June 16, 2000
Mr. George
Valentine
13323 Highway 73
Geismar, La. 70737
Dear Sir:
I would like for you to bring forth at your earliest convenience, resolutions, and or awareness to the school board, the following issues.
q
With
regards to the second grade supply list sent home with the students on the last
day of this school year stating, “1 BOOKSACK (NO ROLLING BOOKSACKS)”
I bring to your attention my on going efforts to reduce the excessive weight
being born by our students in their book sacks due to the lack of lockers and or
adequate copies of books to have duplicate copies. This excessive weight can be
as much as two to three times that recommended by experts.
Parents in desperation have opted to purchase these rolling book sacks to insure
that their children not end up with serious back injuries.
It is my opinion that the exclusion of rolling book sacks is a flagrant
disregard by the school board for the student’s health, and the school board
should make every effort to apprise the Dutchtown Schools of this, and rescind
this requirement.
q
A
resolution requiring the cost born by parents for back to school supplies are
reduced by a minimum of 25 %.
I brought this request to Mr. Clouatre last November 16, 1999. Below are
excerpts of that request taken from the web site In Ascension Parish at http://inascension.com,
which went, totally ignored by Mr. Clouatre.
With regards to our previous conversation concerning parent supplied school
supplies I wish to make the following suggestions
q A directive from your office to all principals and teachers requiring a twenty five percent reduction in the cost of next years school supplies.
q An end to specifying specific brand name folders, three ring binders, etc., and allow the parent to decide what is best for his or her budget.
q Forbid teachers from padding the quantities required to have a surplus for those students not able to afford the supplies
q Some sort of document sent home at the beginning and end of each school year, with each student, to advise the parents that there is assistance for those who cannot afford the required school supplies.
q A sincere effort by your office to have the state agencies responsible for the school system to allocate more revenue to purchase some of the school supplies required.
I believe these suggestions to be more than reasonable, and
request that you and your staff aggressively pursue them and remove the
financial burden being forced on the parents.
q
A resolution requiring
all school board positions is made mandatory full time positions.
The availability of school board members is next to impossible during the normal
workday / workweek. i.e. Monday through Friday, 9AM till 5PM.
This is due to the fact that the majority of the members hold full time jobs
elsewhere, and can only address school board issues on weekends and evenings.
This effectively makes the Ascension Parish School Board a part time effort.
q
A resolution requiring
arrangements due to absence.
I also request that a resolution be made that, in the advent that a school board
member who is absent from his or her designated district, e.g. vacation,
business trip, etc., have prior arrangements made to have their constituents
issues handled in some other manner at the time it’s presented, and not when
he or she returns from that absence.
q
A resolution requiring a
school board members availability be directly accessible during the normal
business day / workweek.
Finally I request a resolution be made, that until such a time that a full time
school board can be installed, that each and every member of the school board
make themselves directly available to their constituents Monday through Friday
from 9AM till 5PM, using devices such as telephone, pager, etc. And if this
cannot be accomplished, those school board members resign and make way for those
that can.
Also, be advised that I will request that the Louisiana State Board of Health visit the Dutchtown Middle School gym, to take temperature readings to verify that the fans installed are sufficient in reducing the temperature there to satisfactory levels.
Sincerely,
Chuck Le Mieux
Cc/Fax to:
Mr. Robert Clouatre Ascension Parish School Superintendent
Ms. Elizabeth Stafford Dutchtown Primary Principle
Ms. Cathy Meredith Dutchtown Middle Principle
Mr. John (Juba) Diez Louisiana State Representative
Channel 9 TV
Channel 33 TV
Cc/email to:
Ms. Jennifer Sheffield Channel 2 Education Reporter
Ms. Keisha Lacour Channel 2 Two On Your Side
Mr. J. Connelly Channel 2 News Room
Mr. John MacMillan The Advocate’s River Parish Office
Mr. David Young The Gonzales Weekly
Mr. David Young The Community Mirror
Mr. David Young Ascension Parish TV
The Ascension Citizen
Mr. Cecil Picard Louisiana Board of Education
