By MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / May 22, 1999

RESERVE – The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board put the finaltouches on new superintendent Chris Donaldson’s contract while bidding a fond farewell to outgoing superintendent Cleveland Farlough at its meeting Thursday night.

The board’s executive committee met with Donaldson recently and agreed upon basically the same contract that Farlough was working with. The onlydifference is that Donaldson opted to allocated 15.2 percent to an annuityinstead of a retirement program as Farlough did. Donaldson also did notopt to go back to his previous tenured position when the contract ends.

The board approved the contract unanimously.

Earlier in the meeting, Farlough officially announced his retirement effective June 30.

“He certainly made my job more pleasurable, and I couldn’t have worked with a finer gentleman than Mr. Farlough,” board president Richard DeLongsaid. “Words could not express my true feelings for the man and what hehas done for the school system. I am a much better person for having methim.”In other business, the board approved a request by East St. John HighSchool for video cameras and a sound system. Principal Debra Schum hadrequested four internal and four external cameras for security purposes.

The cost of the leasing of the cameras is $4,000 a year, and the sound system had a purchasing cost of $2,600. The request was approvedunanimously.

The board also unanimously approved a request by East St. John High toimplement a mandatory school uniform policy for the 1999-2000 school year. Surveys were distributed with 98 percent of parents attending openhouses, 91 percent of parents responding to a survey sent home by students, 98 percent of the Student Council, 60 percent of the student body and 98 percent of the faculty and staff in favor of uniforms. Schumpresented a video with students modeling the new uniforms.

In addition, the board approved a request by the Glade School to implement the HOSTS mentoring program at the school. The school becomes the firstin the parish to implement the national mentoring program.

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