Members of Warren Easton Charter High School’s board of directors recently participated in the Orleans Parish School Board’s search for a new superintendent, board president David Garland announced at a monthly meeting Wednesday night.
The Orleans Parish School Board selected a professional consultant group to perform a search for the new superintendent of schools. That consultant group developed focus groups, and members of Warren Easton’s board participated in two of them, Garland said.
Garland attended both the Eastbank Collaborative of Charter Schools focus group and the Board of Directors for Charter Schools focus group. The goal of the groups was to gather a set of skills and experience from leaders in education in New Orleans to better serve the search process, he said.
“Basically, they were asking, ‘What is the profile for this person we want to hire?’” Garland said. “What are they going to face?”
Garland added that the “big item on the minds of the board of directors” was that the consultant firm needed to focus on what should be done to develop a better relationship between the Orleans Parish School Board and its new boss. That relationship historically has been strained, he added.
“We should write into all the contracts — ‘kids first,’” Garland said. “If you can answer that question before making any decision, things usually go in the right direction. We tend a lot of times to put adults first and kids second.”
Otherwise, Garland said he was “very encouraged” by the new search process.
Vice President Bobby Delle said he wished the focus groups had been better attended.
In other news, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association has signed on to be a part of the National Federation of State High School Associations Network, according to a president’s report.
The NFHS Network is an all-digital internet channel dedicated to covering high school sports across the country.
“It’s an exciting concept,” Garland said. “It sounds like a great opportunity for the future. A lot of parents can’t get to these games.”
During a principal’s report, Alexina Medley said school staff was “working on attendance, as always.”
A report showed that there were 1,412 absences for all four high school grades for the fourth quarter. Seniors had the most absences, with 397 days, which still came to a 95.7 attendance rate.
The principal’s report also showed that the school dropped from an A to a B with a 2012-13 SPS score of 95.3 under the 150 point scale. Under the 200 point scale, the school would have gotten an A, with an SPS score of 138.7.
The meeting lasted for approximately an hour and a half.