries. It just goes all over. They sign it and then we hang it up in our lounge. Uh so we have two already hanging and we're working on a third this year where we pass that around. The teachers get that. Um we moved all of our faculty meetings, but not all of them. Uh usually we meet in the library. This year I decided I got this idea. I said, 'We going to meet outside when it gets nice. I said, 'We going to meet in the hallway. We're going to meet wherever I announce just for that day. Just kind of change things up. And I bought all of them a lawn chair. So, first day it was called, we I said faculty meeting outside at lunch, meet outside uh where duty teacher is. We set up
030all these lawn chairs and they walked out there like what's this? What's going on? They thought they were being punked like on MTV. It's like sit in your lawn chair. We got a couple things to discuss. And you know, we discuss positive things, a couple things we need to cover, but just changing it up. U we created a news show in the morning for morning announcements. We don't just announce it on the intercom. We have students that actually do a news show in the morning every morning. Uh we have a recognition wall. This one's also huge where we talk about recognizing students, but if a student's a D student and we recognize that he got a C, all of a sudden, his name goes on that wall. It doesn't say D to C, but he's
031recognized as, hey, he made an improvement. That's the kind of recognition we're talking about. It's just across the board. So, that's just a few of the things that we we've implemented here. uh Lake Arthur, Miss Duplanis left, but uh they just incorporated it last year. So they're we we got them on board, introduced Renaissance to them. Um so it's just a great thing. It's a positive mindset. We're trying to develop that culture and climate at our schools. So that's that's what Renaissance is, and I appreciate y'all are proving us to go to that. Um, it's important. I feel like it's important that we continue to go to that national conference because like I said, the information we get there is is so valuable that we can bring back to our school every year. And then
032we take those students and bring them, it's a mini conference. It's what we went to in Texas. And I got to say, last thing, uh, in 24 years, we've heard a lot of guest speakers that come to the schools and speak. Renaissance has at least three maybe four guys that travel with them all over. They're the best speakers hand down hands down that I've ever heard. I mean these guys every they got 3,000 plus people in this auditorium and everybody is crying over and over and over again. Not once but like just listening to these guys of their talk and their life story and and their positivity. There's so many teachers that you meet there that say, "I was ready to get out of teaching and quit and retire and I came to this and
033now I'm on fire again." It's just an I think everybody needs it. It's great. But that's what Renaissance is. [Music] >> Thank y'all. >> I will say I attended their first day this year, their pep rally, and it was it was interesting. No, it was great. It really was. It was really great to see those kids were fired up to be at school the first day and when their teachers came in with all the different departments. It It was cool. It really was. I I mean just He's right. It wasn't that first day, hey, make it through the front door and go to your classroom and sit down. It It was It was very >> And I think anything that that you can measurable positivity and encompasses everybody, >> it's it's a no-brainer. It's win-win.
034And I would encourage y'all and invite I'm inviting y'all if y'all want to come and watch our awards day at the end of the year. I will get with Mr. Hall and them to to give y'all an invite >> before that happens at that one of those meetings. >> They're pretty amazing as well. I'll attend an amazing >> to come and see it. It's something. It's like a production. It really is. So >> Miss Nezatel, thank you because I know >> Yes, absolutely. >> I know where your position in all of this. You you you do a kid y'all. >> He runs it. >> He's a much better speaker. Much better speakers. >> It's renaissance. >> Thank y'all. >> Bye y'all. >> Bye. >> All right, guys. We'll now continue with our board committee reports.
035Mr. Taylor is out today, so Mr. Russell Walker is going to fill in as the finance committee. >> Mr. Russell. >> Uh grant permission to accept the following donations. Jennings uh Jennings Elementary Sparks Law Firm LLC $1,000 to the library funds will be used for library needs. Jennings High School FFA for national convention expenses uh Pleman's insurance 25 uh $250 above Ocelate Ford $500 the bank $350. Uh um James Ward Jennings Little Dribblers $500 funds to be used for SWPBIS expenses to help students grow in education and daily activities. Welsh High School. Welsh band boosters to Welsh High School ban $150. Funds to be used toward cost of feeding the band pizza for nine uh September 25th game. Welsh Greyhound backers to Welsh High School volleyball. $500 funds to be used towards yearly expenses. Pat
036Desertil $100 funds to be used toward Welsh High School band cost. Catholic Daughters Court Stella Maris number one 1233 $100 funds to be to assist needy students or uh Welsh owner anonymous $100 funds to be used for esports fees and supplies. United Way $775 to McKini Vento students funds to be used to purchase school spirit shirts. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Mr. Walker, a second by Mr. Trohall. Any board discussion? Hearing none, we will now vote. All in favor say I. >> Oppose. Eyes have. Motion passes. Okay. >> Grant permission to Lacine High School to purchase from Tibs in Phoenix under state contract numbers. >> I got a motion by Mr. Walker. A second by Mr. Blake Petri. Any board discussion? Hearing none, we will go to vote. All in favor say I.
