Wyandotte will receive extra emergency relief funding from state

A Morgan City elementary school will receive funding through a program targeting schools where test scores indicate struggles over the last few years.
Wyandotte Elementary will receive an additional $50,000 in emergency relief funding, according to the Louisiana Department of Education.
In other school news, the St. Mary Parish School Board will have a special meeting Thursday to choose a temporary successor for the late Sylvia Lockett, a board member who died this month.
The Accelerating Schools initiative distributes an additional $50,000 to $100,000 in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to the schools with the greatest decreases in student mastery performance or the greatest increases in student unsatisfactory performance from 2019 to 2021 on Louisiana’s statewide assessment.
“It is critical that we provide additional resources to students in schools with the most significant two year declines,” said State Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley. “We must do everything within our control to recover student learning loss and accelerate these schools’ performances as quickly as we possibly can.”
The receiving schools will invest these extra funds in the following three areas: attendance and well-being, academic recovery and acceleration, and professional learning, the department said.
Wyandotte Elementary School was the only school in St. Mary to receive this funding as they exhibited a significant decrease in student mastery performance, St. Mary Superintendent Teresa Bagwell said in an email.
“District instructional staff and school leaders will be meeting this week to re-examine LEAP 2025 and other academic data in an effort to align the results to the three areas of investment prescribed by the LDOE," Bagwell wrote.
“Given the nature of the designation, funds will most likely be used to assist students in academic recovery and providing teachers with specific professional learning opportunities.”
Lockett, a retired teacher and principal in St. Mary Schools, died Oct. 5 at age 65. She joined in the board in January 2019 after qualifying without opposition for an open seat from a west St. Mary District.
The board will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Central Office Complex in Centerville to select an interim board member.
Lockett’s term would have expired in January 2023. Her interim successor will serve until a special election can be called next year.