Herb Vincent is leaving LSU to take over as associate commissioner for communications at the SEC, the university announced today. Vincent, who's currently the associate vice chancellor for university relations and senior associate athletics director at LSU, will begin his new job in September. For Vincent, the move marks a return to the SEC. He was previously on its staff in 1986 and 1987 as assistant director of public relations. "His experience at LSU and other levels of sports and sports television will be a tremendous addition to the team," says SEC Commissioner Mike Slive in a prepared statement. "We are excited to have him back in Birmingham as a part of our conference staff, and I know he's excited to get to work on making the SEC family even stronger. In his new role, Vincent will be responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the overall communications strategies and efforts for the conference, as well as serving as spokesman for the SEC and acting as the primary...
Starting with the 2011-12 LSU course catalog, the E. J. Ourso College of Business began admitting students with a 2.0 grade-point average into four of the college's eight bachelor's programs: economics, international trade and finance, information systems and decision sciences, and general business. Previously, all programs required a 3.0 GPA. Since then, enrollment has increased significantly, especially in the general business curriculum, which in the past year alone went from 332 students admitted to 871, a 162% increase, according to Tim Rodrigue, the college's assistant director of alumni and external relations. Overall admissions were up about 12% over that same period. The change in standards was approved by a vote of the college's faculty in 2010. "This is a strategic shift that will allow us to better serve the students, families, entrepreneurs and industry of Louisiana," former dean Eli Jones said at the time. The hope, he added, is that more students would be exposed to...
The Louisiana Senate has killed a resolution that sought to keep the state from using a set of uniform national standards for public school testing, called Common Core standards. The action today came a day after the Senate Education Committee advanced the proposal without taking action. Senators voted 27-8 to shelve the legislation and keep it from moving any further. The standards are a set of guidelines for student learning at each grade level that have been adopted by 45 states. They are being incorporated into the standardized tests given each spring to Louisiana's public school students. Opponents criticize use of the standards as states abdicating local control of their curriculum to the federal government.
Baton Rouge's first and only charter boarding school, THRIVE, says the percentage of its inaugural class of sixth grade students testing at a "basic" level improved in all four core subjects. In the English Language Arts test, the percentage went from 12% to 67%; in Math, 47% to 89%; in Science, 0% to 50%; and in Social Studies, 12% to 78%. At the same time, THRIVE reports the percent of its students testing at a "mastery and advanced" level jumped from 0% to 17%. At THRIVE, which had a sixth-grade class only during its inaugural year, students stay overnight at the school five nights a week and return home on the weekends. "The scores reflect the dedication of the students, faculty and staff," says EBR School Board member Craig Freeman in a prepared statement. "THRIVE is a unique and valued option for students in EBR. I have witnessed first-hand the dedication of everyone in the building. I am excited that their hard work paid off." The school has posted its complete testing results...
The state's top education official says Louisiana should offer one high school diploma with two possible tracks, rather than the three types of diplomas schools currently offer. "Graduating from high school in Louisiana is too complicated for parents, counselors, teachers, and students," Superintendent John White says. "We should have one simple diploma that connects directly with the workforce and the four-year colleges." Currently, Louisiana students can earn one of three diplomas: Core Four, Basic or Career. Core Four is supposed to prepare students for college, but its requirements don't line up with TOPS, the Louisiana Department of Education says, and the Basic and Career diplomas don't prepare students for high-demand careers. Instead, the state might offer one diploma with two tracks: technical career education and four-year college preparation. The technical path would include junior...
In the business world, "adapt or die" is a truism. The ubiquity of the Internet is altering—in some cases, radically upending—the models for all sorts of industries. Exhibit A: the current turmoil in print journalism. Higher education is no different. University leaders are realizing that, to remain relevant, they must embrace the digital age. It's a theme Bill Jenkins has hammered home repeatedly since he returned to LSU as interim president and chancellor last year. "We recognize that higher education has become a global market," Jenkins says. "LSU wants to actively participate as our domestic students are coming to see their future as tied to their global citizenship." Distance learning isn't new. But LSU and Southern University, along with private and public universities across the country, are putting new emphasis on online education, as evidenced by the fact that both local institutions recently signed deals with outside firms to bring complete degree programs to...
John White, Louisiana's education superintendent, says he supports giving the public the ability to vote on creating a new school district in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish. But he says he's not taking a position on whether creating the district is a good idea or not. "It's not going to create new schools or new teachers," he says. "It's essentially creating a different governance structure. I can't say whether I know at this point whether that governance structure will be better or not." White made the comments during a conference call today with reporters to discuss the results of LEAP and iLEAP testing. He says seven private schools that have accepted voucher students have been kicked out of the program because the schools weren't performing well enough. Those schools, according to White, are Faith Christian Academy in Jefferson Parish and six Orleans Parish schools: Life of Christ Christian Academy, Upperroom Bible Church, Bishop McManus Academy, Holy Rosary Academy,...
About 69% of Louisiana students in grades 3-8 this year tested at the "basic" level or above in four core subjects, the Louisiana Department of Education says. That's one point better than last year and nine points better than in 2008, the department says. State Superintendent John White says students seemed to struggle with a new, more challenging writing portion of the English Language Arts test, but he cast the overall results as evidence of progress. White mentioned Central (which went from 83% to 86% scoring basic or above) and Zachary (87% to 89%) as historically high-performing districts that continue to improve their scores. The East Baton Rouge district went from 60% to 62%. Among urban parishes, East Baton Rouge, counting the Recovery School District schools, showed improvement but was outpaced by progress in Orleans. The department says charter schools on average outpaced traditional schools, improving by 2 percentage points. Districts that have unified Head Start and...
As part of a major reorganization, the LSU Board of Supervisors already has approved changing the university's structure by combining the positions of system president and Baton Rouge campus chancellor. But there's a lot more work to do behind the scenes. A technology task force working with the Transition Advisory Team recommends moving to a "unified enterprise solution" for software used in human resource, financial and student processes. An external consultant estimates the preliminary costs of the new system would be about $8 million for acquisition and $32 million for implementation, with a recurring cost of up to $2 million per year. The investment, says Brian Nichols, LSU's chief information officer, would bring the system out of the "dark ages," but does not include LSU Shreveport and the LSU Health Sciences Center. "We should continue to transform LSU from a University simply tolerating technology to one that truly embraces it to enable research, teaching and learning, the...
As part of its push to give higher education management boards authority over setting tuition and fees—instead of the Legislature—BRAC is taking on one of the state's most sacred cows: TOPS. In a report released this morning, BRAC recommends a series of reforms to TOPS that would decouple TOPS awards from tuition costs and raise the academic standards for the popular tuition program. "We are supporting bills during the session to vest the power over tuition-setting to higher education governing boards," says BRAC spokeswoman Lauren Hatcher. "As a result, our organization feels it is necessary to have an official position on the TOPS program, because the issues are so closely related." Among the recommendations in the report: raising both the minimum GPA and ACT score requirements for TOPS Opportunity, Performance and Honors awards, three of the five scholarships in the program. The report also suggests decoupling tuition costs from the TOPS program—in other words,...
The Jindal administration and Treasurer John Kennedy are again at odds, this time on the topic of whether to refinance outstanding tobacco settlement bonds to benefit the TOPS program. Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols sent out a press release lauding the passage of a motion today by the Tobacco Settlement Finance Corp. to restructure the settlement bonds to provide nearly $143 million to the TOPS program over the next three years. The move is a part of Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget proposal. "Because of out-year risk associated with declining tobacco consumption trends, the upfront savings approach is a smart financial plan that's also in the best long-term interest of the state," Nichols says. "By law, tobacco bond proceeds are directed to support the TOPS program, and I'm happy that today's action will take advantage of historically low interest rates to help fund TOPS scholarships for Louisiana young people." Not long after, Kennedy sent out his own
A committee that's helping create recommendations for LSU's future has identified six core areas of concentration for the system's research efforts: environmental science, including coastal issues; biomedical sciences; energy; arts and humanities; computation and digital media; and natural and renewable resources. The group will refine that list and come up with emphasis areas for each campus, says research and development subcommittee Chairman Jim Firnberg. LSU needs to greatly increase its federal research expenditures and produce more doctorates to be considered "globally competitive," officials say. "We are underfunded," says Christel Slaughter of SSA Consultants, who is leading the LSU Transition Advisory Team meetings. "We are not in the big leagues." She says part of the team's job will be telling the board about how much it will cost to get where the board wants to go. LSU has combined the positions of system president and flagship chancellor, and is working toward making the...
In the past five hard years of higher education's declining state support, rising tuition, defecting faculty and deteriorating facilities, college leaders have stuck together and let the Board of Regents coordinate their requests for funding from the Legislature. A lot of good that did them.
In the past five hard years of higher education's declining state support, rising tuition, defecting faculty and deteriorating facilities, college leaders have stuck together and let the Board of Regents coordinate their requests for funding from the Legislature. A lot of good that did them. Now the community college system, the only one growing in enrollment, has had enough of standing in line. In the most audacious power play of the legislative session, one that is shaking the foundations of higher education, the two-year colleges are close to pulling off a $250 million end run on established procedure in order to build 28 training and technology centers all around the state. Supporters hail the plan as essential to training a skilled workforce to fill technical jobs in high demand areas. Opponents call it a debt-ceiling buster that violates the spirit if not the letter of the constitution and robs four-year colleges of badly needed resources. Instead of following the usual process...
The state Department of Education had gaps in its monitoring of the academic and contractual performance of Louisiana charter schools last year, according to a legislative audit released today. The review by Louisiana Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera's office says the department didn't verify that school-reported data used to grade performance was reliable, couldn't prove it tracked the legal obligations required of charter schools, and didn't make sure eight charter schools put on probation in 2010 met the standards to remain open in 2012. The audit looked at charter school monitoring activities during the 2011-12 budget year that ended June 30. Auditors say the education department complied with state requirements for monitoring the schools' financial performance. "However, LDOE did not perform all required academic monitoring activities. … In addition, we found that LDOE could not provide evidence that it comprehensively monitored the legal/contractual performance of these...
Seven of the country's strongest charter school operators—including two with proven track records of success in New Orleans—have applied to open charter schools in north Baton Rouge. The groups are among 35 organizations that have applied for charters to operate 100 new schools in 19 parishes across Louisiana, according to a news release from the Louisiana Department of Education today, which notes that nearly twice as many organizations applied for charters this year as in 2012. Locally, where many public schools are failing, the number and quality of applicants is particularly significant, according to charter school advocates. They credit the interest, in large part, to the efforts of New Schools for Baton Rouge, a community partnership focused on bringing in charter operators to improve public education in north...
Public schools, already required to have written crisis management plans, will now have to coordinate those plans with local law enforcement and emergency preparedness officials—and hold annual safety drills to rehearse them. The Associated Press reports the bill rewriting Louisiana's school safety law received final passage today with a unanimous Senate vote. It comes in response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. It will require classroom doors to remain locked during instructional time, as long as that's in compliance with fire safety standards. School crisis management plans won't be subject to Louisiana's public records law. The measure now heads to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is expected to sign it into law.
Settlement negotiations are under way between MAPP Construction and the architecture firms that designed Baton Rouge Magnet High School's $45.9 million renovation project, and "significant progress has been made," according to MAPP's attorney, Gray Sexton. But there are still a lot of issues to work through before the lawsuit that MAPP filed against the firms last year is resolved. In September, MAPP sued Chenevert Architects, Remson-Haley-Herpin Architects, as well as a joint venture between the two firms, claiming an incomplete and defective design led to delays on the project and cost MAPP more than $6 million. Over the past several months, attorneys for MAPP, the architects and the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board—which is not named in the litigation—have met three times and are working through about 80 discrete claims made by MAPP. Sexton says about 50 of those claims have been settled, though issues raised in the lawsuit itself have not been resolved. Attorneys...
Senators told members of the LSU Board of Supervisors that they want an explanation for why the university system's former hospitals chief, Fred Cerise, was directed not to attend a legislative hearing to discuss plans to privatize the LSU hospitals. Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, says he asked Cerise, who is still an employee of LSU, to come to a recent budget hearing. He says he was told that Cerise was denied his request to take a personal leave day to attend the meeting. "That's really disturbing," says Murray, who made the remarks during LSU board members' confirmation hearings before the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee today. "I think that sends a really bad message." The Associated Press reports Cerise was pushed out of his hospital leadership job after clashing with Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is seeking to privatize the hospitals. LSU board members John George and Ann Duplessis told lawmakers they didn't know anything about Cerise not being able to attend the meeting.
Superintendent of Education John White says the state owes local school districts $30 million because the Louisiana Supreme Court threw out this year's public school funding formula. The Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers couldn't fund a voucher program using the formula for public schools to send children to private schools. The high court also said lawmakers didn't follow the proper process to pass the formula, declaring the entire 2012-13 financing plan null and void. White says that means the state reverts to the formula for the 2011-12 school year. That changes several state funding calculations and will require $30 million more in payments to districts. Of that, he says $12 million will be paying back local school districts for a reduction in funding they received because of vouchers. Another $14.5 million, he says, was tied to a change this year that required local districts to pay for a portion of the funding for eight charter schools whose costs previously had been paid...
A Baton Rouge middle school was on lockdown for about an hour this morning after a 911 caller reported a gun on campus. The campus of Southeast Middle School was given an all clear after a search turned up no gun. Susan Nelson, a spokeswoman for East Baton Rouge schools, says the call appears to be a prank. "No one at the school would call 911; they would call the School Drug Task Force," she says. "It was clearly not someone on campus." The task force is a part of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. With five days left in the school year and final exams imminent, Nelson speculated that the call could have been an end-of-school student prank. —April Castro
The next step, likely the hardest, lies ahead for the proposed breakaway school district in southeast Baton Rouge, after legislation passed the House Education Committee today. Senate Bill 73, the constitutional amendment by Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, after getting ballot language approved in the Civil Law Committee, will need two-thirds approval from the House. The same bill fell four votes short of that mark last year. If it passes the House, it will go on the constitutional ballot in 2014. The bill would create a new school district for the 10 public schools educating 7,000 students in the area between Interstate 10 and Interstate 12. Testimony from supporters and opponents went on for more than two and a half hours today before the committee voted to approve it, 10-6, with all Republicans and one independent in favor and all Democrats opposed. Senate Bill 199, the enabling bill, passed by the same margin. Members of Local Schools for Local Children said the new district would...
In 2011, the Southern University System signed a deal with EOServe, a for-profit company that specializes in delivering online courses for historically black colleges and universities. System President Ronald Mason worked with the same company when he led Jackson State University.