037>> All oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Okay. grant approval to the director of finance for the district to transition to cashless as of January 1st, 2026. >> Second. >> I got a motion by Mr. Walker, a second by Miss Paula Lerner. Any board discussion? >> Hear none. We will go to a vote. All in favor say I. >> All oppose. >> Nay. >> I have one nay. Eyes have it. Motion passes. >> Uh, grant permission to Tanya Goday, the textbook supervisor, and Miss Christian Lro, director of finance, to purchase textbooks, workbooks, and materials at a >> I got a motion by Mr. Walker, a second by Mr. Gray. [Music] Any board discussion? All in favor say I. >> All oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Grant permission to accept a change order number one
038on the Jeff Evvis Parish School Board Lake Arthur bond project description. A change of order number one. Pat Williams will provide labor and equipment. >> I got a motion by Mr. Walker. A second by Mr. Dobson. Any board discussion hearing? None. We will go to a vote. All in favor say I. >> All oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. >> Number six. grant permission to accept change order number three. >> I got a motion by Mr. Walker, a second by Miss Summerjourn. Any board discussion? Hearing none, we will go to vote. All in favor say I. >> All oppose. >> I have seven. Motion passed. >> That end my report for the finance committee. >> Thank you, sir. We move to insurance with Mr. Blake Petri. >> No report. Right. We will go to billing
039and grounds with Mr. David Ois. >> No reports. >> Thank you, sir. We will now move to policy committee and hand it over to Mr. Russell Walker again. >> Okay. Um at request of the policy committee. Um we met on Tuesday and discuss the following items. Approve the following policy changes recommended by JD Peach. Second motion by Mr. Walker, second by Miss Mr. Blake Petri. Any board discussion? Hearing none, we will now go to a vote. All in favor say I. >> All oppose. I seven. Motion passes. >> Got to end my report. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it went all the way down here. >> Okay. Approve the following policies recommended by Fore Consulting. I got a motion by Mr. Walker, a second by Smith similar. Any board discussion hearing? None. We'll now
040go to a vote. All in favor say I. >> All oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. >> Now it'll end my report. >> Yes, sir. We'll now go over to transportation committee with Mr. Greg Bordon. I just have a little quick report. been doing a test on the new buses that we bought that were gas engines with one of the bus drivers and the mechanic that services it. And on day one, we had a a radiator problem with the first one, which would, you know, that wasn't the engine, it was just a radiator. And the second one, we had a uh emission issue, which they corrected. Other than that, uh Mr. Mr. Gibbo has done a good job of keeping those buses more into a city route because they lack park and the power that
041the Cumins diesels have. And the only other negative on them that we see so far is fuel mileage is quite a bit less. Probably about 40% less than the diesel is. So we may consider that on the next purchase. And so how how much did we save by going gas versus diesel? I think it was around 15,000 if I remember right. About 15,000 each. But I think in the long run the diesel is going to compensate itself. >> Oh, >> but we didn't know. You know, we didn't know. >> How many gas buses do we have? >> Two. >> Just the two newest buses we have or less. >> No, they're under warranty. They fix them. >> Yeah, they were under warranty and stuff. And um they uh in a city route the torque is
042not really an issue but on a gravel road and stuff like that it's an issue and that concludes my report. >> Thank you sir. I appreciate you studying and bringing it to the board. We now move to 16 section Mr. Charles Brook house. >> No report two with Miss Pauler. >> No report. We go to legislations less on with Greg Bordon. Once again, >> no report. >> Long range planning, Mr. Paul TR. >> No report, sir. >> Now we move to food service committee assembling the journ. >> Nothing different than what we met with Tuesday. Mr. Hall um and us discuss about halting the u renovations on the property that food service is at right now and looking into some properties or maybe building from ground up for a new facility. That's where we're at.
