School Board candidates meet at forum

PATTERSON — Voters got a look at candidates for St. Mary Parish School Board on Monday in the first of a series of St. Mary Chamber political forums leading to the Nov. 8 primary election.

Five of the 11 seats on the School Board are contested, and candidates from all five appeared Monday at the Patterson Area Civic Center.

The other six seats are uncontested after the July qualifying period. Incumbents Tammie Moore of Four Corners, Joseph Foulcard of Franklin, Marilyn LaSalle of Patterson and Alaina Black of Morgan City qualified without opposition.

Andrew Mancuso of Morgan City was the lone qualifier for the District 10 seat being vacated by Dwight Barbier. And in District 6, incumbent Pearl Rack of Franklin qualified but later resigned from the board and withdrew from the election, citing personal reasons.

Debra R. Jones was appointed to fill Rack’s position, and will have to be reappointed after Nov. 8 to serve until a special election in March.

At Monday’s forum, the candidates had opportunities for open and closing statements and were asked three questions: Should well-educated people in careers other than education be allowed to teach? How would the candidates engage the community to bring about improvements in the schools? And how do they view Act 1, the 2012 Louisiana law that gives superintendents power to hire and fire personnel?

District 3
(Bayou Vista)

Incumbent Kenneth Alfred, currently the board president, pointed to his bachelor’s degree in math from Nicholls State and his master’s in education administration as qualifications. He also has served as a teacher, principal, supervisor and two-term School Board member, and has served on the St. Mary Parish Council.

During his School Board tenure, he said, the board has consolidated schools and sold the buildings to save millions; successfully proposed a sales tax that gave teachers a $3,000 annual raise and a $1,500 raise for other employees; moved toward putting more resource officers in schools; handled $30 million in federal COVID aid; and paid COVID stipends to staff members.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Alfred said to the question about bringing non-teachers into classrooms, and said that the Teach America program with its path to certification was a help during his time as principal.

The district has demonstrated community involvement by entering partnerships with the Ready Start early childhood education initiative, the Ochsner Foundation and the Teche Action Clinic. And he believes Act 1 has taken the politics out of personnel decisions.

He criticized opponent Lindsey Anslem for what he said was a social media post saying the board wants to train teachers in critical race theory. “I have demonstrated, not promised, demonstrated honesty and integrity …,” he said.

Challenger Lindsey Anslem, mother of two, said, “I realized I could not trust the government with the well-being of my child.” She became involved with Health Freedom Louisiana, Save Our School Louisiana and We the People Louisiana, and has formed St. Mary Parish Parents United.

She has spoken at School Board meetings against mask requirements and said she was involved in a successful 13-month effort to adopt a history program for Louisiana schools “without adding indoctrination.”

The iteach Louisiana program offers a way into classrooms for potential teachers, she said, and she suggested promoting community involvement by livestreaming School Board meetings and holding an open house not just for parents but for all taxpayers.
Act 1’s move to give superintendents control over personnel decisions is good in theory. “But it won’t be good if a superintendent’s choice are political,” Anslem said.

She held up what she said were anonymous letters from teachers with criticism of the way local schools are being run. And Anslem said she has researched education issues and has learned the language, including “diversity, equity and inclusion, which just so happen to be the language of CRT.”

District 5
(Patterson)

Challenger Jaclyn F. Castillo, a mother and a veteran, asked, “Does anyone in your life love your children more than you do? Why not make the best decisions we can? ...

“My main interest in this election is to be a parent and try to bring parental involvement back into schools.”

She supports the idea of bringing non-teachers into the classroom. She suggested increasing community involvement by encouraging volunteers at schools, events such as a movie night and finding sponsors for schools.
Castillo suggested that everyone look at the text of Act 1, which she said “has taken power away from just about everyone but the superintendent. ...

“If you have had even a single worry about the recurring issues happening in our schools, if you had any worries over the last 10 to 20 years the same members have been elected, I highly suggest you make the changes now.”

Incumbent Ginger Griffin, a court reporter and business owner married to a retired teacher, said that as board president she was instrumental in
building the new Patterson Junior High and the multipurpose building at Hattie Watts Elementary in Patterson.

She said anyone with a bachelor’s degree can move toward teaching certification under the iteach program, and the School Board partners with Reach University to offer a path to certification.

The board demonstrated its ability to engage the community by passing the taxes for the new Patterson Junior High and the sales tax for staff raises, Griffin said.