In his 1997 book The Twenty-First Century City, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith proposed what he called the “Yellow Pages test”: “If the phone book lists three companies that provide a certain service,” he wrote, “the city probably should not be in that business.” Makes sense to me.
In the business world, “adapt or die” is a truism. The ubiquity of the Internet is altering—in some cases, radically upending—the models for all sorts of industries. Exhibit A: the current turmoil in print journalism.
The buildings of LSU not only reveal a legacy that goes back to the Renaissance but also serve as a primer of architectural principles that guided the creation of one of the most unique academic environments in the United States. In The Architecture of LSU, author, professor and architect J. Michael Desmond traces the university's development, including photographs, plans, drawings and maps that underscore the contributions of historical figures and the genealogies of the campus's architecture and planning. By detailing the origins and evolution of LSU's architectural core and exploring the fundamentals of American college campus design, Desmond shows the rewards of public environments that integrate natural and constructed elements to meet both practical and aesthetic goals. The Architecture of LSU is available from LSU Press.
Proposals to tie public funding to student performance and issue letter grades to Louisiana's public and private early childhood education programs are finding easy passage through the Legislature. Two Senate bills are the cornerstones of Gov. Bobby Jindal's attempt to restructure early childhood education and to create uniform standards for kindergarten readiness. They have cleared the Senate with very little discussion and no objections from lawmakers, and aren't expected to run into trouble in the House, The Associated Press reports. The bills, by Sens. Conrad Appel and Mike Walsworth, are enabling legislation for Act 3, a structural framework approved by lawmakers last year. Public and private programs receive $1.4 billion a year in federal and state money to educate students from birth to 5 years old. Jindal wants to bring some academic uniformity to those programs and to give parents a report card on providers' efforts. State education officials have said that just over half of...
If LSU is going to increase its ability to compete for large research grants, it will need to find ways to collaborate more effectively across campuses and disciplines. At least, that was one of the primary discussion points at an LSU Transition Advisory Team subcommittee meeting this afternoon. In particular, meeting attendees say the administrative burden perhaps could be shared among university units so that faculty are freed up to focus on what they do best. Members say researchers should receive better incentives for their work, but acknowledge that's easier said than done in an era of tight budgets when LSU has been losing faculty. Christel Slaughter of SSA consultants, who is facilitating the Transition Advisory Team meetings, says there's a strong correlation between the loss of professors and researchers in recent years and a decline in research dollars obtained by LSU. —David Jacobs
Supporters of private school vouchers say they'll look for new ways to pay for the program, now that the Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled the funding mechanism unconstitutional. "We are committed to making sure this program continues, and we will fund it through the budget," says Gov. Bobby Jindal in a prepared statement. "Hopefully, we can find some dollars," says Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge and chairman of the House Education Committee. "But the budget is tight. There's just not an awful lot of dollars floating around." Like Carter, Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie and head of the Senate Education Committee, says he hasn't yet had a chance to discuss the next steps with his colleagues. "We're going to be fighting to find a way to make it work that adheres to the constitution," Appel says. "That's the big question of the day: What would work?" says BESE member Holly Boffy. Beyond the funding question—lawmakers say about $25 million is needed—opponents likely will try...
The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that the funding method for the state's school voucher program is unconstitutional. In a 6-1 ruling today, the court upheld a district court ruling that the state constitution forbids using money earmarked for public schools in the state's Minimum Foundation Program to pay for private school tuition. The voucher program was one of the hallmarks of Gov. Bobby Jindal's Act 2 education reform package, passed by the state Legislature in 2012. Read more in Daily Report this afternoon.
A state audit shows that more than 44% of Louisiana students who received scholarships from the state's TOPS program over a seven-year period had their awards canceled. The audit says the state spent $165 million in TOPS awards to offset tuition for more than 42,000 students whose awards were eventually canceled. In response, TOPS administrators say more than 80% of money paid for TOPS awards went to students who completed the program, and that most of the canceled awards were lost by students who failed to maintain enough credit hours but still had good grades. The audit itself notes that 25% of TOPS recipients who graduated from Louisiana public colleges during the period measured graduated even after losing their awards. You can see the complete audit report here.
Southern University System President Ronald Mason plans to amend a controversial contract with online course provider EOServe. As written, it stipulates that if a student first enrolled in an online program then later enrolls in traditional classroom-based coursework, EOServe would get 40% of the revenue from that student's campus courses. Mason says he would rather see EOServe receive a one-time payment of about $2,500 per student to cover marketing costs, and the rest of the revenue would stay with Southern. The Board of Supervisors would have to approve the change, which would not affect other contract provisions that have been criticized by faculty leaders, such as the 70/30 split in EOServe's favor of the online course revenue. "LSU basically gets 50 percent of the revenue coming in from online student enrollment," says Southern faculty senate President Thomas Miller. "Our system gets 30 percent." Mason stresses that all of the startup expenses come out of EOServe's end, and...
If high school football teams were run in the same by-the-book, one-size-fits-all way that public schools across Louisiana are, "I suspect the response would be an angry revolt by parents and the public," says Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball. "Yet few are screaming in outrage" about the school situation, Ball writes in his latest column. "The dichotomy between what the public fervently demands on the football field and what it passively accepts in the classroom explains why public education is largely a dismal failure." While we expect athletes from low-income districts to compete for state championships on the field, Ball says, we make excuses for why those same students can't compete in the classroom. Ball says there is "no magic bullet solution when it comes to the education of our children." Charters, vouchers, private schools and recovery school districts have advantages and disadvantages, he says. "The only solution we know that positively won't work is what...
Due to the creation of new teacher payment plans linking compensation to student achievement at nearly every school district across the state, an estimated 50,000 teachers in Louisiana are now eligible for raises, the Department of Education says. A report was released by the department today outlining the progress 63 school districts—more than 90% of those in the state—have made to create the new payment plans since last year. "While tens of thousands of teachers will be eligible for an increase in salary, no teacher will see their salary reduced based on these changes," the department says in a news release. The report says, "The vast majority of Louisiana's school districts have designed new salary schedules that meet their local needs, based on three criteria, with none accounting for more than 50% of the salary formula." The three primary criteria are "effectiveness, based on student achievement and observations; experience, as defined locally; and demand, such as...
A bid to give local school districts more freedom in choosing the textbooks they use received the backing of the House Education Committee without objection today. House Bill 116 by Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, would establish that BESE cannot require local school districts to purchase specific textbooks or instructional materials. Erin Bendily, assistant superintendent for the Department of Education, says the bill dovetails with the department's efforts to hold local school leaders accountable for results, without micromanaging them. "It's autonomy for the local school systems," Hoffmann says. A state-recommended textbook list still will be developed, Hoffmann says, adding that he expects 98% of books to be taken from that list. The Associated Press reports Hoffmann unsuccessfully pursued similar legislation two years ago, with critics charging it was a backdoor attempt to include creationism in science classes. The proposal heads next to the full House for debate.
Sarah Broome, founder of the THRIVE charter boarding school in Baton Rouge and a 2012 Business ReportForty Under 40 honoree, is one of nine women from across the United States who are up for a Lady Godiva award and grant. The awards honor women "who exemplify the values of selflessness, generosity and leadership on a national or global level," according to The Lady Godiva Program. Broome is a semifinalist in the Children, Families and Poverty category, which is one of three. Online votes will determine one honoree in each of the three categories, with each receiving a $3,000 grant for her work. One of those three honorees will later be selected for a $10,000 grant. You can find Broome's and the other semifinalists' profiles, as well as cast your vote, here.
LSU is among 320 U.S. colleges and two Canadian schools included in The Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2013 Edition, LSU announced today. The LSU flagship campus is "committed to the issues of sustainability on campus, and its Campus Committee for Sustainability is leading the charge," says the guide. The sustainability committee was established in 2008 to create an inventory of the campus's existing carbon footprint, document LSU's existing efforts toward achieving sustainability, develop an action plan to improve sustainability efforts, and promote public awareness of those efforts. Green action taken at LSU and highlighted in the Princeton Review guidebook are: employing a sustainability officer and providing guidance on green jobs; developing programs that reduce the number of vehicles on campus, including a bus service study, restricted parking, a guaranteed ride home program, and a bike share/rent program; and having 44% of food expenditures...
The LSU Transition Advisory Team is trying to get a handle on what it will take to unify the system's various units into “one LSU.” As they're learning, there's a lot of work to be done.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave an impassioned plea for education leaders in Baton Rouge to ensure all children, no matter their circumstances, have access to a quality education.
The lead judge of the panel looking at business plans for the LSU Student Incubator Challenge says winning plans should translate into success in the marketplace.
What if every high school football coach in the state of Louisiana were required to run the same I-style offense? What if a state board dictated specific plays, including blocking schemes, that each team would be expected to execute? What if employing the 4-3 defense were ordered by a legislative mandate, also spelling out allowable blitzes and stunts as well as how often each could be used during a game? What if every head coach were given a manual dictating in step-by-step detail how he and his staff are to conduct practice and train players?
So far, Senate Bill 31 by Republican Sen. Dan Claitor of Baton Rouge has encountered surprisingly little opposition, sailing through a Senate committee and the full Senate with little notice or fanfare. Surprisingly, because the bill takes on one of the longtime sacred cows of higher education in Louisiana: It requires members of the LSU and Southern University boards of supervisors to disclose the names of recipients of scholarships they award each year, information they can presently keep private. But the bill's smooth sailing may end as it makes its way toward the House. An editorial about the legislation by Sam Hanna Jr. that appeared last week in three north Louisiana newspapers is generating quite a buzz in that part of the state among those who would prefer to keep the names of scholarship recipients out of the public domain. "People are telling me, 'Boy, you touched a nerve up here,' " says Hanna.
LSU is "disappointed" in a district court judge's decision that the names of the candidates for the system's presidency must be released, but "confident the decision will be reversed on appeal," Board of Supervisors Chairman Hank Danos says in a prepared statement released this afternoon. Danos says the secretive presidential search was conducted in accordance with a 2006 law that requires public disclosure when a candidate becomes an "applicant." LSU argues that F. King Alexander, whom the search committee selected as the lone finalist, was the only actual applicant for the job. Danos further claims the records Judge Janice Clark ordered LSU to produce are "not in LSU's custody or control." The LSU Foundation hired a private consultant, R. William Funk & Associates, to assist in the search. Media outlets that sued for access to the names contend just because the records were handled by a private firm, that doesn't make them any less public, noting Alexander will head a public...
Lawmakers are raising questions about whether the LSU privatization agreements devised by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration permit enough public scrutiny of the hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. The Associated Press reports the concerns were voiced today as the Legislature's joint budget committee reviewed agreements to turn over management of LSU's Lafayette and New Orleans hospitals to nonprofits that run private hospitals. Committee members also say information is murky on the cost of the deals and how they will affect the state budget annually. LSU and Jindal administration leaders told lawmakers that the privatization efforts will lower state costs while also improving patient access to care and maintaining medical training programs. Lease arrangements have been approved for two of LSU's nine public hospitals. Jindal intends to negotiate deals for six others.
LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman Hank Danos says this morning that board members and attorneys have not yet discussed possibly appealing a ruling by a state district judge Thursday that the names of the candidates for the position of LSU president should be released in accordance with the Louisiana Public Records Act. "We've always done what we feel is in the best interest of LSU and the state of Louisiana," Danos says. "We're going to talk to our attorney and talk about our options." He says the ruling, if allowed to stand, could have a negative impact on LSU and other state universities conducting searches in the future. While LSU recently has held public interviews for other administrative positions, Danos says university president is such a high-profile job that secrecy is needed to protect the integrity of the candidate pool. The Advocate, The Times-Picayune, and Andrea Gallo, editor of The Daily Reveille, all sued for access to the names. Gallo's suit...
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System has hired two lobbying firms with contracts totaling $62,000 to help it advance its agenda during the current legislative session and beyond. Local firm Spradley & Spradley has a one-year contract with the district and will concentrate on lobbying BESE on the district's behalf, says Susan Nelson, interim director for communications for EBR schools. The other firm, Southern Strategy Group—which is based in Shreveport and has offices throughout the South—will focus on "pre-work opposing the Southeast district pullout legislation, if it should not pass this year and be brought back up again next year with the intention of putting it on the 2014 ballot," Nelson says. Hiring lobbyists is an unusual move for the cash-strapped school system, but one that school board member Craig Freeman says is long overdue. "We need to do more to help people understand the great things we do," he says. "Some of our legislators do not know how awesome...
LSU must "immediately produce" the names of the people its board of supervisors considered for the university presidency, The Times-Picayune reports an East Baton Rouge Parish judge has ruled. Judge Janice Clark issued the ruling less than three hours after the conclusion of oral arguments in the case today , which was brought by The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com and The Advocate against the university. Jimmy Faircloth, who represents LSU in the case, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The arguments in the case largely revolved around a simple question: What does the word "applicant" mean? Faircloth maintained that there was but a single applicant for the post: F. King Alexander, whom the board of supervisors voted to appoint March 27. Lori Mince, who represents the two news organizations, argued that LSU's position, if allowed to stand, would make a mockery of public-records laws. The full story can be found
The LSU College of Engineering has received the largest donation in its history in the form of a $15 million pledge from Phyllis Taylor to "accelerate the momentum" of the $100 million renovation of Patrick F. Taylor Hall on campus, according to a news release. Phyllis Taylor is co-chair of the LSU College of Engineering Breaking New Ground campaign, which was launched earlier this month with the aim of providing "the next generation of engineering education at LSU." In 2007 LSU formally named the Center for Engineering and Business Administration building in honor of her late husband, Patrick F. Taylor, who graduated from LSU with a petroleum engineering degree in 1959 and founded Taylor Energy Company. Gov. Bobby Jindal has included $50 million in capital outlay funding for the renovation in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2013-14. The remaining funds are to be privately raised. The renovation will add about 80,000 square feet to the already 300,000-square-foot building, and...
Speaking out carried a high price for Ivor van Heerden. And, as it turns out, fighting him unsuccessfully carried a high price for LSU. Despite his doctorate in marine science and his years of experience in disaster research, the fired deputy director of the LSU Hurricane Center has been unable to find steady work since May 2010, save for a yearlong stint working for a private firm involved in the oil spill cleanup and the occasional consulting or expert trial witness gig. For a year now, he and his wife have been living in a trailer on a half-acre in rural Livingston Parish, hoping to sell their adjacent home to cover mounting living expenses. His two daughters fled the state in disgust over the way van Heerden was treated: One is attending college in California; the other lives in Alabama. Circumstances changed somewhat in February, when the Louisiana Office of Risk Management cut van Heerden a check for $435,000. The act averted a potentially embarrassing federal trial exploring...
