Tagged: schools

Louisiana didn’t become 41st in the nation on average ACT score because of public school performance alone. Public schools can’t take all the blame for why Louisiana keeps looking up at its peers on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Particularly in New Orleans, where 30 percent of the students attend private and parochial schools, the quality of this sector is critical to our city’s vitality.

Jefferson Parish public schools Superintendent James Meza said he plans to offer teachers individual employment contracts while negotiations on a union contract continue.

The Times-Picayune reports the individual contracts are not intended to replace a collective bargaining agreement with the Jefferson Federation of Teachers.

However, Meza said they would protect rights and benefits of the system's more than 3,000 teachers until a union contract can be signed.

The school bus company that transports most public school students in New Orleans has laid off its drivers in a dispute over $7.2 million in unpaid bills.

Blaine Krage, a spokesman for Warrenville, Ill.-based Durham School Services, told The Times-Picayune Tuesday that the company has sent termination letters to 142 drivers and 55 bus monitors telling them "we will not need their services this upcoming school year."

In a move to stop charter schools from expelling students too frequently, the state agency running most of New Orleans' public schools has issued new guidelines on what constitutes the kind of behavior that will get a student thrown out.

FARMERVILLE, La. — Union Parish Schools Superintendent George Cannon says the district is struggling financially for the current fiscal year after cuts planned for the past year apparently didn't happen.

Cannon said some of last year's planned $1.6 million in cuts were not carried out as planned.