By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

EDGARD – St. John the Baptist Parish’s newest superintendent announced a set of community meet and greets during the school board’s regular meeting Thursday evening at East St. John Elementary School.
George said his first order of business in his position is to connect with the community and learn as much about the district as possible because the people that make up the district have a better idea what its strengths and challenges are.
The first meeting will take place on Monday, July 22, at New Wine Multipurpose Center from 6 to 7 p.m.; the second meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, from 6 to 7 p.m. at West St. John High School’s cafeteria.
“My plans are to meet with every single board member, every single central office member, every single principal, individually. I think by speaking with these individuals, I’m going to grow my knowledge. I don’t know St.
John Parish like they do, so I’m going to lean on them to build a portfolio of what needs to happen in the district,” he said in a recent interview.
George also plans
to hold an administrative institute for all principals and district administrators from July 30 to Aug. 1 at the LaPlace Elementary library.
A point of contention during the meeting was the wording of a clause concerning pranks in the 2013-14 Student Code of Conduct and Attendance Handbook. Board member Albert Burl made an amendment to a motion requesting approval of the standard handbook, which included a paragraph stating that students involved in pranks where vandalism or theft of school and/or private property occurs shall be disciplined according to the code of conduct.
The clause went on to say that immediate consequences may restrict participation in school related activities, including commencement ceremonies. Using the recent vandalism incident as an example, Burl argued that the “may” left the school board open to dealing with complexities that could be handled with a simple rule. Burl proposed that they change the word to “will” to make the consequences more definite.
“All I want to do is change one word. The reason why I wanted to change the wording is because there are still loopholes where some people can slide in and be eligible to walk and some people won’t. A senior doing this type of behavior isn’t even ready to go to college. They should be at an elementary school,” said Burl.
After some debate on parliamentary procedure, the board motioned to accept the handbook as written without changing the wording.
In other news, the school board also approved bids for band instruments and student/athletic insurance. Line-item bids from Washington Music, Cascio and Wenger Corporation were accepted for the purchase of various band instruments lost during Hurricane Isaac. Regions Insurance
was approved to provide insurance coverage for the school district with a Bolinger 80 percent plan that will cover students and athletes and includes an option for catastrophic coverage worth $44,500.