Board Meeting Comments

Greetings. The most disappointing is the lack of pay raise for teachers, paras, bus drivers, and and cafeteria workers. If feels like if we can continue to fund super-sized central office than we can find the dough for people who work with students? The seeminlgy LARGE reduction of ESS staff is also confusing. Changing the formatting doesn't make it make any more sense to the average stakeholder, especially when customer service/culture of secrecy impedes engagement. Some numbers on the proposed budget look like fiction and is disappointing the was no quality public engagement over the budget. Several schools like Libery High seem to have projected significant increase in enrollment and decreease in staffing. If this is a mistake the board must not accept this proposal until the public can review the real proposals. Do better, find a pay raise and cut the fat. Thanks.

Hi! It's depressing there is only one budget workshop this school year. The survey didn't give much room for real feedback. Traveling the to community might be annoying, but the community based budget workshops were helpful. Some of these proposed budgets make no sense. McKinley Middle Magnet is projected to have MORE students yet LESS staff? Please update the slides before getting more public feedback and do a separate pesention on the schools that were consolidated so everyone can see the promosied resources in dollars. Please show us the money. Also we need an updated organizational chart to see how many jobs in leadership need to be relocated to school buildings to help with all the fights and discipline issues. There seem to be entire departments that could be located inside struggling schools. Thank you.

"Cost of living increase"... Where is the cost of living increase for teachers?

Thanks to present and long gone board members for bringing this long overdue issue to help with absenteeism and academic issues. The community might not grasp why these specific sites were chosen. The survey was very poor quality and won't yield meaningful data. The lack of true engagement of impacted communities is sad. Changing the start times at some of the locations that are already part of the consolidations will make it hard to measure impact of either. Too many variables. Although these sites may have been chosen for high levels of absenteeism, 4pm seems a bit late for high school students. This discussion would be a good time to get ALL schools be instructed how to handle dismissal at this large 500+ kid plus schools. Too often dismissal begins well before the end the of school day at the cost of instruction. In fact some elementary schools already free the kids at 3pm which is 25 minutes of learning loss daily. Thank you.

This seems like a great option for the high school students, especially. The mental and physical health improvements have been long documented. We would also love see EBR Schools pilot modernizing the dress code and releasing some schools from dated uniform and dress code requirements. Both Basis schools have had positive results with free dress, which like better start times may reduce absenteeism. However, EBR Schools may want to be mindful of always experimenting on the traditional neighborhood schools. Asking the same communities already impacted by school closures may be too many changes at once. Maybe pilot future changes at some A ranked magnets as well. Thank you.

Please consider the effect that this change could have on personnel. Teachers who live in West Baton Rouge, Livingston, and Ascension will reconsider their employment in EBR if they are spending an hour+ in traffic each afternoon because of a 4:05 (4:25 for teachers) start time. You may say, "If they do not want to do this, they can go elsewhere," but this is an irresponsible stance for a district that is already well below full staffing.

I would like to know if you guys took into consideration that majority of your faculty and staff may have second jobs? What are they supposed to do if the school start up time changes? They have taken on these jobs to supplement their income which is of importance to their household. Will the salary change or are they expected to quit the second job?

Good evening, This time change will affect staff members in few ways: 1. We will not able to receive our elementary aged students off the bus in the afternoon, causing us to either have to pay for after-school care, or turning our children into “Latchkey Kids”. 2. A great number of our staff members work second jobs to make ends meet due to the rising cost of living expenses. This change will cause them to either leave work early, or cause more teacher absences. 3. At 2:45 we have enough time for Dr. appts, but with this new schedule Dr appointments may be put off, which can cause the staff members to neglect their health care or the health of a family member who is dependent on them.

This is a step in the right direction. Our magnet system has become unwieldy, with redundant programs and individual campuses hosting five or six different tracks. We worsen our transportation challenges by busing students across the parish. It’s time to reduce and consolidate programs, relocate them to campuses where they make sense—such as shifting Talented programs to VPA schools—and critically evaluate which offerings have limited community interest or participation.

New teachers starting pay is 50,000. However, there has not been an adjustment for teachers who have prior experience. Will there be adjustment to the salary schedule? While looking at the schedule, there is no increase of pay for experience, which strengthens the quality gf education for students. After 10 years of teaching, the increase is under 3,000 with a bachelors degree and about 5,000 for a master's degree.