She doesn’t believe the board should be involved in personnel decisions.

Except for Pontiff, none of the challengers running this year have attended maintenance committee meetings, and only a few have attended many full School Board meetings, Griffin said.

“There’s no replacement for experience and knowledge,” Griffin said.

District 7
(South Central
St. Mary)

Member Wayne Deslatte’s departure will open this board post. Glynn Pellerin of Franklin qualified but did not appear at the forum.
Murphy J. Pontiff Jr. has worked in the oilfield, got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and was a classroom teacher and principal in the district.

Since his retirement in 2003, he has been a part-time safety instructor at South Louisiana Community College’s Young Memorial Campus.

Pontiff sees constantly changing laws as being the big problem faced by educators, especially in a time when school safety is a major concern.

“You cannot teach a class when you’re worried about someone coming into your room and you have children you have to defend,” Pontiff said.

He thinks classrooms would benefit from non-teacher expertise, and that any lack of teaching ability will be apparent soon enough.

For community involvement, “we need to do some instruction for the parents and get some experts to come in and show them what needs to be done to get them more interested in the school system,” Pontiff said.

Hiring personnel is not a job for the School Board, he said.

District 8
(Berwick)

The seat is being vacated by School Board member Michael Taylor.

Scott Babin, a former teacher and Desert Storm veteran, said he has joined Anslem in speaking out against a proposal to add COVID vaccine to the list of required student vaccinations. He also said he joined the effort to remove books deemed inappropriate for children from libraries.

He said his goals are to protect kids, empower parents and give teachers a voice.
Babin said the system should focus more on retaining certified teachers rather than bringing in people from outside the profession. Teach America was essentially to have student debt forgiven in exchange for three years in the classroom, he said.

“The community doesn’t trust the school system,” Babin said. He said the system should treat parents with respect when they come to schools, make parents part of the process for evaluating the superintendent, increase the police presence at schools, take a firm stance against bullying and bring male role models into schools.

He said recent problems at Morgan City Junior High happened because discipline wasn’t enforced. And “be careful which members are for giving more power to the superintendent,” Babin said. He believes Act 1 took the people’s vote out of personnel decisions when it took the board out of those decisions.

Chad Paradee is the married father of three, two of whom are in Berwick Elementary. He has an LSU finance degree. He works at Cameron, and
his wife taught school in Berwick for eight years.
“
I understand the trials and tribulations that the teachers and our students are facing each and every day,” Paradee said.

He favors bringing in teachers from outside the profession as long as they’re working toward certification. But the system must also work to retain
certified teachers, he said.

Paradee said he believes in transparency. And parents should be encouraged to have positive interactions with the schools, not to bash teachers or the system.

Act 1 “definitely makes it much more difficult,” Paradee said. He said board members should talk to local legislators about making changes in the law.

“It’s a simple fact. We need change now in our school system ...,” Paradee said.

“We need to empower our teachers to provide feedback, participate through collaboration, and once again be the creative, inspiring force behind the education of our children.”

District 11
(Morgan City-Amelia)

Challenger Rhonda Dennis is the author of 12 books and has a bachelor’s degree from Nicholls State. She’s married and the mother of an Acadian Ambulance employee. She has served on nonprofit boards and has worked as a substitute teacher.

Dennis said she’ll have an open-door policy for teachers and wants to be visible at schools.

She said she’ll encourage honest communication.

Dennis favors bringing in nontraditional teachers to combat the teacher shortage.

“As long as they’re proving their worth and providing a quality education, we should give them the opportunity,” Dennis said.

She said she’s ready to take on the responsibility of being a board member.

“The only reason I’m running is that I truly care about our children, their families and the employees of the School Board,” Dennis said. “And I know it’s a cliché, but our children really are our future.”

Incumbent Roland H. Verret, a longtime School Board member, was a teacher for 14 years, a principal for 10 and central office administrator for 10 more. He was a St. Mary Parish Teacher of the Year in 1981.

Verret said he believes the system’s job is to provide up-to-date education with up-to-date instructional materials, and to help new teachers learn to teach.

Verret talked about the challenges faced by the district during the COVID pandemic.

“We live in a world that is changing, changing drastically,” he said.

He also stressed the individual needs of each student and each teacher.

The state government makes the School Board accountable for finances, he said.

“We can’t tell the state what to do,” he said.

But students and parents have to be accountable, too, he said.

“As a board member, you need to be seen in the schools,” Verret said.