Photograph: Rod Sias (Photograph by Bobby Ardoin.)
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
The St. Landry Parish NAACP is proposing to assist School District officials with creating immediate and long-term programs aimed at improving student learning, truancy awareness and facility upgrades.
Rod Sias, an architect and former Opelousas city administrator, outlined the detailed NAACP plan last week with District Academic Committee members.
The Committee took no action on the presentation which did not provide cost estimates for facility and additional overall District improvement proposals.
Superintendent Milton Batiste III said he was previously aware of the NAACP prospectus after speaking individually with Sias.
Sias acknowledged that the District is currently challenged financially, which makes the 2022 creation of special taxing districts important for funding many of the facility projects the NAACP feels are necessary to move St. Landry public schools into the 21st century.
“We all know that the Board is in a difficult spot right now. Money is tight. What (the NAACP) is presenting to you is a tool that can be used so that everyone is on the same page. We have discussed our issues with a lot of people and what we are attempting to do is find common ground,” Sias said.
Academic Proposal
The District, said Sias, should continue stressing academic recovery programs, such as the ones now offered by the District during the summer.
NAACP strategists, according to Sias, support summer academic initiatives of three weeks, with an accompanying three-week break.
“We understand that (the District) is fighting a difficult battle during the school year,” Sias added.
The academic plan also includes creating a universal pre-kindergarten program that promotes student classroom readiness, Sias said.
Academic programs should include emphasis on what Sias called “the climate crisis,” in addition to social and industry-based learning.
School Facilities
Over the next decade, Sias said parish public school facilities will continue showing signs of deterioration.
“Our school facilities will not be suitable for education. We have to start now addressing this. Regardless of what we do, we are not going back to where we are,” Sias said.
Sias added that there is currently an absence of sufficient facility funding streams from federal sources.
The proposal included the emphasis on funding outdoor track facilities at the six St. Landry high schools in addition to refurbishing the grass tracks at Plaisance Middle School and Opelousas Junior High School.
School officials however recently approved using District funding to augment renovating the Northwest High outdoor track. FEMA revenue is proving the majority of the Northwest High track funding.
Truancy Department
The NAACP proposal additionally includes the creation of a truancy program that addresses school attendance, bullying, suicide, drug addiction, sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
Sias pointed out that the sex trafficking aspect of the proposal is important, since it is an area of criminality that is often overlooked.
“We want to use our proposal to help get the community engaged. (The NAACP) wants to work with the District,” Sias said.
