A special meeting of the Lincoln Parish School Board has been called for tomorrow, Thursday, January 19, 6:00 PM, Central Office, 410 South Farmerville Street.
There is but one agenda item, “Consider Lincoln Preparatory Connections Academy Application.”
The Lincoln Parish School Board on Tuesday night voted unanimously to waive collection of ad valorem taxes on real property for 20 years on a proposed Buc-ee’s Travel Center at the I-20/Tarbutton Road exit.
District Superintendent Ricky Durrett said the exemption would be for 20 years, and was for property taxes only, and that sales taxes would be collected.
Said Durrett, “We had thought first about a sales tax, but we were not able to do that, due to the fact that our sales taxes collections – rebating them would have a very adverse effect on our minimum foundation, which is our main funding per pupil for the parish.”
Durrett noted that the property, which is now vacant, only collects about $68/year.
It should be noted that once the business is constructed and operating, the property value will increase significantly.
On hand were Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker and Buc-ee’s rep Stan Beard.
Earlier in the meeting, several awards were given to students, teachers and principals.
Students of the Year
Teachers of the Year
Principals of the Year
New Teacher of the Year (This is a new category)
A memo this afternoon sent to Lincoln Parish School Board members reveals some details of a proposed tax break contemplated for a Buc-ee’s Travel Center that may soon be constructed at the Tarbutton Road exit. The issue is on the agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting of the Lincoln Parish School Board at 6:00 PM, Central Office, 410 South Farmerville Street. Here is the agenda.
Lincoln Parish School District scores have improved overall from last year, it was reported at last night’s meeting of the school board.
Chief Academic Officer Dana Talley said that Choudrant High School and Simsboro High School scores declined just slightly from last year, but she was optimistic about 2023 scores, based on progress so far this year.
“So we essentially had the majority of our schools improve, and we had a couple of schools that declined a little bit” she said. “Hillcrest and Glenview are now both B schools when prior to that they were C schools. I’m feeling better about this year even than I did last year, in terms of results in student work,” she added
See here the complete report.
The personnel report showed less than a dozen staff changes.
See here the report.
District Superintendent Ricky Durrett remarked about this Friday’s state championship game where Ruston High’s Bearcats will play Destrehan in the Superdome.
“We are celebrating all week Ruston High School playing in the state championship game Friday night. Kids getting to play in the Superdome is quite an honor and a real memory that they’ll have for a long time,” he said.
The Lincoln Parish School Board will meet tonight, (Tuesday, 12/6/22) 5:30 P. M., Central Office, 410 South Famerville Street.
Here is the agenda.
Video cameras will soon be installed in all Lincoln Parish Schoolrooms, District Superintendent Ricky Durrett told last night’s meeting of the Lincoln Parish School Board.
Said Durrett, “Our stimulus plan with cameras, we’re finally ready with that. Provision Security of Ruston is going to do that for us, and we are starting at I. A. Lewis and then Choudrant High School.”
He added, “Eventually over the next year we get will get all of the schools done and have cameras in all the schools and every classroom. That is all stimulus money that we use for that.”
The board approved a new policy for video monitoring
Much of the meeting was devoted to upcoming changes to group insurance coverage for district employees.
Long-time district insurance consultant David Charpentier told the board that the coverage will stay with Blue Cross and that overall it was a good renewal with a cost of living increase in administrative costs only.
See here the report.
Also presented was the monthly personnel report.
The Lincoln Parish School Board will meet tonight (Tuesday, November 1), 6:00 PM, Central Office, 410 South Farmerville Street.
Here is the agenda.
Reading proficiency for kindergarten through second grade has improved markedly from the fall of 2021, English Language Arts Facilitator Michelle Thrower told last night’s meeting of the Lincoln Parish School Board.
At the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, only 38% of students were proficient for their grade level, while 34% were a year behind, and 27% were more than a year behind in proficiency.
Said Thrower, “We’ve got to get kids reading at proficient levels by the end of the year. We set a goal that we wanted our proficiency rate to increase to 80%. We did get pretty close – so we did get our proficiency rate up to 73.5%.”
She added that the goal was to get that number up to 80% by the end of this school year and 95% by 2026.
Lincoln Schools uses the American Reading Company curriculum, Thrower said.
In other business, the board heard the monthly personnel report and approved the November salary supplement checks. Employees with a current teaching certificate will receive $3,200 and all other employees will be paid $1,600.
The Lincoln Parish School Board will meet Tuesday, October 4, 6:00 PM, Central Office, 410 South Farmerville Street.
Here’s the agenda.
The Lincoln Parish School Board last night adopted the district’s budget for fiscal year 7/1/22 through 6/30/23. Total projected revenues are estimated to be about $108 million with expenditures estimated at about $97 million.
See here the budget summary.
About 75% of the expenditures are for personnel salary and benefits.
The revenues and expenditures are about 10% greater than that of 2021-2022.
District Business Manager Juanita Duke told the board that there would be a surplus at the end of the year.
Said Duke, “So the total of all funds combined we’re estimating projected ending fund balance of $51.2 million as of the end of June, 2023.”
Doris Lewis reported on personnel changes, which was somewhat lengthy. This is normal during summer break, with reassignments, promotions, and retirements.
District Chief Academic Officer Dana Talley gave an extensive report on math and english proficiency statistics, focusing on changes since 2019, prior to the covid school shutdowns.
English proficiency has actually increased slightly, according to the index.
See here the tabulations.
Algebra proficiency is relatively steady, but geometry scores have declined significantly.
See here the tabulations.
Said Talley, “With a lot of the kids who are scoring unsatisfactorily, we’re having issues with attendance and potentially discipline.”
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