The latest results of the LSU Public Policy Research Lab's annual Louisiana Survey show about 7 in 10 people strongly support opening more charter schools, but are sharply divided on vouchers. While 49% of respondents favor vouchers, an equal 49% are opposed. Kirby Goidel, LSU political science professor, says the divide on vouchers is not surprising considering it's been such a contentious issue in the state in recent years. “You say 'voucher' and immediately there's a red and blue side to that issue … it's immediately polarized,” Goidel says. “And I think it can be divided for multiple reasons, one can be outright objection and another can be because we haven't seen how the results of vouchers will play out.” Goidel says he thinks support of school vouchers could “move significantly” upward in the coming years “if there's evidence that they're working.” The state legislature is awaiting a ruling from the Louisiana Supreme Court...
Noting that enrollment in the state's community and technical colleges has more than tripled over the past decade, Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Joe May says campuses across the state must continue to expand to meet future demand. With that in mind, May announced today a planned $3.7 million expansion at the Capital Area Technical College to establish a state-of-the-art welding center. "Welding remains one of the most important curriculum components in technical education nationwide. It's the backbone of many of the industries in Louisiana which are currently expanding," says CATC Chancellor Kay McDaniel. "This new 15,000-square-foot facility will feature the kind of leading-edge equipment that will ensure our graduates are job ready on day one." May says the project is just one of 24 that Louisiana's community and technical colleges will be working with the state legislature to get under way at 14 institutions across the state. If funded, the "Facilities...
As LSU works to unite a loose confederacy of campuses into a single institution, officials should stop thinking about how things have been done in the past and focus on where they want to go, representatives of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting body told the LSU Transition Advisory Team today. LSU should dream big about what the new institution can do for students, says Belle Wheelan, president of the SACS Commission on Colleges. Back-office changes don't create issues for SACS accreditation, but changes to academic programs and governance do. If there's only "one LSU," according to SACS, then the standards to get into a specific academic program should be the same, regardless of the campus. Tenure policies also should be consistent across campuses. Enabling legislation could be needed; it wouldn't make sense for lawmakers to allocate money to say, LSU-Eunice, because the school would no longer exist as a separate entity. SACS will want to know how incoming...
BRAC opposes legislation, which today was approved by a state Senate committee, that would allow voters to carve out a new school district in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish. However, BRAC says it will reconsider its opposition if three concerns are addressed: • There is a mutually agreed-upon formula for dealing with legacy costs between the new district and the previous district. • There is a plan to ensure the financial stability of all impacted districts, including the financial impact of any additional facility needs. • Reasonable effort is made to draw the district boundaries such that the demographics of the newly drawn district are comparable to those of the existing district.
The LSU Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved a contract for new LSU President F. King Alexander that will pay him approximately $600,000 annually. That's roughly the same salary that former President John Lombardi received before being fired by the supervisors in May 2012. Alexander, who is currently the president of California State University at Long Beach, is set to begin at LSU on July 1. At the Wednesday meeting, the supervisors also OK'd agreements for the management of LSU System hospitals in New Orleans and Lafayette, as well as a new Boyd Professorship, honorary degrees and the naming of the baseball field at Alex Box Stadium after former LSU coach Skip Bertman. Among those voted to receive an honorary degree are bluesman Buddy Guy and U.S. Air Force Major Gen. Jasper Welch.
A potential new school district for southeast East Baton Rouge Parish is on the agenda of the Senate Committee on Education for discussion Thursday. Supporters of the move say it would create a community school district that would be more responsive to parents’ needs, while critics say unanswered questions remain about possible negative impacts on the EBR system. Bills by State Sen. Bodi White would provide for the new district and give voters a chance to approve the change. Another bill by White to be discussed Thursday would not allow a public school board in a parish with a population of more than 440,000—that is, EBR—to close or change the grade configuration or instructional program of any school that’s been designated as "failing" without permission from BESE. EBR spokeswoman Susan Nelson says that, if the state is poised to take over a school, the system can avert a takeover by making substantial changes. "We can reconfigure the school and do more...
The college classroom of the future will more often feature a "master teacher" rather than a high-salaried, tenured lecturer, says Walter Isaacson, biographer, Louisiana native and CEO of the Aspen Institute think tank. As LSU restructures, he says, officials should look to increase efficiency by taking advantage of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, provided by elite universities. Classes would hear a lecture online—for example, a statistics presentation by a star professor at MIT—but still meet in person to discuss the material and participate in labs and projects. LSU might also contribute MOOCs in areas where it excels, such as civil engineering or petrochemicals. As funding becomes scarce for universities nationwide, it doesn't make sense for every university to try to replicate top-level expertise in every academic area, Isaacson says. He made his remarks by phone at today's meeting of the LSU Transition Advisory Team. The LSU Board of Supervisors will hear a...
Rick Koubek, dean of the LSU College of Engineering, is a little embarrassed to call IBM's decision to put a regional software development center in Baton Rouge a “game changer.” The phrase has become a Capital Region cliché since the deal was announced March 27, even showing up on the cover of this magazine.
Craig Gehring never went to college, but he has helped many others achieve their higher ed dreams since 2003, his junior year in high school, when he received perfect scores on the ACT and the SAT.
The Recovery School District says it will share plans for its direct-run schools in the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone during a series of upcoming parent meetings beginning Wednesday. Led by RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard, the meetings will cover "the organization's strategies to create high-quality school options," according to a release. Parents are also encouraged to provide feedback on priorities for transforming their students' schools. "The RSD is not here to make changes to community; we are here to make changes with community; this will lead to successful transformation of public schools in the parish," Dobard says in a prepared statement. There are seven RSD direct-run schools in the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone. Meetings will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at each of them on the following dates: Dalton Elementary, Wednesday, April 17; Lanier Elementary, Thursday, April 18; Glen Oaks Middle, Wednesday, April 24; Crestworth Middle, Thursday, April 25; Capitol High, Wednesday,...
Louisiana's graduation rate has risen for the second straight year, to an all-time high of 72.3% among students finishing in four years, state officials announced today. Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White made the announcement at Dutchtown High School in Geismar, where the graduation rate has increased by 4.5 points to 94%, which is more than 20 percentage points above the state average. This year's rate is a 0.9 percentage point increase over last year. Over the past decade, officials say, the graduation rate has increased by 10 percentage points. More details on today's announcement can be found at the Department of Education website here.
Two LSU juniors have been selected as 2013 Truman Scholars, making the school one of only eight in the nation to have multiple winners this year. Catherine Fontenot and Matthew Landrieu, the son of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, will receive up to $30,000 for graduate study. Truman Scholars are required to work in public service for three of the seven years following completion of a foundation-funded graduate degree program as a condition for receiving Truman funds. "It speaks volumes for the quality and hard work of our students, faculty and staff that two LSU students were honored this year," says William Jenkins, interim LSU System president and chancellor. Fontenot, an LSU Honors College student and biological sciences major in the College of Science, plans to pursue Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health degrees, with concentrations in internal medicine and infectious disease/global health, through Harvard Medical School after she graduates in May 2014. Landrieu, an...
Louisiana's career education system essentially is failing both students and employers, says state education Superintendent John White. He says only 170 high school seniors are on track to graduate with a career diploma this year, and those graduates may not be ready to step into high-demand, high-paying jobs in areas such as manufacturing, construction and health care. Cash-strapped high schools are expected to provide career classes, and nearly 70% of industry-based certificates state high schools award prepare students for little more than call center or retail jobs, White says. A better idea, he says, is to let higher education, industry, and public schools partner in regional consortiums, sharing ideas, funding and facilities, to design two-year, career-prep curriculums that ensure graduates are qualified for jobs needed in their regions. "We can take those last two years of high school, and we can make them purely technical," White says. Accountability standards should be...
A pair of LSU professors have received grant funding to establish a first-of-its-kind lab at the university that simulates hydraulic fracturing—a technique for oil and gas drilling better known as "fracking." Juan Lorenzo, associate professor of geology and geophysics, and Arash Dahi Taleghani, assistant professor of petroleum engineering, received the nationally competitive grant from the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America. The new fracking lab on campus will allow the duo to control all of the variables in the process and test hypotheses to understand how and why rocks break in a particular way during the fracking process. Over the next two years, the Gas Technology Institute in Chicago will head a team of experts from LSU, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, and the private sector to develop advanced methods and techniques for the design and execution of environmentally safe and economically efficient fracking. The...
Merging Baton Rouge Community College with four campuses of Capital Area Technical College would allow the system to better react to economic development and workforce needs, says Andrea Lewis Miller, chancellor at BRCC. "A unified system allows for the allocation of resources to accommodate for the changes and needs identified by businesses and industry," she says, in a statement released by BRAC, which pledges to support the move. Senate Bill 45 by Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, a Baton Rouge Democrat, would unify BRCC with the Baton Rouge, Folkes, Jumonville, and Westside campuses of CATC. BRAC says the unification will create a funding stream for higher-cost career and technical education programs by enabling BRCC to move revenue over from lower-cost programs, and adds the merger will be a step in furthering the efforts of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System to respond to the state's continuing need for industrial construction and skilled craft labor. "The Baton Rouge...
Many area public schools aren't performing up to par. In 2012, the state issued a D or F grade to 62% of public schools in East Baton Rouge Parish. Another 26% received a C. Those grades don't lie, reports Lauren Brown for the cover story of the new issue of 225 magazine. Brown talks to education leaders about what changes need to be made in the public school system to get more schools above failing or below average levels. Chas Roemer, the Baton Rouge-based president of BESE, says Baton Rouge should be the nation's leader in the idea that public education means more than government-run schools. "We need to change the phrase 'public education' to 'educating the public,'" he says. "The trend will be and should be that we will be a community that embraces educational excellence, and the source of that education will be across multiple providers, rather just a traditional system." Read the complete story
A pair of 10-year property tax renewals before some voters in East Baton Rouge Parish on Saturday would collectively account for approximately $42 million annually for the local public school system—or about 10% of its total yearly budget—according to school system spokesperson Susan Nelson.
A pair of 10-year property tax renewals before some voters in East Baton Rouge Parish on Saturday would collectively account for about $42 million annually for the local public school system—or roughly 10% of its total yearly budget—according to school system spokesperson Susan Nelson. One of the renewals, at 6.5 mills, would support general operations for the district that includes 85 school sites and nearly 43,000 students. The other, at 7.19 mills, would go toward employee salaries and benefits. Nelson says the renewals are vital to the continued progress of the school system. "Obviously, that's a lot of money, and it would have a very significant impact on us" if the renewals are not passed, she says. An informational flyer the school system has distributed about the tax renewals says failure to pass them "will result in layoffs and reductions in services." Specifically, the flyer says services "such as transportation for Catholic School students, after-school...
Louisiana's higher education commissioner says the governor's budget would leave colleges uncertain of their funding levels next year and create cash flow problems at schools. Commissioner Jim Purcell told the House Appropriations Committee today that he's troubled by Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget recommendation. Jindal's spending plan would plug $490 million in patchwork funding into colleges—dollars that are tied to leases, property sales, legal settlements and legislation that has not passed. If the dollars don't show up, higher education would take a 19% cut. Purcell says he'd like to see the risk spread out among state agencies, rather than concentrated in higher education. Barry Dusse, director of the governor's Office of Planning and Budget, says the Jindal administration is confident the dollars will show up for spending.
A day after announcing its support for the re-enactment of teacher tenure reform, BRAC this morning announced that it will also back a legislative push this session to give more autonomy to higher education management boards when it comes to controlling tuition and fees. "It takes talent to breed talent, and it is critical for our higher education institutions to have the funding and latitude necessary to attract and retain talent among their ranks,” says BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp in a prepared statement. “The research BRAC has done shows that LSU and higher education overall remains underfunded with respect to self-generated revenues from tuition and fees, which exacerbates state funding reductions." According to BRAC, Louisiana is still the only state in which the state legislature has final authority over tuition and fees,...
BRAC announced today its support for the re-enactment of teacher tenure reform. Last year's Act 1 was ruled unconstitutional by 19th Judicial District Court Judge R. Michael Caldwell last month. Attorneys for the state are appealing Caldwell's ruling to the Louisiana Supreme Court. The law makes it harder for teachers to earn and retain tenure. This year, the various parts of Act 1 are being divided into multiple bills with the goal of passing constitutional muster. "The organization feels that this piece of legislation in crucial to the success of the K-12 education system, in addition to the reforms already in place," BRAC says in a news release. BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp says the legislation will "help ensure that all of the students in our region, and around the state, have access to the best and most effective educators." The Capital Region is currently home to five of the top 10 school districts in the state, BRAC says, and four of the seven A-graded districts in the state.
The House budget committee chairman is unhappy that next year's proposed public school funding formula strips a requirement for how much money must be spent in the classroom. Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin says lawmakers pressed for the mandate in the annual multibillion-dollar formula that 70% of the funding pay for instructional items at the "school building level." Superintendent of Education John White says the requirement was removed from the proposed 2013-14 formula because of legislative concerns that the formula should be a mathematical divvying of dollars, but not dictate policy decisions. Fannin says he believes lawmakers will disagree with the removal of the instructional requirement. The discussion was part of today's budget hearing for the Department of Education, as the Appropriations Committee combs through next year's spending proposals.
Baton Rouge Gallery will celebrate the area's young artists and arts education with the First Wednesday opening of "The Real-Life Experience." This exhibit shows off the young talent of Baton Rouge as more than 40 works of original art from East Baton Rouge Parish public and private high school students will be on display. Award-winning works will be announced at the Wednesday night reception, with more than $1,400 in scholarships and prizes awarded to the students. The event starts at 7 p.m. and is free. If you cannot make Wednesday's reception, the exhibit will be on display through April 25 at the gallery. For more information, click here.
One of Louisiana's largest teacher unions is vowing to fight legislation it says is aimed at weakening their ranks. The proposed legislation—which would end the practice of union dues being automatically deducted from the paychecks of public employees who voluntarily sign up for membership—was filed last week by Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport. Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, says the measure is simply an effort by a "small elite group of individuals" who want to "shut down the one line of resistance" to its own agenda. Louisiana is a right-to-work state and union membership is voluntary. "We're not going to take that lying down," Monaghan says. "We are going to fight and hopefully the process will end as it should end, with that bill being defeated and we don't end up in another situation where we're having to litigate and having to seek the protection and comfort of the court." Monaghan says LFT was "put on notice" by LABI that the...
