BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
St. Landry Parish school officials appear confident at this point that there will be fewer classroom staffing issues than in previous years when students begin reporting to building sites next month.
Superintendent Milton Batiste III told school board members last week that some schools are currently showing that there are no vacant teaching positions available.
Batiste read from a list that contained a number of potentially unstaffed positions during the board meeting last Thursday night..
A Friday phone call made by St. Landry Now.com in order to provide Batiste more time to correctly ascertain how many classroom positions are still available, was transferred to his voicemail and had not been returned by Tuesday afternoon.
Batiste had asked reporters covering the Thursday meeting to delay reporting the numbers on the list that he had made publicly before allowing him to check them again, apparently to confirm their accuracy.
The SLP website indicated that on Friday there were still seven classroom teaching positions available at several different sites.
Included among the 26 positions that were still listed on the website as not filled was the principal position at Grand Prairie Elementary and three for assistant principal at Opelousas Junior High, Northeast Elementary and Park Vista elementary schools.
From Office Positions Still in Question
During the Thursday meeting Batiste said that Claudia Blanchard, the current Director of Operations and Jill Inhern, Director of Childhood Education, have indicated they are retiring.
No dates for the retirements of both staff members were not indicated at the meeting.
Blahchard, Batiste said, has spent more than 40 years in St. Landry.
Inhern meanwhile, has more than 50 years of educational experience, with most of that time employed as a St. Landry Parish employee.
Board members approved a request from Batiste that the Director of Operations position be opened even before the retirement of Blanchard becomes official.
