IPSB alters ’18-’19 Easter break

Published 6:00 am Friday, April 6, 2018

As LEAP testing nears for students across Louisiana,  Iberia Parish School Board members are  making schedule adjustments to accommodate testing for next year.

One of the items on Wednesday night’s School Board agenda was the 2018-2019 school year calendar change for Easter Break. Initially, Easter Break was scheduled for next year from April 19-26. 

Edwin Buford made a motion that was seconded by Dan LeBlanc to change that date to April 15-22 due to the scheduling of the State Spring Assessment Testing. The motion was adopted unanimously. Easter next year falls on April 21.

Iberia Parish Superintendent of Schools Dale Henderson said in an earlier interview  the board prefers to get students back in class after Easter, a week prior to testing to get them readjusted to routine. 

The state Department of Education allows some leeway for districts to decide when to administer their tests most of which are computer based. 

The window of time the department has allotted for the 2018-2019 school year is April 1-May 3 for computer-based tests for third- through eighth-grade students and April 29- May 3 for paper-based testing. Third- and fourth-graders take their LEAP test on paper. The window for state testing at the high school level next year is April 15-May 17.

Also Wednesday, the board chose to defer a hot topic item regarding school safety to a committee. The student dress code policy that also covers what type of school accessories, such as book bags, students should carry will be discussed in further detail at a separate Policy and Board Goals Committee meeting to be held at 5 p.m. April 11. 

The matter to be discussed concerns whether or not students should be required to carry clear book bags to school as a proactive safety precaution to school violence.  “The board felt like this topic deserved a separate committee meeting since there may be some extended discussion on the issue,” Henderson said. 

There were special recognitions on the agenda, also, on Wednesday night as students from North Lewis Street Elementary School as well as Coteau Elementary School were highlighted.

North Lewis Street Elementary School’s Junior BETA Club members have been working all year  preparing and competing in BETA and Quiz Bowl competitions. Cinnamon Prather, sixth-grade teacher and Junior Beta sponsor said her group of students competed in a leadership summit in October in Baton Rouge, at the District Level in December at Belle Place Middle School and was recognized Wednesday night for their placement at state competition held Feb. 22-23 in Lafayette. 

“What was nice about our academic competition, it was nice seeing our fourth- through sixth graders-work together, quiz one another and do games on the computer together,” Prather said. 

The sponsor said although there were several that placed there was double that amount that participated. The board paused Wednesday to honor the following students.

Noah Vincent, fourth place-   Social Studies

Sinjin Hebert, third place – Language Arts

Wyatt Barras, third place – Math

Ace Gomez, second place -S cience 

Austin Hebert, fifth place – Woodworking

Quiz Bowl Team of Brianna Boutte, Makenzie Semar, Noah Vincent and  Landen Peltier, third place.

The awards didn’t stop there. 

Coteau Elementary School was recognized for being ranked among the Top 100 schools in Louisiana. It was ranked number 47 by EdNavigator, a consulting firm for parents who get help navigating through performance scores and matching their child with the best schools in the state. 

Coteau Elementary Principal Consuela Roberson was at the meeting to accept the congratulations from the School Board.

Also on the agenda was a motion to approve the staff recommendation that renovations needed at Coteau Elementary School and Jeanerette Elementary School be awarded to Acadian Renovations for a total bid amount of $988,000. After Kathleen Rosamond made the motion and Kenric Fremin seconded, the board approved unanimously.