UPDATED: School Board pushes back opening of classes

The St. Mary Parish School Board delayed the opening of school about a month to Sept. 8 at the request of Superintendent Teresa Bagwell.
Bagwell said more time is needed to tie up technology loose ends and give teachers more time to prepare for the start of school during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bagwell cited such issues as more time needed for teacher training in virtual learning, adjustments in classroom sizes due to many students enrolled in virtual learning and feedback from school administrators that they simply need more time to prepare.
“Altering the opening day … affects our teachers, who will now have additional time to prepare, a time that is essential to learn and practice for online (instruction), which they have little or no experience in,” Bagwell said.
The measure to delay the start of school until after Labor Day passed on a 7-2 vote with board members Wayne Deslatte and Kenny Alfred voting against the measure. Board members Dwight Barbier, Pearl Rack, Michael Taylor, Ginger Griffin, Alaina Black, Joseph Foulcard and Sylvia Lockett voted for the motion. Board members Roland Verrett and Marilyn LaSalle were absent.
There was discussion throughout the meeting about delaying the start of school for only two weeks — something Alfred and Deslatte supported — but the idea never materialized further.
The school year will now end June 4. The Mardi Gras holiday will be shortened from a week to three days.
Jan. 4 will now be a school day, as will three scheduled development days for teachers.
During Thursday’s meeting, multiple Central Office Complex employees supported the move to start school Sept. 8, saying their individual departments are not yet ready to open the school year.
One issue is preparing the laptops purchased for online learning with tracking software as well as installing internet content filtering.
“We have over $3 million invested in this program, so we do have tracking software on the new Dell laptops to make sure if for some reason they disappear from a kid’s house, we will be able to retrieve that laptop, whether it’s in a neighbor’s house or it’s in another part of the state or country,” school system Chief Technology Officer Kevin Derise told the board.
While Derise said the technology department is “extremely close” to being ready, he said they are not there yet.
“So what I’m telling Dr. Bagwell and I’m telling the board tonight is to make sure that for us to move forward, I need to make sure that it works perfectly,” he said.
Deslatte asked if they could install the tracking software after the laptops have been distributed instead of delaying the opening of school since parents already signed a contract accepting responsibility for the laptops.
Derise said it may work but is not guaranteed the software would download on the computers remotely.
“Don’t let tracking keep our schools closed,” Deslatte said later in the meeting. “That’s ridiculous.”
Thursday’s delay is the second made in less than a month voted on by the board. At a special meeting in July, board members had voted to delay the start of school from Aug. 7 to Aug. 10 to allow teachers more preparation time and have another day of professional development on Aug. 14 for faculty to evaluate how the start of school went. At that same meeting, a motion to delay the start of school until after Labor Day failed.