DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / February 11, 2000

LUTCHER – Only a few minutes into the St. James School Board meetingTuesday, things were off and running.

As the board was preparing to approve bills and invoices recommended by the finance committee, concerned members of the community stood up to question the efficiency of the committee’s members.

Jackie Levy and Assata Olugbala asked why receipts that took them hours to look through were accepted by the council in a matter of minutes. Levypointed out numerous errors in the paperwork, noting receipts by former employee’s, late charges, bills with no question of validity and others problematic receipts.

Levy asked what’s the use of a finance committee if members have inaccurate and inadequate methods of handling matters. She pointed outthat one employee had requested reimbursement for a conference that had been attended, when the conference had nothing to do with education.

Levy and Olugbala called upon the committee to examine the expenses better.

In another matter, members of the LHSAA Academic All-State Football and Volleyball teams were honored by Superintendent Ed Cancienne and their respective district representatives. St. James High School was also honoredfor receiving the Silver Performance Award from the Southern Region Education Board. Out of six schools, St. James High was awarded for showingsignificant advancement in studies, said Cancienne.

Also, Rhonda Lee and Sonny Zerinque, technology coordinators, briefed the board on the assessment of existing computer technology in the schools.

They presented the current status of the school’s computers and what was being done and needed to be done to improve conditions. Many of thecomputers are simply out of date and need to be replaced, said Lee.

A plan had been devised for the advancement of computer technology in the schools, and some of the steps are already on their way to completion.

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