043Thank you. Thank you for your report. We will now go to sales tax report with by Miss Amber Miller, our tax. >> Hey everybody, how are y'all doing? >> Good. Good. >> Good. Um, this month I printed it in color >> and mold too. We collected 1,57,338 which is $89,000 less the same time last this month last year. So far, we're at 2.1 million and we're $61,000 less this time last year. I usually tell y'all I'm not exactly sure what caused it, but we know what caused it this time. Um, vendor's comp is um when people file their returns early or on time, they get to take a percentage off. Well, that went away in the last um special session in November. It came back. So, this is the first one we're seeing that it's
044coming back on. So that's going to make it a little bit less because we were getting inflated numbers because they took that away from the um businesses. The second thing that is causing um a downward trend which will probably happen for a little bit longer um for farm equipment, commercial farmers, we um the state had an exemption for any new farm equipment purchased of $50,000 and the locals did not have an exemption. Well, in the special session, they upped it to $150,000 for the state is first 150 is taxfree and they are making us do it as well. So, you are having a lot of farmers going purchase things and if you do it on separate invoices, you get the discount every time. So, that's what they're doing. And so, it's it's going to show
045a lot. Just letting you know. >> Oh, I'm not saying they're buying too much or too little or anything. I'm just telling y'all that's why my numbers are down. >> Is there to do it? >> It is. It is. >> Do y'all have any questions? >> Thank y'all. >> Thank you. >> We'll now go to new business, guys. Grant permission for the following out of state travel. Lake Arthur High School basketball teams and coaches to travel. Got a motion by Mr. Greg Bordon, a second by Mr. Men Doppson. Any board discussion hearing? None. We now go to a vote. All in favor say I. I. >> All oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Declare the following. A surplus and send to the next available public offer. >> I got it by motion by Mr. Blake
046Petri. Second by Miss Summerlandjourn. Any board discussion? Hearing? None. We'll go to a vote. All in favor say I. I. >> All oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Approve the following non-faculty coaches for the upon completion of the LHSAA coaches course. >> So moved. >> I got a motion by Mr. Blake. >> A second by Miss Janet Jones. >> Along Tron and Miss Janet Jones. Any board discussion? Hearing none, we'll go to a vote. All in favor say I. All oppose. I motion passes. Approve the following resolution for Superintendent Paul to sign as a corporate endeavor agreement for funds allocated from the state to the six high school a science. I got a motion by Miss Summer Lern, a second by Miss Paula Lern. Any board discussion hearing? None. We'll go to a vote. All
047in favor say I. >> All oppose. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Addendum to new business. Grant permission for the following out of state travel. So move. >> I got a motion by Mr. Charles Bush House. Second. >> A second by Miss Paul Troy. Any board discussion hearing? None. We'll go to a vote. All in favor say I. >> All oppose. >> Eyes have it. Motion passes. Uh information. for sending our condolences are extended to the family of Carolyn de Wolfenstein High School teacher who retired in 2007 with 20 years of service. I will now turn over the meeting to Mr. Hall for any comments. >> Um just a couple things. Um I'm still getting numbers together. We had talked about doing like a a feasibility in Finton and so I started we're now talking about
048the bond and how how that affects us. So, you give me a couple couple more months, I can have some I can I can finish that out. I just didn't want you all to think that I we haven't been working on it. It's just it it it takes an entire team and all these departments to start looking into, you know, how how we service that community. And so, just wanted to mention that I'm I'm still working on it. It's not it hadn't been on the back burner. just takes a long time when we're dealing with our our uh uh the bonding information. And so, >> um, Miss Lori, I know I'm gonna put you on the spot. I'm sorry, but esports. >> Sorry. >> I know Troy uh has done some pretty good stuff. Can
049you talk to the the board about esports because it is something fairly new >> and uh I I just want everybody because this is something that we're going to see more and more, especially as a career path. So, we uh we piloted this year. We have five schools involved um in esports. We are starting at the elementary level. Uh we're starting at Jennings Elementary, fourth grade, and at Lake Arthur Elementary, fourth grade. Um our one of my technicians, Jerry Whit, um is actually coaching the Lake Orthur team uh at Lake Arthur Elementary. He meets with them twice a week after school. He has 20 students who signed up uh for esports. Esports is not just playing video games and that is definitely a part of it. It is the motivation behind the club, but we're
050focusing on a career pathway for digital media. Um which is a p a STEM pathway that we could actually offer in our parish for high school students at some point through Jumpstart. Um, so in that rotation, Jerry actually sat and wrote the curriculum for it and came and talked with Rachel and I and we talked it out with all of our uh staff in our building and uh Jerry had a solid foundation with it. Um the kids rotate through four stations um when they go to the afterchool club. So they rotate through the video game play. So, they play about 15 to 20 minutes. And so, you have a team of four kids uh playing either Super Smash Brothers, um Mario Kart, and there's one more, but I don't think they've actually started the third