LSU and the state of Louisiana spent just less than $1 million defending its decision to fire former Hurricane Center deputy director Ivor van Heerden. Documents obtained today by Levees.org indicate the university paid the Baton Rouge law firm of Kantrow Spaht Weaver & Blitzer more than $457,000 over two and a half years to handle the case. That's on top of the $435,000 settlement the Louisiana Office of Risk Management paid to van Heerden last month. Levees.org notes the $892,000 total doesn't include any amounts LSU paid its own staff to comply with court orders, respond to subpoenas and appear for depositions. Van Heerden alleges he was fired for statements in his post-Katrina levee failure investigation funded by the Louisiana Department of Transportation, namely that the Army Corps of Engineers' faulty levees caused the flooding during Katrina. The Association of American University Professors censured the university in 2011 for firing van Heerden. "LSU has chosen to hound a...
Justin Mannino, a third-year law student, is satisfied with his career choice. The student bar association president at LSU Law Center says, “Lawyers, more than a lot of professionals, are afforded the opportunity to think freely, which is a very important [career] aspect for me.”
When F. King Alexander arrived to lead California State University Long Beach in 2005, his outreach to the business community was extensive and enthusiastic, says Randy Gordon, president/CEO of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
Andrea Gallo, editor-in-chief of The Daily Reveille, filed suit today against the LSU Board of Supervisors. At issue is the board's refusal to release information about the candidates who applied to be LSU's next system president/flagship chancellor, other than eventual selection F. King Alexander. The suit says "LSU's duty to search for a president was effectively delegated to a private company to avoid the public scrutiny at the heart of the Louisiana Public Records Law," and argues "the fact that otherwise public records are in the hands of a private entity does not make the records less public or less covered by the Public Records Law." The board has argued that a public search might have kept well-qualified candidates from applying.
A year ago this month, 225 published a cover story about bullying in Baton Rouge. Now, local middle-school children are learning about the motives, effects and consequences of bullying thanks to a new anti-bullying campaign called To Be Honest. Five LSU seniors launched the campaign earlier this year.
There's a certain level of horror that sinks in when you realize you've just interrupted a student's prayer; a shock that goes far beyond the awkwardness of disrupting, say, a teacher's soliloquy on long division.
If you fall asleep in class, your teacher might swat you with a ruler. Or give you detention. Or even pull a prank on you. Nancy Zito turns off the lights.
The walls no longer beige, the halls no longer quiet, and the dorms of the former Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired no longer empty, Thrive BR is doing just what its name promises—growing, learning, improving.
1. The schools in the proposed “breakaway” district, coined Southeast Baton Rouge Community School System, are a mixture of high-performing and low-performing schools. Local Schools for Local Children, the main advocacy group for the proposed school district, believes moving away from the EBRP School System is a vital step in raising the scores of low-performing schools.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board next month could approve an agreement with the Recovery School District that would chart a path for struggling schools in the parish. EBR spokeswoman Susan Nelson says talks between the two sides have been constructive. Under the agreement, both groups would sign off on charter operators for seven RSD-run schools, using a common, independent evaluator for charter applications. How such an arrangement will work in practice remains to be seen, since EBR sees charter schools as complementary to the system, while the RSD wants to charter all of its schools. RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard says there's "mutual respect" between the two sides, despite the different philosophies. "I'm always working to try to find areas where we can coexist, [while] mindful of why RSD is here," he says. "It's because schools have been academically unacceptable." School Board Vice President Tarvald Smith touts improvements made by charter schools run by Community...
Louisiana education officials say the state has received nearly 12,000 applications for state-funded private school tuition. That's up from about 10,000 last year—the first year that the tuition voucher program went statewide after being piloted in New Orleans. As The Associated Press reports, the increased interest comes despite a judge's ruling that the voucher program as it is currently funded violates the state constitution. A state Supreme Court ruling in that case is pending. The taxpayer-financed tuition at private and parochial schools is available to students from low- to moderate-income families who otherwise would attend public schools graded with a C, D or F by the state. Priority is given to students in D- and F-rated schools. Officials say 129 schools likely will participate in the program, up from 118 last year.
LSU System President-elect F. King Alexander says he's prepared to work with university and community leaders to usher LSU through "a very difficult and challenging time in American higher education." Alexander, who was selected today by a unanimous vote of the LSU Board of Supervisors, is expected to take office on or before July 1. Alexander says he intends to work with faculty, staff, students, alumni and government officials to "make sure that we've got the strongest LSU possible in the decades to come." Alexander also will be the chancellor of the flagship Baton Rouge campus, holding the title of President of LSU, pending compliance with accreditation standards. Alexander has said higher education leaders have a "moral obligation" to improve graduation rates, and that this goal can be accomplished without watering down standards. Kevin Cope, president of LSU's faculty senate, has criticized the selection of Alexander, claiming he does not have adequate experience to lead a major...
The LSU Board of Supervisors made it official today, voting unanimously to hire F. King Alexander as the next system president. Alexander also will be the chancellor of the flagship Baton Rouge campus, holding the title of President of LSU, pending compliance with accreditation standards. During his brief remarks today, he acknowledged that higher education is facing difficult times, but said he's optimistic about tackling the challenges. "This is an opportunity to redefine and renew what a true comprehensive land grant, sea grant, space grant university can mean to this state and to the region and to the nation," he said in a press briefing last week. Alexander has said higher education leaders have a "moral obligation" to improve graduation rates, and that this goal can be accomplished without watering down standards. He has been president of California State University Long Beach since 2005; prior to that, he led Murray State University in Kentucky. He was born in Louisville, Ky.,...
Voters should have the power to choose the state's chief educator, according to state Sen. Bob Kostelka. The Times-Picayune reports the Monroe Republican filed a bill last week calling for a constitutional amendment that would require the statewide election of the education superintendent. "[Senate Bill 41] is simply to give the people a choice of whether or not they want to elect their superintendent of education," Kostelka says. The bill will be considered in the legislative session that begins April 8. He notes it is particularly important to leave the choice to voters since so much of the state's budget—over 40% of the general fund—goes to the Department of Education. The department has been headed by Superintendent John White since his appointment in January 2012. Under current law, the superintendent of education is appointed by BESE, and then approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature. Kostelka's bill, if passed by two-thirds of both...
When Louisiana considers its next batch of charter school operators, the state will be able to draw upon lessons learned from prior experience, Recovery School District officials say. They say unsuccessful charter operators, such as Advance Baton Rouge, often didn't have enough time to prepare for launching a new school. Some were unable to create a disciplined student culture, didn't set academic expectations high enough, or didn't have the right leadership. RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard says that as the district looks for "high-quality charter operators" for Baton Rouge schools currently run by the state, or even for new schools, it will be "looking for a fit" for each community. "As that process is going on, we want to be able to give voice to communities," he says. "We want to take away the fear of the RSD." Dobard also says the district is looking for operators with "a proven track record of success." New Schools for Baton Rouge, a recently formed nonprofit, is helping...
Public universities nationwide are dealing with state funding cuts, meaning that schools are more dependent on tuition and other self-generated revenue. Louisiana is no exception, and higher education officials want more control over their tuition rates. Into this environment comes F. King Alexander, president of California State University Long Beach and likely the next LSU president. Access to public education for low- and moderate-income students is a priority for Alexander, but he says he doesn't know enough yet about the finances of LSU's campuses to say whether tuition hikes are needed. "I've always said: Not unless we have to," he says. CSULB recently raised tuition and fees $1,800, he says. He notes the federal government is spending more on higher education as states are spending less. Under President Barack Obama, a tax credit program for tuition and related expenses has been increased from $1,000 to $2,500, and it's being made available to families making as much as...
A Minnesota-based developer has purchased a 52,000-square-foot office building on Lobdell Avenue for $1.3 million, and has plans to turn it into a charter school. Ryan Companies US Inc. purchased the building at 1900 N. Lobdell Ave. on Monday and will renovate the building for Charter Schools USA, which plans to house a new school on the 6-acre campus, says Steve Legendre of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate, who represented Ryan in the deal. Jonathan Starns of Donnie Jarreau Real Estate represented the seller, Educational Management Services. The previous tenants at the property, which include Baton Rouge College, have been relocated, Legendre says. Charter Schools USA is taking applications for students in grades K-6 and plans to open the Baton Rouge Charter Academy at Mid City in August, according to the group's website. The site says the school will teach kindergarten through sixth-grade students during the 2013-14 school year, with seventh- and eighth-grade classes to be added "in...
Louisiana's practice of requiring a two-thirds vote by the Legislature before raising tuition is "quite interesting," says F. King Alexander, the California State University Long Beach president who hopes to lead LSU. In California, the Legislature needs the same margin to pass any budget, which Alexander says basically guaranteed that his university wouldn't have a working budget at the beginning of each of the last four fiscal years. Alexander says Louisiana higher ed leaders are dealing with the uncertainty of having much of their state funding based on contingencies that may not materialize. "We've always had that in California," says Alexander, after visiting LSU today and meeting with officials for the first time since being named the lone finalist to be president of the LSU System and Baton Rouge campus on Friday. "We've had as many as seven budgetary scenarios going into one year." He says CSULB went from 44% of its budget being funded by the state to 23%, adding that he...
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System has rescinded the RFP it issued earlier this week for a nearly $300,000 advertising and marketing campaign. As Daily Report reported this morning, the system was seeking proposals from 11 area agencies to, "…develop a comprehensive community campaign to increase support for EBR Schools." In an email late this afternoon, Susan Nelson, interim director for communications for EBRSS, says the RFP has since been rescinded, "… on the advice of counsel who wants the RFP release to go before the (school) board." Nelson says she does not know if or when another RFP will be issued. —Stephanie Riegel
The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board will take up a proposal Thursday to begin planning for the conversion of Mayfair Middle School into an elementary school modeled after the LSU Laboratory School. "Basically, we'll be trying to replicate that program," says school system spokeswoman Susan Nelson. The agenda item calls for spending an estimated $190,000 to begin planning for the conversion to an elementary and lab school, which Nelson says would entail working with LSU Laboratory School officials to "use their methodology and have some of their teachers train our teachers." If approved, the conversion to an elementary lab school would take place in August. Mayfair Middle School currently serves students in grades 6 through 8. After the change, the school would likely educate those in kindergarten through fifth grade, but Nelson says the specifics of the transformation have yet to be finalized. Baton Rouge currently has two laboratory schools, one at LSU and one at Southern...
LSU's faculty leaders say they have no faith in the university system's governing board to make wise decisions, and they question the credentials of the contender to be system president. LSU faculty senate President Kevin Cope says that the group approved a "vote of no confidence" in the LSU Board of Supervisors today. The vote comes as the board brings its contender for the president and chancellor's job to Baton Rouge this week: F. King Alexander, president of California State University Long Beach. Among faculty complaints is the closed-door handling of the presidential search. The faculty senate also questions the recommendation that Alexander should be president, noting he's never been a tenured full professor at a major research university and that graduation rates at his university are lower than those at LSU. However, LSU Board of Supervisors member Blake Chatelain, who chaired the presidential search committee,
Louisiana's top higher education official says the state's investment in public colleges has sunk to its lowest level in more than 50 years, when compared to income levels, and he's pushing for new tuition increases to offset some of the loss. Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell says more money is needed on campuses to train workers to fill in-demand jobs across the state. "Even though we are making progress, we're not meeting the human capital needs," Purcell said on Tuesday, in advance of a presentation he'll be making to the Board of Regents about higher education funding and a push to ask lawmakers to change state tuition policy. Purcell is asking lawmakers for more tuition-setting autonomy for college management boards, saying schools need the ability to charge higher tuition and fee rates for specialized and higher-cost programs, like engineering, advanced technology fields and nursing. He notes the number of high-profile job announcements made by Gov. Bobby Jindal's...
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System is seeking proposals from 11 local and regional advertising agencies for a nearly $300,000 marketing and public relations campaign that will seek to rebrand the public school system. According to the RFP, which was issued this week, "The goal is to develop a comprehensive community campaign to increase support for EBR Schools throughout the business community and to encourage more families to select EBR Schools as their schools of choice." The RFP also says the district has $68,000 to spend on procuring professional services for the campaign and $217,000 for media buys, ad placement, printing and production costs. All the money, which was included in the 2012-13 budget, must be allocated for the campaign by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. That's a tight window for such a massive campaign, according to some local agency execs interested in getting the work. But Susan Nelson, the system's new interim executive director for...
Vincent leaving LSU for SEC post
Herb Vincent is leaving LSU to take over as associate commissioner for communications at the SEC, the university announced today. Vincent, who's currently the associate vice chancellor for university relations and senior associate athletics director at LSU, will begin his new job in September. For Vincent, the move marks a return to the SEC. He was previously on its staff in 1986 and 1987 as assistant director of public relations. "His experience at LSU and other levels of sports and sports television will be a tremendous addition to the team," says SEC Commissioner Mike Slive in a prepared statement. "We are excited to have him back in Birmingham as a part of our conference staff, and I know he's excited to get to work on making the SEC family even stronger. In his new role, Vincent will be responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the overall communications strategies and efforts for the conference, as well as serving as spokesman for the SEC and acting as the primary...
Lower admission standards yield higher enrollment for LSU business college
Starting with the 2011-12 LSU course catalog, the E. J. Ourso College of Business began admitting students with a 2.0 grade-point average into four of the college's eight bachelor's programs: economics, international trade and finance, information systems and decision sciences, and general business. Previously, all programs required a 3.0 GPA. Since then, enrollment has increased significantly, especially in the general business curriculum, which in the past year alone went from 332 students admitted to 871, a 162% increase, according to Tim Rodrigue, the college's assistant director of alumni and external relations. Overall admissions were up about 12% over that same period. The change in standards was approved by a vote of the college's faculty in 2010. "This is a strategic shift that will allow us to better serve the students, families, entrepreneurs and industry of Louisiana," former dean Eli Jones said at the time. The hope, he added, is that more students would be exposed to...
Senate rejects move to stop Common Core standards
The Louisiana Senate has killed a resolution that sought to keep the state from using a set of uniform national standards for public school testing, called Common Core standards. The action today came a day after the Senate Education Committee advanced the proposal without taking action. Senators voted 27-8 to shelve the legislation and keep it from moving any further. The standards are a set of guidelines for student learning at each grade level that have been adopted by 45 states. They are being incorporated into the standardized tests given each spring to Louisiana's public school students. Opponents criticize use of the standards as states abdicating local control of their curriculum to the federal government.
