LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / November 21, 1999

LULING – Dr. Rodney Lafon, superintendent of St. Charles Public Schools,got a vote of confidence Wednesday with a raise and four-year extension of his employment contract.

With only board president Ronald St. Pierre of Norco absent, Lafon wasvoted a contract extension to 2003, along with a 5 percent, or $4,391.40,raise to his current salary of $87,828.

Also, the board voted to establish a rabbi trust annuity, which will place $10,000 per year through 2002 into a “retirement” account, unavailable to Lafon until his departure from employment.

Lafon began as superintendent on April 1, 1995.

The school board also accepted the low bid of $266,818 from Crown Roofing Services for the roof repair and replacement at Norco Elementary.

The school sustained heavy roof damage during a tornado last spring. Witha change order likewise approved by the board, the project cost was slashed to $181,888, which brings the entire project in line with the insurance settlement received by the board.

Also, the school board accepted a bid of $431,800 to build Junior ROTC buildings at Hahnville and Destrehan high schools. The bid was $1,800 overbudget, but the difference will be made up from the total budget for the project, which was $475,000.

In other business, Hurst Middle School teacher Barry Guillot was recognized for earning $4,925 for his LaBranche Wetlands Watchers project, and Hahnville High School teacher Lloyd Sensat was recognized for being selected as the Louisiana Southeast Regional Art Educator of the Year 2000.

The school board also heard good news on student achievement test results from Rachel Allemand, Felicia Gomez and Rusty Walker, who reviewed results and trends on the LEAP, GEE and IOWA tests and the ACT.

For more than 12 years, the school system has used these test results as data to support goals in their long-range strategic action plan.

The LEAP test, which reviews mastery of taught curriculum, has five rankings which are used to compare St. Charles Parish with schoolsstatewide, including charter schools. The results are graded advanced,proficient, basic, approaching basic and unsatisfactory.

The latest fourth-grade mathematics results show the parish’s students with 2 percent advanced, 15 percent proficient, 44 percent basic, 22 percent approaching basic and 18 percent unsatisfactory. Statewide, 2percent were advanced, 8 percent proficient, 32 percent basic, 24 percent approaching basic and 35 percent unsatisfactory. Charter schools had nonescoring advanced or proficient, 14 percent basic, 24 percent approaching basic and 62 percent unsatisfactory.

The latest fourth-grade language results show the parish’s students with 4 percent advanced, 26 percent proficient, 46 percent basic, 17 percent approaching basic and 17 percent unsatisfactory. To compare withstatewide, 1 percent were advanced, 15 percent proficient, 39 percent basic, 21 percent approaching basic and 21 percent unsatisfactory.

Charter schools had none scoring advanced, 2 percent proficient, 36 percent basic, 28 percent approaching basic and 34 percent unsatisfactory.

The latest eighth-grade mathematics results show the parish’s students with 6 percent advanced, 12 percent proficient, 42 percent basic, 19 percent approaching basic and 21 percent unsatisfactory. To compare withstatewide, 1 percent were advanced, 4 percent proficient, 33 percent basic, 21 percent approaching basic and 40 percent unsatisfactory.

Charter schools had none scoring advanced, 1 percent proficient, 32 percent basic, 26 percent approaching basic and 41 percent unsatisfactory.

The latest eighth-grade language results show the parish’s students with 4 percent advanced, 21 percent proficient, 38 percent basic, 28 percent approaching basic and 9 percent unsatisfactory. To compare withstatewide, 1 percent were advanced, 11 percent proficient, 31 percent basic, 36 percent approaching basic and 21 percent unsatisfactory.

Charter schools had none scoring advanced, 3 percent proficient, 32 percent basic, 36 percent approaching basic and 30 percent unsatisfactory.

Overall, St. Charles Parish’s fourth-grade language arts students weresecond highest in Louisiana of advanced students, third highest scoring proficient and the second-lowest number scoring unsatisfactory.

The parish’s fourth-grade math students were 11th-highest of advanced, third highest of proficient and fourth lowest of unsatisfactory.

St. Charles Parish’s eighth-grade students had the most number ofadvanced language arts students, second highest of proficient and fifth lowest of unsatisfactory-scoring students.

The parish’s eighth grade math students had the top number of advanced and proficient and eighth-lowest of unsatisfactory-scoring students.

Walker reviewed the Graduate Exit Exam results administered to 10th nd 11th grade students.

Tenth-graders were tested on English, writing and mathematics. Localstudents scored in the 90th percentile in English, 88 in writing and 99 in math. Statewide, students scored 83 in English, 74 in writing and 93 inmath.

Eleventh-graders were tested on science and social studies. Localstudents scored in the 85th percentile in science and 93 in social studies.

Statewide, students socred 80 in science and 88 in social studies.

Felecia Gomez first reviewed the IOWA test results from grades two, three, five, six, seven and nine, comparing with national norms.

Local second-graders scored at 68 percentile, while national was 50.

Grade three scored 61, national was 50 and state was 45 percentile.

Fifth graders locally scored 56 percentile, national was 50 and state was 44.

Sixth graders locally scored at 56 percentile, national was 50 and statewide was 45. Seventh graders here scored at 55 percentile, withnational at 56 and state at 44. Eighth graders in St. Charles scored at 55percentile, with national at 50 and statewide at 44.

Walker added that the ACT, or American College Test, followed the trend, with average national scores at 21, statewide average at 19.6 and St.Charles Parish at 20.1.During the past several years, St. Charles averages have edged up annually,with 19.5 during 1995-96, 19.8 during 1996-97, 19.9 during 1997-98 and20.1 during 1998-99.Students who have completed the core curriculum, taking the test at an earlier grade level, likewise scored better on the ACT. Destrehan Highstudents averaged 17.9 without the full core curriculum and 21.1 with thecore curriculum. Hahnville High students averaged 16.4 without the fullcurriculum and averaged 21.5 with the core curriculum.

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