051one. Uh but those are the two that are popular right now. So, four of the kids play at one time. Two of the kids on the team are doing what's called shout casting. And so, shout casting is actually a career. It's kind of like sports broadcasting except they're sports casting video game play. And so that is a job within one of these teams. They then rotate through graphic design. And in graphic design they use a program that we have called Canva. And through Canva they learn to create logos. They learn to create slogans. They learn to create flyers. They can actually create anything newsletters to put out to the public. um advertising their club. So Jerry designed the Lake Arthur Elementary um esports logo, the overall logo. Um but each of the teams are responsible
052for creating their own. So each team has a name and they have to create their logo. They have to create their slogan. Uh Lake Carter Elementary actually has t-shirts that they've designed and they've sold to the um the members and anybody else on the faculty who wanted to purchase them. That is one way they're doing fundraising uh for the club. They also go through a station for video editing and video and audio capturing. So they actually have purchased with sponsorships that they have received. Um they purchased actual handheld cameras and microphones. So, these students are capturing the video footage of their classmates playing the games, their classmates doing the shout casting, and all of these clips are fed into the video. The video editing software they haven't gotten to yet. They're just right now capturing
053images and audio. Um, but the goal is for them to be able to take those video clips and those audio clips and actually start putting them together into like infomercials uh so that they can share them out with parents. Um, today we started Welsh Ron Oak. So we have Lake Arthur Elementary, Jennings Elementary. Jennings Elementary is in the process of getting theirs started now. We have Welsh Ronoke at junior high level. We have Jennings High, seventh and eighth grade. And all Mr. Roma's waiting for at Jennings High is we're waiting on a locking storage cabinet for the equip uh the equipment. Um and then we have Haway High School and Mr. Bryson McCoy will be doing uh Hathaway Junior High. So we're starting at elementary and junior high level with the the goal in mind
054that like Jerry started with fourth grade. Jennings Elementary starting with fourth grade. These fourth graders next year will be the ones teaching the upcoming fourth graders the program and they will be teaching them all of the skills within it. So, I'm very grateful to Jerry and Troy um because they did not have to take this on. That is not part of their job description. Uh but Jerry is from Lake Arthur and he's very passionate about returning service to the community. Um and so he has committed this entire school year to spend every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from 3:00 to 4:30 um at Lake Orther Elementary. At Lake Arthur Elementary, the kids go an hour and a half because the last 30 minutes of their time is actually tutoring and homework. And so Jerry has five
055teachers on campus who have committed to be there with him throughout the year. and they rotate throughout each meeting and they actually help the kids with the tutoring. So, Lake Arthur Elementary goes that hour and a half. Welsh Ronoke started today. Mr. Troy Miller, who is also from Rono, um he has committed to help Welsh Ronoke and so they started today with 15 students. He hasn't let me know yet how his afternoon went. Um but they're doing one hour after school. So, Jennings Elementary is in the process of getting their permission forms out to students and getting applications out to say, "Are you interested in participating?" Um, Hathaway, we're about a week or two out from getting their equipment there to them. And then Jennings High, we're just waiting on the locking storage cabinet for
056Mr. Roma to proceed. But it it's quite interesting. Um, Jerry and Troy are very passionate about it. Also, Nick and William in my in our department. um they kind of help in the background, but I I commend Jerry and Troy for actually stepping up and doing this for us uh because they did not have to and all of the sponsors who took this on. >> Make sure and let them know we acknowledge them tonight. >> Yes, sir. I will. >> Some known. So, >> yeah. And one time they can actually come show you. They can actually come and do it for you and and show you and they'll be happy to do so. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Fast before we close, guys. Uh there was also three other ladies that reached out
057to us that couldn't make it tonight as a breast cancer survivor and that would be Miss Dra Reid. I think Miss Dedra's at a secretary at Jennings High School. Uh we also had a bus driver by Miss Kendra St. Julian I think with the pepper rally. She had to do the ban kids over to the thing so she couldn't be here. And then we also had a Missy Learn from another bus driver. So, they couldn't be here tonight, but they did reach out and they wanted to try to get here. Just some scheduling conflict, but I also wanted just to recognize them. And also all the staff members and everybody that wore pink. Just thank y'all for that too throughout the whole. Can I get entertain a motion to >> motion? Got a motion by
058Miss Simon, a second by Mr. David. Any board discussion? here. All in favor say I. All oppose. And the meeting >> that's unfortunately going to be an Alabama hat. >> Hey, what color are we wearing next meeting? Thank you. >> Hotel The