B.R. charter boarding school reports big improvements on state tests during first year
Baton Rouge's first and only charter boarding school, THRIVE, says the percentage of its inaugural class of sixth grade students testing at a "basic" level improved in all four core subjects. In the English Language Arts test, the percentage went from 12% to 67%; in Math, 47% to 89%; in Science, 0% to 50%; and in Social Studies, 12% to 78%. At the same time, THRIVE reports the percent of its students testing at a "mastery and advanced" level jumped from 0% to 17%. At THRIVE, which had a sixth-grade class only during its inaugural year, students stay overnight at the school five nights a week and return home on the weekends. "The scores reflect the dedication of the students, faculty and staff," says EBR School Board member Craig Freeman in a prepared statement. "THRIVE is a unique and valued option for students in EBR. I have witnessed first-hand the dedication of everyone in the building. I am excited that their hard work paid off." The school has posted its complete testing results...
La. education chief wants single diploma
The state's top education official says Louisiana should offer one high school diploma with two possible tracks, rather than the three types of diplomas schools currently offer. "Graduating from high school in Louisiana is too complicated for parents, counselors, teachers, and students," Superintendent John White says. "We should have one simple diploma that connects directly with the workforce and the four-year colleges." Currently, Louisiana students can earn one of three diplomas: Core Four, Basic or Career. Core Four is supposed to prepare students for college, but its requirements don't line up with TOPS, the Louisiana Department of Education says, and the Basic and Career diplomas don't prepare students for high-demand careers. Instead, the state might offer one diploma with two tracks: technical career education and four-year college preparation. The technical path would include junior...
'Business Report': University leaders aim to embrace the digital age
In the business world, "adapt or die" is a truism. The ubiquity of the Internet is altering—in some cases, radically upending—the models for all sorts of industries. Exhibit A: the current turmoil in print journalism. Higher education is no different. University leaders are realizing that, to remain relevant, they must embrace the digital age. It's a theme Bill Jenkins has hammered home repeatedly since he returned to LSU as interim president and chancellor last year. "We recognize that higher education has become a global market," Jenkins says. "LSU wants to actively participate as our domestic students are coming to see their future as tied to their global citizenship." Distance learning isn't new. But LSU and Southern University, along with private and public universities across the country, are putting new emphasis on online education, as evidenced by the fact that both local institutions recently signed deals with outside firms to bring complete degree programs to...
State education chief supports public vote on B.R. breakaway district
John White, Louisiana's education superintendent, says he supports giving the public the ability to vote on creating a new school district in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish. But he says he's not taking a position on whether creating the district is a good idea or not. "It's not going to create new schools or new teachers," he says. "It's essentially creating a different governance structure. I can't say whether I know at this point whether that governance structure will be better or not." White made the comments during a conference call today with reporters to discuss the results of LEAP and iLEAP testing. He says seven private schools that have accepted voucher students have been kicked out of the program because the schools weren't performing well enough. Those schools, according to White, are Faith Christian Academy in Jefferson Parish and six Orleans Parish schools: Life of Christ Christian Academy, Upperroom Bible Church, Bishop McManus Academy, Holy Rosary Academy,...
More La. students testing at 'basic' level
About 69% of Louisiana students in grades 3-8 this year tested at the "basic" level or above in four core subjects, the Louisiana Department of Education says. That's one point better than last year and nine points better than in 2008, the department says. State Superintendent John White says students seemed to struggle with a new, more challenging writing portion of the English Language Arts test, but he cast the overall results as evidence of progress. White mentioned Central (which went from 83% to 86% scoring basic or above) and Zachary (87% to 89%) as historically high-performing districts that continue to improve their scores. The East Baton Rouge district went from 60% to 62%. Among urban parishes, East Baton Rouge, counting the Recovery School District schools, showed improvement but was outpaced by progress in Orleans. The department says charter schools on average outpaced traditional schools, improving by 2 percentage points. Districts that have unified Head Start and...
LSU software upgrade could cost $40 million
As part of a major reorganization, the LSU Board of Supervisors already has approved changing the university's structure by combining the positions of system president and Baton Rouge campus chancellor. But there's a lot more work to do behind the scenes. A technology task force working with the Transition Advisory Team recommends moving to a "unified enterprise solution" for software used in human resource, financial and student processes. An external consultant estimates the preliminary costs of the new system would be about $8 million for acquisition and $32 million for implementation, with a recurring cost of up to $2 million per year. The investment, says Brian Nichols, LSU's chief information officer, would bring the system out of the "dark ages," but does not include LSU Shreveport and the LSU Health Sciences Center. "We should continue to transform LSU from a University simply tolerating technology to one that truly embraces it to enable research, teaching and learning, the...
BRAC recommends raising bar on TOPS
As part of its push to give higher education management boards authority over setting tuition and fees—instead of the Legislature—BRAC is taking on one of the state's most sacred cows: TOPS. In a report released this morning, BRAC recommends a series of reforms to TOPS that would decouple TOPS awards from tuition costs and raise the academic standards for the popular tuition program. "We are supporting bills during the session to vest the power over tuition-setting to higher education governing boards," says BRAC spokeswoman Lauren Hatcher. "As a result, our organization feels it is necessary to have an official position on the TOPS program, because the issues are so closely related." Among the recommendations in the report: raising both the minimum GPA and ACT score requirements for TOPS Opportunity, Performance and Honors awards, three of the five scholarships in the program. The report also suggests decoupling tuition costs from the TOPS program—in other words,...
Shifting tobacco funds to TOPS incites debate
The Jindal administration and Treasurer John Kennedy are again at odds, this time on the topic of whether to refinance outstanding tobacco settlement bonds to benefit the TOPS program. Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols sent out a press release lauding the passage of a motion today by the Tobacco Settlement Finance Corp. to restructure the settlement bonds to provide nearly $143 million to the TOPS program over the next three years. The move is a part of Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget proposal. "Because of out-year risk associated with declining tobacco consumption trends, the upfront savings approach is a smart financial plan that's also in the best long-term interest of the state," Nichols says. "By law, tobacco bond proceeds are directed to support the TOPS program, and I'm happy that today's action will take advantage of historically low interest rates to help fund TOPS scholarships for Louisiana young people." Not long after, Kennedy sent out his own
Committee recommends 6 focus areas for LSU System research
A committee that's helping create recommendations for LSU's future has identified six core areas of concentration for the system's research efforts: environmental science, including coastal issues; biomedical sciences; energy; arts and humanities; computation and digital media; and natural and renewable resources. The group will refine that list and come up with emphasis areas for each campus, says research and development subcommittee Chairman Jim Firnberg. LSU needs to greatly increase its federal research expenditures and produce more doctorates to be considered "globally competitive," officials say. "We are underfunded," says Christel Slaughter of SSA Consultants, who is leading the LSU Transition Advisory Team meetings. "We are not in the big leagues." She says part of the team's job will be telling the board about how much it will cost to get where the board wants to go. LSU has combined the positions of system president and flagship chancellor, and is working toward making the...
The old two-year college try
In the past five hard years of higher education's declining state support, rising tuition, defecting faculty and deteriorating facilities, college leaders have stuck together and let the Board of Regents coordinate their requests for funding from the Legislature. A lot of good that did them.
Maginnis: The old two-year college try
In the past five hard years of higher education's declining state support, rising tuition, defecting faculty and deteriorating facilities, college leaders have stuck together and let the Board of Regents coordinate their requests for funding from the Legislature. A lot of good that did them. Now the community college system, the only one growing in enrollment, has had enough of standing in line. In the most audacious power play of the legislative session, one that is shaking the foundations of higher education, the two-year colleges are close to pulling off a $250 million end run on established procedure in order to build 28 training and technology centers all around the state. Supporters hail the plan as essential to training a skilled workforce to fill technical jobs in high demand areas. Opponents call it a debt-ceiling buster that violates the spirit if not the letter of the constitution and robs four-year colleges of badly needed resources. Instead of following the usual process...
Audit says LDOE skipped steps in monitoring charters
The state Department of Education had gaps in its monitoring of the academic and contractual performance of Louisiana charter schools last year, according to a legislative audit released today. The review by Louisiana Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera's office says the department didn't verify that school-reported data used to grade performance was reliable, couldn't prove it tracked the legal obligations required of charter schools, and didn't make sure eight charter schools put on probation in 2010 met the standards to remain open in 2012. The audit looked at charter school monitoring activities during the 2011-12 budget year that ended June 30. Auditors say the education department complied with state requirements for monitoring the schools' financial performance. "However, LDOE did not perform all required academic monitoring activities. … In addition, we found that LDOE could not provide evidence that it comprehensively monitored the legal/contractual performance of these...
This year's La. charter school applications double 2012's
Seven of the country's strongest charter school operators—including two with proven track records of success in New Orleans—have applied to open charter schools in north Baton Rouge. The groups are among 35 organizations that have applied for charters to operate 100 new schools in 19 parishes across Louisiana, according to a news release from the Louisiana Department of Education today, which notes that nearly twice as many organizations applied for charters this year as in 2012. Locally, where many public schools are failing, the number and quality of applicants is particularly significant, according to charter school advocates. They credit the interest, in large part, to the efforts of New Schools for Baton Rouge, a community partnership focused on bringing in charter operators to improve public education in north...
Toughened school safety bill headed to Jindal's desk
Public schools, already required to have written crisis management plans, will now have to coordinate those plans with local law enforcement and emergency preparedness officials—and hold annual safety drills to rehearse them. The Associated Press reports the bill rewriting Louisiana's school safety law received final passage today with a unanimous Senate vote. It comes in response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. It will require classroom doors to remain locked during instructional time, as long as that's in compliance with fire safety standards. School crisis management plans won't be subject to Louisiana's public records law. The measure now heads to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is expected to sign it into law.
State receives applications for more than 100 charter schools
Editor's note: This is a press release provided to Daily Report by the Louisiana Department of Education.
MAPP, architects in settlement talks over Baton Rouge High
Settlement negotiations are under way between MAPP Construction and the architecture firms that designed Baton Rouge Magnet High School's $45.9 million renovation project, and "significant progress has been made," according to MAPP's attorney, Gray Sexton. But there are still a lot of issues to work through before the lawsuit that MAPP filed against the firms last year is resolved. In September, MAPP sued Chenevert Architects, Remson-Haley-Herpin Architects, as well as a joint venture between the two firms, claiming an incomplete and defective design led to delays on the project and cost MAPP more than $6 million. Over the past several months, attorneys for MAPP, the architects and the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board—which is not named in the litigation—have met three times and are working through about 80 discrete claims made by MAPP. Sexton says about 50 of those claims have been settled, though issues raised in the lawsuit itself have not been resolved. Attorneys...
Senators chide LSU board
Senators told members of the LSU Board of Supervisors that they want an explanation for why the university system's former hospitals chief, Fred Cerise, was directed not to attend a legislative hearing to discuss plans to privatize the LSU hospitals. Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, says he asked Cerise, who is still an employee of LSU, to come to a recent budget hearing. He says he was told that Cerise was denied his request to take a personal leave day to attend the meeting. "That's really disturbing," says Murray, who made the remarks during LSU board members' confirmation hearings before the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee today. "I think that sends a really bad message." The Associated Press reports Cerise was pushed out of his hospital leadership job after clashing with Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is seeking to privatize the hospitals. LSU board members John George and Ann Duplessis told lawmakers they didn't know anything about Cerise not being able to attend the meeting.
La. schools owed $30M because of court ruling
Superintendent of Education John White says the state owes local school districts $30 million because the Louisiana Supreme Court threw out this year's public school funding formula. The Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers couldn't fund a voucher program using the formula for public schools to send children to private schools. The high court also said lawmakers didn't follow the proper process to pass the formula, declaring the entire 2012-13 financing plan null and void. White says that means the state reverts to the formula for the 2011-12 school year. That changes several state funding calculations and will require $30 million more in payments to districts. Of that, he says $12 million will be paying back local school districts for a reduction in funding they received because of vouchers. Another $14.5 million, he says, was tied to a change this year that required local districts to pay for a portion of the funding for eight charter schools whose costs previously had been paid...
Lockdown at Southeast Middle this morning likely due to prank
A Baton Rouge middle school was on lockdown for about an hour this morning after a 911 caller reported a gun on campus. The campus of Southeast Middle School was given an all clear after a search turned up no gun. Susan Nelson, a spokeswoman for East Baton Rouge schools, says the call appears to be a prank. "No one at the school would call 911; they would call the School Drug Task Force," she says. "It was clearly not someone on campus." The task force is a part of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. With five days left in the school year and final exams imminent, Nelson speculated that the call could have been an end-of-school student prank. —April Castro
Capitol Views: B.R. breakaway school district bill headed to House
The next step, likely the hardest, lies ahead for the proposed breakaway school district in southeast Baton Rouge, after legislation passed the House Education Committee today. Senate Bill 73, the constitutional amendment by Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, after getting ballot language approved in the Civil Law Committee, will need two-thirds approval from the House. The same bill fell four votes short of that mark last year. If it passes the House, it will go on the constitutional ballot in 2014. The bill would create a new school district for the 10 public schools educating 7,000 students in the area between Interstate 10 and Interstate 12. Testimony from supporters and opponents went on for more than two and a half hours today before the committee voted to approve it, 10-6, with all Republicans and one independent in favor and all Democrats opposed. Senate Bill 199, the enabling bill, passed by the same margin. Members of Local Schools for Local Children said the new district would...
Southern culture
In 2011, the Southern University System signed a deal with EOServe, a for-profit company that specializes in delivering online courses for historically black colleges and universities. System President Ronald Mason worked with the same company when he led Jackson State University.
Let’s use Yellow Pages test
In his 1997 book The Twenty-First Century City, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith proposed what he called the “Yellow Pages test”: “If the phone book lists three companies that provide a certain service,” he wrote, “the city probably should not be in that business.” Makes sense to me.
Brave new world
In the business world, “adapt or die” is a truism. The ubiquity of the Internet is altering—in some cases, radically upending—the models for all sorts of industries. Exhibit A: the current turmoil in print journalism.
By design
The buildings of LSU not only reveal a legacy that goes back to the Renaissance but also serve as a primer of architectural principles that guided the creation of one of the most unique academic environments in the United States. In The Architecture of LSU, author, professor and architect J. Michael Desmond traces the university's development, including photographs, plans, drawings and maps that underscore the contributions of historical figures and the genealogies of the campus's architecture and planning. By detailing the origins and evolution of LSU's architectural core and exploring the fundamentals of American college campus design, Desmond shows the rewards of public environments that integrate natural and constructed elements to meet both practical and aesthetic goals. The Architecture of LSU is available from LSU Press.
Early childhood education revamp looks likely
Proposals to tie public funding to student performance and issue letter grades to Louisiana's public and private early childhood education programs are finding easy passage through the Legislature. Two Senate bills are the cornerstones of Gov. Bobby Jindal's attempt to restructure early childhood education and to create uniform standards for kindergarten readiness. They have cleared the Senate with very little discussion and no objections from lawmakers, and aren't expected to run into trouble in the House, The Associated Press reports. The bills, by Sens. Conrad Appel and Mike Walsworth, are enabling legislation for Act 3, a structural framework approved by lawmakers last year. Public and private programs receive $1.4 billion a year in federal and state money to educate students from birth to 5 years old. Jindal wants to bring some academic uniformity to those programs and to give parents a report card on providers' efforts. State education officials have said that just over half of...
LSU committee looks to research collaboration
If LSU is going to increase its ability to compete for large research grants, it will need to find ways to collaborate more effectively across campuses and disciplines. At least, that was one of the primary discussion points at an LSU Transition Advisory Team subcommittee meeting this afternoon. In particular, meeting attendees say the administrative burden perhaps could be shared among university units so that faculty are freed up to focus on what they do best. Members say researchers should receive better incentives for their work, but acknowledge that's easier said than done in an era of tight budgets when LSU has been losing faculty. Christel Slaughter of SSA consultants, who is facilitating the Transition Advisory Team meetings, says there's a strong correlation between the loss of professors and researchers in recent years and a decline in research dollars obtained by LSU. —David Jacobs
Voucher proponents hope to maintain program
Supporters of private school vouchers say they'll look for new ways to pay for the program, now that the Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled the funding mechanism unconstitutional. "We are committed to making sure this program continues, and we will fund it through the budget," says Gov. Bobby Jindal in a prepared statement. "Hopefully, we can find some dollars," says Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge and chairman of the House Education Committee. "But the budget is tight. There's just not an awful lot of dollars floating around." Like Carter, Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie and head of the Senate Education Committee, says he hasn't yet had a chance to discuss the next steps with his colleagues. "We're going to be fighting to find a way to make it work that adheres to the constitution," Appel says. "That's the big question of the day: What would work?" says BESE member Holly Boffy. Beyond the funding question—lawmakers say about $25 million is needed—opponents likely will try...
News alert: Supreme Court strikes down voucher law
The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that the funding method for the state's school voucher program is unconstitutional. In a 6-1 ruling today, the court upheld a district court ruling that the state constitution forbids using money earmarked for public schools in the state's Minimum Foundation Program to pay for private school tuition. The voucher program was one of the hallmarks of Gov. Bobby Jindal's Act 2 education reform package, passed by the state Legislature in 2012. Read more in Daily Report this afternoon.
Audit: TOPS canceled for 44% of recipients in 7-year period
A state audit shows that more than 44% of Louisiana students who received scholarships from the state's TOPS program over a seven-year period had their awards canceled. The audit says the state spent $165 million in TOPS awards to offset tuition for more than 42,000 students whose awards were eventually canceled. In response, TOPS administrators say more than 80% of money paid for TOPS awards went to students who completed the program, and that most of the canceled awards were lost by students who failed to maintain enough credit hours but still had good grades. The audit itself notes that 25% of TOPS recipients who graduated from Louisiana public colleges during the period measured graduated even after losing their awards. You can see the complete audit report here.
Southern plans to tweak controversial contract
Southern University System President Ronald Mason plans to amend a controversial contract with online course provider EOServe. As written, it stipulates that if a student first enrolled in an online program then later enrolls in traditional classroom-based coursework, EOServe would get 40% of the revenue from that student's campus courses. Mason says he would rather see EOServe receive a one-time payment of about $2,500 per student to cover marketing costs, and the rest of the revenue would stay with Southern. The Board of Supervisors would have to approve the change, which would not affect other contract provisions that have been criticized by faculty leaders, such as the 70/30 split in EOServe's favor of the online course revenue. "LSU basically gets 50 percent of the revenue coming in from online student enrollment," says Southern faculty senate President Thomas Miller. "Our system gets 30 percent." Mason stresses that all of the startup expenses come out of EOServe's end, and...
Editor: Public schools need a new playbook
If high school football teams were run in the same by-the-book, one-size-fits-all way that public schools across Louisiana are, "I suspect the response would be an angry revolt by parents and the public," says Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball. "Yet few are screaming in outrage" about the school situation, Ball writes in his latest column. "The dichotomy between what the public fervently demands on the football field and what it passively accepts in the classroom explains why public education is largely a dismal failure." While we expect athletes from low-income districts to compete for state championships on the field, Ball says, we make excuses for why those same students can't compete in the classroom. Ball says there is "no magic bullet solution when it comes to the education of our children." Charters, vouchers, private schools and recovery school districts have advantages and disadvantages, he says. "The only solution we know that positively won't work is what...
Education department says 63 districts have submitted performance-based pay plans
Due to the creation of new teacher payment plans linking compensation to student achievement at nearly every school district across the state, an estimated 50,000 teachers in Louisiana are now eligible for raises, the Department of Education says. A report was released by the department today outlining the progress 63 school districts—more than 90% of those in the state—have made to create the new payment plans since last year. "While tens of thousands of teachers will be eligible for an increase in salary, no teacher will see their salary reduced based on these changes," the department says in a news release. The report says, "The vast majority of Louisiana's school districts have designed new salary schedules that meet their local needs, based on three criteria, with none accounting for more than 50% of the salary formula." The three primary criteria are "effectiveness, based on student achievement and observations; experience, as defined locally; and demand, such as...
Committee backs increased textbook choice
A bid to give local school districts more freedom in choosing the textbooks they use received the backing of the House Education Committee without objection today. House Bill 116 by Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, would establish that BESE cannot require local school districts to purchase specific textbooks or instructional materials. Erin Bendily, assistant superintendent for the Department of Education, says the bill dovetails with the department's efforts to hold local school leaders accountable for results, without micromanaging them. "It's autonomy for the local school systems," Hoffmann says. A state-recommended textbook list still will be developed, Hoffmann says, adding that he expects 98% of books to be taken from that list. The Associated Press reports Hoffmann unsuccessfully pursued similar legislation two years ago, with critics charging it was a backdoor attempt to include creationism in science classes. The proposal heads next to the full House for debate.
School reform
Louisiana's “career diploma” isn't helping industry or our kids, according to John White, the state's top education official.
THRIVE founder up for national award
Sarah Broome, founder of the THRIVE charter boarding school in Baton Rouge and a 2012 Business Report Forty Under 40 honoree, is one of nine women from across the United States who are up for a Lady Godiva award and grant. The awards honor women "who exemplify the values of selflessness, generosity and leadership on a national or global level," according to The Lady Godiva Program. Broome is a semifinalist in the Children, Families and Poverty category, which is one of three. Online votes will determine one honoree in each of the three categories, with each receiving a $3,000 grant for her work. One of those three honorees will later be selected for a $10,000 grant. You can find Broome's and the other semifinalists' profiles, as well as cast your vote, here.
'Green Colleges' guide features LSU
LSU is among 320 U.S. colleges and two Canadian schools included in The Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2013 Edition, LSU announced today. The LSU flagship campus is "committed to the issues of sustainability on campus, and its Campus Committee for Sustainability is leading the charge," says the guide. The sustainability committee was established in 2008 to create an inventory of the campus's existing carbon footprint, document LSU's existing efforts toward achieving sustainability, develop an action plan to improve sustainability efforts, and promote public awareness of those efforts. Green action taken at LSU and highlighted in the Princeton Review guidebook are: employing a sustainability officer and providing guidance on green jobs; developing programs that reduce the number of vehicles on campus, including a bus service study, restricted parking, a guaranteed ride home program, and a bike share/rent program; and having 44% of food expenditures...
One LSU
The LSU Transition Advisory Team is trying to get a handle on what it will take to unify the system's various units into “one LSU.” As they're learning, there's a lot of work to be done.
A matter of urgency
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave an impassioned plea for education leaders in Baton Rouge to ensure all children, no matter their circumstances, have access to a quality education.
Keeping it real
The lead judge of the panel looking at business plans for the LSU Student Incubator Challenge says winning plans should translate into success in the marketplace.
If only it were football
What if every high school football coach in the state of Louisiana were required to run the same I-style offense? What if a state board dictated specific plays, including blocking schemes, that each team would be expected to execute? What if employing the 4-3 defense were ordered by a legislative mandate, also spelling out allowable blitzes and stunts as well as how often each could be used during a game? What if every head coach were given a manual dictating in step-by-step detail how he and his staff are to conduct practice and train players?
Bill would require LSU, Southern to name scholarship recipients
So far, Senate Bill 31 by Republican Sen. Dan Claitor of Baton Rouge has encountered surprisingly little opposition, sailing through a Senate committee and the full Senate with little notice or fanfare. Surprisingly, because the bill takes on one of the longtime sacred cows of higher education in Louisiana: It requires members of the LSU and Southern University boards of supervisors to disclose the names of recipients of scholarships they award each year, information they can presently keep private. But the bill's smooth sailing may end as it makes its way toward the House. An editorial about the legislation by Sam Hanna Jr. that appeared last week in three north Louisiana newspapers is generating quite a buzz in that part of the state among those who would prefer to keep the names of scholarship recipients out of the public domain. "People are telling me, 'Boy, you touched a nerve up here,' " says Hanna.
News alert: LSU to appeal public records ruling
LSU is "disappointed" in a district court judge's decision that the names of the candidates for the system's presidency must be released, but "confident the decision will be reversed on appeal," Board of Supervisors Chairman Hank Danos says in a prepared statement released this afternoon. Danos says the secretive presidential search was conducted in accordance with a 2006 law that requires public disclosure when a candidate becomes an "applicant." LSU argues that F. King Alexander, whom the search committee selected as the lone finalist, was the only actual applicant for the job. Danos further claims the records Judge Janice Clark ordered LSU to produce are "not in LSU's custody or control." The LSU Foundation hired a private consultant, R. William Funk & Associates, to assist in the search. Media outlets that sued for access to the names contend just because the records were handled by a private firm, that doesn't make them any less public, noting Alexander will head a public...
Lawmakers say LSU deals keep information from the public
Lawmakers are raising questions about whether the LSU privatization agreements devised by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration permit enough public scrutiny of the hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. The Associated Press reports the concerns were voiced today as the Legislature's joint budget committee reviewed agreements to turn over management of LSU's Lafayette and New Orleans hospitals to nonprofits that run private hospitals. Committee members also say information is murky on the cost of the deals and how they will affect the state budget annually. LSU and Jindal administration leaders told lawmakers that the privatization efforts will lower state costs while also improving patient access to care and maintaining medical training programs. Lease arrangements have been approved for two of LSU's nine public hospitals. Jindal intends to negotiate deals for six others.
LSU board chairman not sure if public records ruling will be appealed
LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman Hank Danos says this morning that board members and attorneys have not yet discussed possibly appealing a ruling by a state district judge Thursday that the names of the candidates for the position of LSU president should be released in accordance with the Louisiana Public Records Act. "We've always done what we feel is in the best interest of LSU and the state of Louisiana," Danos says. "We're going to talk to our attorney and talk about our options." He says the ruling, if allowed to stand, could have a negative impact on LSU and other state universities conducting searches in the future. While LSU recently has held public interviews for other administrative positions, Danos says university president is such a high-profile job that secrecy is needed to protect the integrity of the candidate pool. The Advocate, The Times-Picayune, and Andrea Gallo, editor of The Daily Reveille, all sued for access to the names. Gallo's suit...
EBR school system hires two lobbying firms
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System has hired two lobbying firms with contracts totaling $62,000 to help it advance its agenda during the current legislative session and beyond. Local firm Spradley & Spradley has a one-year contract with the district and will concentrate on lobbying BESE on the district's behalf, says Susan Nelson, interim director for communications for EBR schools. The other firm, Southern Strategy Group—which is based in Shreveport and has offices throughout the South—will focus on "pre-work opposing the Southeast district pullout legislation, if it should not pass this year and be brought back up again next year with the intention of putting it on the 2014 ballot," Nelson says. Hiring lobbyists is an unusual move for the cash-strapped school system, but one that school board member Craig Freeman says is long overdue. "We need to do more to help people understand the great things we do," he says. "Some of our legislators do not know how awesome...
Judge rules LSU must make names of candidates for president public
LSU must "immediately produce" the names of the people its board of supervisors considered for the university presidency, The Times-Picayune reports an East Baton Rouge Parish judge has ruled. Judge Janice Clark issued the ruling less than three hours after the conclusion of oral arguments in the case today , which was brought by The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com and The Advocate against the university. Jimmy Faircloth, who represents LSU in the case, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The arguments in the case largely revolved around a simple question: What does the word "applicant" mean? Faircloth maintained that there was but a single applicant for the post: F. King Alexander, whom the board of supervisors voted to appoint March 27. Lori Mince, who represents the two news organizations, argued that LSU's position, if allowed to stand, would make a mockery of public-records laws. The full story can be found
Phyllis Taylor pledges $15M toward renovation of LSU hall honoring her late husband
The LSU College of Engineering has received the largest donation in its history in the form of a $15 million pledge from Phyllis Taylor to "accelerate the momentum" of the $100 million renovation of Patrick F. Taylor Hall on campus, according to a news release. Phyllis Taylor is co-chair of the LSU College of Engineering Breaking New Ground campaign, which was launched earlier this month with the aim of providing "the next generation of engineering education at LSU." In 2007 LSU formally named the Center for Engineering and Business Administration building in honor of her late husband, Patrick F. Taylor, who graduated from LSU with a petroleum engineering degree in 1959 and founded Taylor Energy Company. Gov. Bobby Jindal has included $50 million in capital outlay funding for the renovation in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2013-14. The remaining funds are to be privately raised. The renovation will add about 80,000 square feet to the already 300,000-square-foot building, and...
Van Heerden moves on after lengthy court battle with LSU
Speaking out carried a high price for Ivor van Heerden. And, as it turns out, fighting him unsuccessfully carried a high price for LSU. Despite his doctorate in marine science and his years of experience in disaster research, the fired deputy director of the LSU Hurricane Center has been unable to find steady work since May 2010, save for a yearlong stint working for a private firm involved in the oil spill cleanup and the occasional consulting or expert trial witness gig. For a year now, he and his wife have been living in a trailer on a half-acre in rural Livingston Parish, hoping to sell their adjacent home to cover mounting living expenses. His two daughters fled the state in disgust over the way van Heerden was treated: One is attending college in California; the other lives in Alabama. Circumstances changed somewhat in February, when the Louisiana Office of Risk Management cut van Heerden a check for $435,000. The act averted a potentially embarrassing federal trial exploring...
Poll: Louisianans divided on vouchers
The latest results of the LSU Public Policy Research Lab's annual Louisiana Survey show about 7 in 10 people strongly support opening more charter schools, but are sharply divided on vouchers. While 49% of respondents favor vouchers, an equal 49% are opposed. Kirby Goidel, LSU political science professor, says the divide on vouchers is not surprising considering it's been such a contentious issue in the state in recent years. “You say 'voucher' and immediately there's a red and blue side to that issue … it's immediately polarized,” Goidel says. “And I think it can be divided for multiple reasons, one can be outright objection and another can be because we haven't seen how the results of vouchers will play out.” Goidel says he thinks support of school vouchers could “move significantly” upward in the coming years “if there's evidence that they're working.” The state legislature is awaiting a ruling from the Louisiana Supreme Court...
La. officials aim to expand community, technical schools
Noting that enrollment in the state's community and technical colleges has more than tripled over the past decade, Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Joe May says campuses across the state must continue to expand to meet future demand. With that in mind, May announced today a planned $3.7 million expansion at the Capital Area Technical College to establish a state-of-the-art welding center. "Welding remains one of the most important curriculum components in technical education nationwide. It's the backbone of many of the industries in Louisiana which are currently expanding," says CATC Chancellor Kay McDaniel. "This new 15,000-square-foot facility will feature the kind of leading-edge equipment that will ensure our graduates are job ready on day one." May says the project is just one of 24 that Louisiana's community and technical colleges will be working with the state legislature to get under way at 14 institutions across the state. If funded, the "Facilities...
LSU told to take its time, dream big with reorganization
As LSU works to unite a loose confederacy of campuses into a single institution, officials should stop thinking about how things have been done in the past and focus on where they want to go, representatives of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting body told the LSU Transition Advisory Team today. LSU should dream big about what the new institution can do for students, says Belle Wheelan, president of the SACS Commission on Colleges. Back-office changes don't create issues for SACS accreditation, but changes to academic programs and governance do. If there's only "one LSU," according to SACS, then the standards to get into a specific academic program should be the same, regardless of the campus. Tenure policies also should be consistent across campuses. Enabling legislation could be needed; it wouldn't make sense for lawmakers to allocate money to say, LSU-Eunice, because the school would no longer exist as a separate entity. SACS will want to know how incoming...
BRAC opposes breakaway school district
BRAC opposes legislation, which today was approved by a state Senate committee, that would allow voters to carve out a new school district in southeast East Baton Rouge Parish. However, BRAC says it will reconsider its opposition if three concerns are addressed:
• There is a mutually agreed-upon formula for dealing with legacy costs between the new district and the previous district.
• There is a plan to ensure the financial stability of all impacted districts, including the financial impact of any additional facility needs.
• Reasonable effort is made to draw the district boundaries such that the demographics of the newly drawn district are comparable to those of the existing district.
Alexander to receive $600K a year as LSU president
The LSU Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved a contract for new LSU President F. King Alexander that will pay him approximately $600,000 annually. That's roughly the same salary that former President John Lombardi received before being fired by the supervisors in May 2012. Alexander, who is currently the president of California State University at Long Beach, is set to begin at LSU on July 1. At the Wednesday meeting, the supervisors also OK'd agreements for the management of LSU System hospitals in New Orleans and Lafayette, as well as a new Boyd Professorship, honorary degrees and the naming of the baseball field at Alex Box Stadium after former LSU coach Skip Bertman. Among those voted to receive an honorary degree are bluesman Buddy Guy and U.S. Air Force Major Gen. Jasper Welch.
EBR breakaway school district to be discussed Thursday
A potential new school district for southeast East Baton Rouge Parish is on the agenda of the Senate Committee on Education for discussion Thursday. Supporters of the move say it would create a community school district that would be more responsive to parents’ needs, while critics say unanswered questions remain about possible negative impacts on the EBR system. Bills by State Sen. Bodi White would provide for the new district and give voters a chance to approve the change. Another bill by White to be discussed Thursday would not allow a public school board in a parish with a population of more than 440,000—that is, EBR—to close or change the grade configuration or instructional program of any school that’s been designated as "failing" without permission from BESE. EBR spokeswoman Susan Nelson says that, if the state is poised to take over a school, the system can avert a takeover by making substantial changes. "We can reconfigure the school and do more...
Isaacson suggests blending online, classroom learning at LSU
The college classroom of the future will more often feature a "master teacher" rather than a high-salaried, tenured lecturer, says Walter Isaacson, biographer, Louisiana native and CEO of the Aspen Institute think tank. As LSU restructures, he says, officials should look to increase efficiency by taking advantage of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, provided by elite universities. Classes would hear a lecture online—for example, a statistics presentation by a star professor at MIT—but still meet in person to discuss the material and participate in labs and projects. LSU might also contribute MOOCs in areas where it excels, such as civil engineering or petrochemicals. As funding becomes scarce for universities nationwide, it doesn't make sense for every university to try to replicate top-level expertise in every academic area, Isaacson says. He made his remarks by phone at today's meeting of the LSU Transition Advisory Team. The LSU Board of Supervisors will hear a...
Moving on
Speaking out carried a high price for Ivor van Heerden. And, as it turns out, fighting him unsuccessfully carried a high price for LSU.
A big deal
Rick Koubek, dean of the LSU College of Engineering, is a little embarrassed to call IBM's decision to put a regional software development center in Baton Rouge a “game changer.” The phrase has become a Capital Region cliché since the deal was announced March 27, even showing up on the cover of this magazine.
Craig Gehring
Craig Gehring never went to college, but he has helped many others achieve their higher ed dreams since 2003, his junior year in high school, when he received perfect scores on the ACT and the SAT.
RSD to outline Baton Rouge Achievement Zone vision at series of meetings
The Recovery School District says it will share plans for its direct-run schools in the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone during a series of upcoming parent meetings beginning Wednesday. Led by RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard, the meetings will cover "the organization's strategies to create high-quality school options," according to a release. Parents are also encouraged to provide feedback on priorities for transforming their students' schools. "The RSD is not here to make changes to community; we are here to make changes with community; this will lead to successful transformation of public schools in the parish," Dobard says in a prepared statement. There are seven RSD direct-run schools in the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone. Meetings will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at each of them on the following dates: Dalton Elementary, Wednesday, April 17; Lanier Elementary, Thursday, April 18; Glen Oaks Middle, Wednesday, April 24; Crestworth Middle, Thursday, April 25; Capitol High, Wednesday,...
La. high school graduation rate rises to all-time high
Louisiana's graduation rate has risen for the second straight year, to an all-time high of 72.3% among students finishing in four years, state officials announced today. Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White made the announcement at Dutchtown High School in Geismar, where the graduation rate has increased by 4.5 points to 94%, which is more than 20 percentage points above the state average. This year's rate is a 0.9 percentage point increase over last year. Over the past decade, officials say, the graduation rate has increased by 10 percentage points. More details on today's announcement can be found at the Department of Education website here.
Truman Scholarships going to two LSU students
Two LSU juniors have been selected as 2013 Truman Scholars, making the school one of only eight in the nation to have multiple winners this year. Catherine Fontenot and Matthew Landrieu, the son of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, will receive up to $30,000 for graduate study. Truman Scholars are required to work in public service for three of the seven years following completion of a foundation-funded graduate degree program as a condition for receiving Truman funds. "It speaks volumes for the quality and hard work of our students, faculty and staff that two LSU students were honored this year," says William Jenkins, interim LSU System president and chancellor. Fontenot, an LSU Honors College student and biological sciences major in the College of Science, plans to pursue Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health degrees, with concentrations in internal medicine and infectious disease/global health, through Harvard Medical School after she graduates in May 2014. Landrieu, an...
DOE to push for career education partnerships
Louisiana's career education system essentially is failing both students and employers, says state education Superintendent John White. He says only 170 high school seniors are on track to graduate with a career diploma this year, and those graduates may not be ready to step into high-demand, high-paying jobs in areas such as manufacturing, construction and health care. Cash-strapped high schools are expected to provide career classes, and nearly 70% of industry-based certificates state high schools award prepare students for little more than call center or retail jobs, White says. A better idea, he says, is to let higher education, industry, and public schools partner in regional consortiums, sharing ideas, funding and facilities, to design two-year, career-prep curriculums that ensure graduates are qualified for jobs needed in their regions. "We can take those last two years of high school, and we can make them purely technical," White says. Accountability standards should be...
LSU professors get grant for 'fracking' lab
A pair of LSU professors have received grant funding to establish a first-of-its-kind lab at the university that simulates hydraulic fracturing—a technique for oil and gas drilling better known as "fracking." Juan Lorenzo, associate professor of geology and geophysics, and Arash Dahi Taleghani, assistant professor of petroleum engineering, received the nationally competitive grant from the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America. The new fracking lab on campus will allow the duo to control all of the variables in the process and test hypotheses to understand how and why rocks break in a particular way during the fracking process. Over the next two years, the Gas Technology Institute in Chicago will head a team of experts from LSU, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, and the private sector to develop advanced methods and techniques for the design and execution of environmentally safe and economically efficient fracking. The...
BRCC chancellor calls for merger with CATC
Merging Baton Rouge Community College with four campuses of Capital Area Technical College would allow the system to better react to economic development and workforce needs, says Andrea Lewis Miller, chancellor at BRCC. "A unified system allows for the allocation of resources to accommodate for the changes and needs identified by businesses and industry," she says, in a statement released by BRAC, which pledges to support the move. Senate Bill 45 by Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, a Baton Rouge Democrat, would unify BRCC with the Baton Rouge, Folkes, Jumonville, and Westside campuses of CATC. BRAC says the unification will create a funding stream for higher-cost career and technical education programs by enabling BRCC to move revenue over from lower-cost programs, and adds the merger will be a step in furthering the efforts of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System to respond to the state's continuing need for industrial construction and skilled craft labor. "The Baton Rouge...
'225': The rise of education alternatives in B.R.
Many area public schools aren't performing up to par. In 2012, the state issued a D or F grade to 62% of public schools in East Baton Rouge Parish. Another 26% received a C. Those grades don't lie, reports Lauren Brown for the cover story of the new issue of 225 magazine. Brown talks to education leaders about what changes need to be made in the public school system to get more schools above failing or below average levels. Chas Roemer, the Baton Rouge-based president of BESE, says Baton Rouge should be the nation's leader in the idea that public education means more than government-run schools. "We need to change the phrase 'public education' to 'educating the public,'" he says. "The trend will be and should be that we will be a community that embraces educational excellence, and the source of that education will be across multiple providers, rather just a traditional system." Read the complete story
School tax renewals before B.R. voters Saturday
A pair of 10-year property tax renewals before some voters in East Baton Rouge Parish on Saturday would collectively account for approximately $42 million annually for the local public school system—or about 10% of its total yearly budget—according to school system spokesperson Susan Nelson.
School tax renewals before B.R. voters Saturday
A pair of 10-year property tax renewals before some voters in East Baton Rouge Parish on Saturday would collectively account for about $42 million annually for the local public school system—or roughly 10% of its total yearly budget—according to school system spokesperson Susan Nelson. One of the renewals, at 6.5 mills, would support general operations for the district that includes 85 school sites and nearly 43,000 students. The other, at 7.19 mills, would go toward employee salaries and benefits. Nelson says the renewals are vital to the continued progress of the school system. "Obviously, that's a lot of money, and it would have a very significant impact on us" if the renewals are not passed, she says. An informational flyer the school system has distributed about the tax renewals says failure to pass them "will result in layoffs and reductions in services." Specifically, the flyer says services "such as transportation for Catholic School students, after-school...
Higher education chief troubled by Jindal budget
Louisiana's higher education commissioner says the governor's budget would leave colleges uncertain of their funding levels next year and create cash flow problems at schools. Commissioner Jim Purcell told the House Appropriations Committee today that he's troubled by Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget recommendation. Jindal's spending plan would plug $490 million in patchwork funding into colleges—dollars that are tied to leases, property sales, legal settlements and legislation that has not passed. If the dollars don't show up, higher education would take a 19% cut. Purcell says he'd like to see the risk spread out among state agencies, rather than concentrated in higher education. Barry Dusse, director of the governor's Office of Planning and Budget, says the Jindal administration is confident the dollars will show up for spending.
BRAC backs more autonomy for higher education on tuition, fees
A day after announcing its support for the re-enactment of teacher tenure reform, BRAC this morning announced that it will also back a legislative push this session to give more autonomy to higher education management boards when it comes to controlling tuition and fees. "It takes talent to breed talent, and it is critical for our higher education institutions to have the funding and latitude necessary to attract and retain talent among their ranks,” says BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp in a prepared statement. “The research BRAC has done shows that LSU and higher education overall remains underfunded with respect to self-generated revenues from tuition and fees, which exacerbates state funding reductions." According to BRAC, Louisiana is still the only state in which the state legislature has final authority over tuition and fees,...
BRAC backs teacher tenure reform re-enactment
BRAC announced today its support for the re-enactment of teacher tenure reform. Last year's Act 1 was ruled unconstitutional by 19th Judicial District Court Judge R. Michael Caldwell last month. Attorneys for the state are appealing Caldwell's ruling to the Louisiana Supreme Court. The law makes it harder for teachers to earn and retain tenure. This year, the various parts of Act 1 are being divided into multiple bills with the goal of passing constitutional muster. "The organization feels that this piece of legislation in crucial to the success of the K-12 education system, in addition to the reforms already in place," BRAC says in a news release. BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp says the legislation will "help ensure that all of the students in our region, and around the state, have access to the best and most effective educators." The Capital Region is currently home to five of the top 10 school districts in the state, BRAC says, and four of the seven A-graded districts in the state.
Objections raised to school funding formula change
The House budget committee chairman is unhappy that next year's proposed public school funding formula strips a requirement for how much money must be spent in the classroom. Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin says lawmakers pressed for the mandate in the annual multibillion-dollar formula that 70% of the funding pay for instructional items at the "school building level." Superintendent of Education John White says the requirement was removed from the proposed 2013-14 formula because of legislative concerns that the formula should be a mathematical divvying of dollars, but not dictate policy decisions. Fannin says he believes lawmakers will disagree with the removal of the instructional requirement. The discussion was part of today's budget hearing for the Department of Education, as the Appropriations Committee combs through next year's spending proposals.
'The Real-Life Experience' at BRG Wednesday
Baton Rouge Gallery will celebrate the area's young artists and arts education with the First Wednesday opening of "The Real-Life Experience." This exhibit shows off the young talent of Baton Rouge as more than 40 works of original art from East Baton Rouge Parish public and private high school students will be on display. Award-winning works will be announced at the Wednesday night reception, with more than $1,400 in scholarships and prizes awarded to the students. The event starts at 7 p.m. and is free. If you cannot make Wednesday's reception, the exhibit will be on display through April 25 at the gallery. For more information, click here.
Teacher union bracing for battle over dues collection
One of Louisiana's largest teacher unions is vowing to fight legislation it says is aimed at weakening their ranks. The proposed legislation—which would end the practice of union dues being automatically deducted from the paychecks of public employees who voluntarily sign up for membership—was filed last week by Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport. Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, says the measure is simply an effort by a "small elite group of individuals" who want to "shut down the one line of resistance" to its own agenda. Louisiana is a right-to-work state and union membership is voluntary. "We're not going to take that lying down," Monaghan says. "We are going to fight and hopefully the process will end as it should end, with that bill being defeated and we don't end up in another situation where we're having to litigate and having to seek the protection and comfort of the court." Monaghan says LFT was "put on notice" by LABI that the...
LSU, state spent nearly $1M defending van Heerden case
LSU and the state of Louisiana spent just less than $1 million defending its decision to fire former Hurricane Center deputy director Ivor van Heerden. Documents obtained today by Levees.org indicate the university paid the Baton Rouge law firm of Kantrow Spaht Weaver & Blitzer more than $457,000 over two and a half years to handle the case. That's on top of the $435,000 settlement the Louisiana Office of Risk Management paid to van Heerden last month. Levees.org notes the $892,000 total doesn't include any amounts LSU paid its own staff to comply with court orders, respond to subpoenas and appear for depositions. Van Heerden alleges he was fired for statements in his post-Katrina levee failure investigation funded by the Louisiana Department of Transportation, namely that the Army Corps of Engineers' faulty levees caused the flooding during Katrina. The Association of American University Professors censured the university in 2011 for firing van Heerden. "LSU has chosen to hound a...
A burst bubble
Justin Mannino, a third-year law student, is satisfied with his career choice. The student bar association president at LSU Law Center says, “Lawyers, more than a lot of professionals, are afforded the opportunity to think freely, which is a very important [career] aspect for me.”
The new face of the flagship
When F. King Alexander arrived to lead California State University Long Beach in 2005, his outreach to the business community was extensive and enthusiastic, says Randy Gordon, president/CEO of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
Pension limbo
In Louisiana, government workers aren't the only ones collecting a government pension.
Student newspaper editor sues LSU board
Andrea Gallo, editor-in-chief of The Daily Reveille, filed suit today against the LSU Board of Supervisors. At issue is the board's refusal to release information about the candidates who applied to be LSU's next system president/flagship chancellor, other than eventual selection F. King Alexander. The suit says "LSU's duty to search for a president was effectively delegated to a private company to avoid the public scrutiny at the heart of the Louisiana Public Records Law," and argues "the fact that otherwise public records are in the hands of a private entity does not make the records less public or less covered by the Public Records Law." The board has argued that a public search might have kept well-qualified candidates from applying.
The best policy
A year ago this month, 225 published a cover story about bullying in Baton Rouge. Now, local middle-school children are learning about the motives, effects and consequences of bullying thanks to a new anti-bullying campaign called To Be Honest. Five LSU seniors launched the campaign earlier this year.
A lesson in trying
There's a certain level of horror that sinks in when you realize you've just interrupted a student's prayer; a shock that goes far beyond the awkwardness of disrupting, say, a teacher's soliloquy on long division.
Thinking for a change
If you fall asleep in class, your teacher might swat you with a ruler. Or give you detention. Or even pull a prank on you. Nancy Zito turns off the lights.
Survive, then Thrive
The walls no longer beige, the halls no longer quiet, and the dorms of the former Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired no longer empty, Thrive BR is doing just what its name promises—growing, learning, improving.
The great divide
1. The schools in the proposed “breakaway” district, coined Southeast Baton Rouge Community School System, are a mixture of high-performing and low-performing schools. Local Schools for Local Children, the main advocacy group for the proposed school district, believes moving away from the EBRP School System is a vital step in raising the scores of low-performing schools.
EBR, RSD near agreement, but tensions remain
The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board next month could approve an agreement with the Recovery School District that would chart a path for struggling schools in the parish. EBR spokeswoman Susan Nelson says talks between the two sides have been constructive. Under the agreement, both groups would sign off on charter operators for seven RSD-run schools, using a common, independent evaluator for charter applications. How such an arrangement will work in practice remains to be seen, since EBR sees charter schools as complementary to the system, while the RSD wants to charter all of its schools. RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard says there's "mutual respect" between the two sides, despite the different philosophies. "I'm always working to try to find areas where we can coexist, [while] mindful of why RSD is here," he says. "It's because schools have been academically unacceptable." School Board Vice President Tarvald Smith touts improvements made by charter schools run by Community...
Voucher applications up from last year
Louisiana education officials say the state has received nearly 12,000 applications for state-funded private school tuition. That's up from about 10,000 last year—the first year that the tuition voucher program went statewide after being piloted in New Orleans. As The Associated Press reports, the increased interest comes despite a judge's ruling that the voucher program as it is currently funded violates the state constitution. A state Supreme Court ruling in that case is pending. The taxpayer-financed tuition at private and parochial schools is available to students from low- to moderate-income families who otherwise would attend public schools graded with a C, D or F by the state. Priority is given to students in D- and F-rated schools. Officials say 129 schools likely will participate in the program, up from 118 last year.
New LSU president says he's ready for challenges
LSU System President-elect F. King Alexander says he's prepared to work with university and community leaders to usher LSU through "a very difficult and challenging time in American higher education." Alexander, who was selected today by a unanimous vote of the LSU Board of Supervisors, is expected to take office on or before July 1. Alexander says he intends to work with faculty, staff, students, alumni and government officials to "make sure that we've got the strongest LSU possible in the decades to come." Alexander also will be the chancellor of the flagship Baton Rouge campus, holding the title of President of LSU, pending compliance with accreditation standards. Alexander has said higher education leaders have a "moral obligation" to improve graduation rates, and that this goal can be accomplished without watering down standards. Kevin Cope, president of LSU's faculty senate, has criticized the selection of Alexander, claiming he does not have adequate experience to lead a major...
LSU picks next leader
The LSU Board of Supervisors made it official today, voting unanimously to hire F. King Alexander as the next system president. Alexander also will be the chancellor of the flagship Baton Rouge campus, holding the title of President of LSU, pending compliance with accreditation standards. During his brief remarks today, he acknowledged that higher education is facing difficult times, but said he's optimistic about tackling the challenges. "This is an opportunity to redefine and renew what a true comprehensive land grant, sea grant, space grant university can mean to this state and to the region and to the nation," he said in a press briefing last week. Alexander has said higher education leaders have a "moral obligation" to improve graduation rates, and that this goal can be accomplished without watering down standards. He has been president of California State University Long Beach since 2005; prior to that, he led Murray State University in Kentucky. He was born in Louisville, Ky.,...
Bill filed to allow voters to elect state education superintendent
Voters should have the power to choose the state's chief educator, according to state Sen. Bob Kostelka. The Times-Picayune reports the Monroe Republican filed a bill last week calling for a constitutional amendment that would require the statewide election of the education superintendent. "[Senate Bill 41] is simply to give the people a choice of whether or not they want to elect their superintendent of education," Kostelka says. The bill will be considered in the legislative session that begins April 8. He notes it is particularly important to leave the choice to voters since so much of the state's budget—over 40% of the general fund—goes to the Department of Education. The department has been headed by Superintendent John White since his appointment in January 2012. Under current law, the superintendent of education is appointed by BESE, and then approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature. Kostelka's bill, if passed by two-thirds of both...
State looks to avoid past mistakes with charter school operators
When Louisiana considers its next batch of charter school operators, the state will be able to draw upon lessons learned from prior experience, Recovery School District officials say. They say unsuccessful charter operators, such as Advance Baton Rouge, often didn't have enough time to prepare for launching a new school. Some were unable to create a disciplined student culture, didn't set academic expectations high enough, or didn't have the right leadership. RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard says that as the district looks for "high-quality charter operators" for Baton Rouge schools currently run by the state, or even for new schools, it will be "looking for a fit" for each community. "As that process is going on, we want to be able to give voice to communities," he says. "We want to take away the fear of the RSD." Dobard also says the district is looking for operators with "a proven track record of success." New Schools for Baton Rouge, a recently formed nonprofit, is helping...
LSU presidential finalist on tuition hikes: 'Not unless we have to'
Public universities nationwide are dealing with state funding cuts, meaning that schools are more dependent on tuition and other self-generated revenue. Louisiana is no exception, and higher education officials want more control over their tuition rates. Into this environment comes F. King Alexander, president of California State University Long Beach and likely the next LSU president. Access to public education for low- and moderate-income students is a priority for Alexander, but he says he doesn't know enough yet about the finances of LSU's campuses to say whether tuition hikes are needed. "I've always said: Not unless we have to," he says. CSULB recently raised tuition and fees $1,800, he says. He notes the federal government is spending more on higher education as states are spending less. Under President Barack Obama, a tax credit program for tuition and related expenses has been increased from $1,000 to $2,500, and it's being made available to families making as much as...
Lobdell land bought for new charter school
A Minnesota-based developer has purchased a 52,000-square-foot office building on Lobdell Avenue for $1.3 million, and has plans to turn it into a charter school. Ryan Companies US Inc. purchased the building at 1900 N. Lobdell Ave. on Monday and will renovate the building for Charter Schools USA, which plans to house a new school on the 6-acre campus, says Steve Legendre of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate, who represented Ryan in the deal. Jonathan Starns of Donnie Jarreau Real Estate represented the seller, Educational Management Services. The previous tenants at the property, which include Baton Rouge College, have been relocated, Legendre says. Charter Schools USA is taking applications for students in grades K-6 and plans to open the Baton Rouge Charter Academy at Mid City in August, according to the group's website. The site says the school will teach kindergarten through sixth-grade students during the 2013-14 school year, with seventh- and eighth-grade classes to be added "in...
LSU presidential choice used to dealing with politics
Louisiana's practice of requiring a two-thirds vote by the Legislature before raising tuition is "quite interesting," says F. King Alexander, the California State University Long Beach president who hopes to lead LSU. In California, the Legislature needs the same margin to pass any budget, which Alexander says basically guaranteed that his university wouldn't have a working budget at the beginning of each of the last four fiscal years. Alexander says Louisiana higher ed leaders are dealing with the uncertainty of having much of their state funding based on contingencies that may not materialize. "We've always had that in California," says Alexander, after visiting LSU today and meeting with officials for the first time since being named the lone finalist to be president of the LSU System and Baton Rouge campus on Friday. "We've had as many as seven budgetary scenarios going into one year." He says CSULB went from 44% of its budget being funded by the state to 23%, adding that he...
News alert: EBR Schools pulls plug on RFP
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System has rescinded the RFP it issued earlier this week for a nearly $300,000 advertising and marketing campaign. As Daily Report reported this morning, the system was seeking proposals from 11 area agencies to, "…develop a comprehensive community campaign to increase support for EBR Schools." In an email late this afternoon, Susan Nelson, interim director for communications for EBRSS, says the RFP has since been rescinded, "… on the advice of counsel who wants the RFP release to go before the (school) board." Nelson says she does not know if or when another RFP will be issued. —Stephanie Riegel
School board considers turning Mayfair Middle into elementary lab school
The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board will take up a proposal Thursday to begin planning for the conversion of Mayfair Middle School into an elementary school modeled after the LSU Laboratory School. "Basically, we'll be trying to replicate that program," says school system spokeswoman Susan Nelson. The agenda item calls for spending an estimated $190,000 to begin planning for the conversion to an elementary and lab school, which Nelson says would entail working with LSU Laboratory School officials to "use their methodology and have some of their teachers train our teachers." If approved, the conversion to an elementary lab school would take place in August. Mayfair Middle School currently serves students in grades 6 through 8. After the change, the school would likely educate those in kindergarten through fifth grade, but Nelson says the specifics of the transformation have yet to be finalized. Baton Rouge currently has two laboratory schools, one at LSU and one at Southern...
LSU faculty senate votes 'no confidence' in board
LSU's faculty leaders say they have no faith in the university system's governing board to make wise decisions, and they question the credentials of the contender to be system president. LSU faculty senate President Kevin Cope says that the group approved a "vote of no confidence" in the LSU Board of Supervisors today. The vote comes as the board brings its contender for the president and chancellor's job to Baton Rouge this week: F. King Alexander, president of California State University Long Beach. Among faculty complaints is the closed-door handling of the presidential search. The faculty senate also questions the recommendation that Alexander should be president, noting he's never been a tenured full professor at a major research university and that graduation rates at his university are lower than those at LSU. However, LSU Board of Supervisors member Blake Chatelain, who chaired the presidential search committee,
La. higher education leader seeking new tuition increases
Louisiana's top higher education official says the state's investment in public colleges has sunk to its lowest level in more than 50 years, when compared to income levels, and he's pushing for new tuition increases to offset some of the loss. Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell says more money is needed on campuses to train workers to fill in-demand jobs across the state. "Even though we are making progress, we're not meeting the human capital needs," Purcell said on Tuesday, in advance of a presentation he'll be making to the Board of Regents about higher education funding and a push to ask lawmakers to change state tuition policy. Purcell is asking lawmakers for more tuition-setting autonomy for college management boards, saying schools need the ability to charge higher tuition and fee rates for specialized and higher-cost programs, like engineering, advanced technology fields and nursing. He notes the number of high-profile job announcements made by Gov. Bobby Jindal's...
EBR school system solicits bids for advertising, PR campaign
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System is seeking proposals from 11 local and regional advertising agencies for a nearly $300,000 marketing and public relations campaign that will seek to rebrand the public school system. According to the RFP, which was issued this week, "The goal is to develop a comprehensive community campaign to increase support for EBR Schools throughout the business community and to encourage more families to select EBR Schools as their schools of choice." The RFP also says the district has $68,000 to spend on procuring professional services for the campaign and $217,000 for media buys, ad placement, printing and production costs. All the money, which was included in the 2012-13 budget, must be allocated for the campaign by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. That's a tight window for such a massive campaign, according to some local agency execs interested in getting the work. But Susan Nelson, the system's new interim executive director for...