good morning welcome everyone to bessie meeting wednesday march 12th 2025 uh i'd like to call the meeting to order and get a roll call please mr appel here dr armstrong here mr berkin
here mr castile here miss champagne dr clark mr harris mr hollis not present miss holloway not present miss meerine not present mr morris here
we have a quorum thank you first item please first item on the agenda is 1.3 invocation all right can i get a motion for our invocation mr birkens senator appel thank you i'd like to call mr michael campana
from healing place church forward he'll lead us in the invocation this morning michael let us pray lord i thank you for these wonderful men and women who work so hard to educate our children god i pray
blessing upon them today that your presence would be in these proceedings god i pray you give them the wisdom the courage and the resources to do all that you have asked them to do to raise up the next generation and better our
society lord we thank you we praise you in jesus name amen amen thank you sir and we've got uh dr thomas uh who's going to lead us with the pledge this morning dr thomas i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america
and to the republic for stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you next item please next item on the agenda is 2.1 approval of the agenda all right can i get a motion please dr clark m
shamp thank you is there any objection hearing none next item please next item is 3.1 consideration of the recognition of community service endorsement honores can i get a motion mr burkin thank you any any exception second i got
a se i got a section uh dr uh armstrong thank you thank you thank you mr morris um at this point i'm going to invite uh dr ernie singleton to the table to uh make this important uh recognition and while she's coming just want to acknowledge uh that whenever we talk
about opportunities with the high school experience that is dr singleton's team uh that has the lift in front of them and uh they're working hard every day uh to try to support school systems out in the field understand how to best incorporate uh work-based learning opportunities as well as helping make
connections with colleges uh across the state as well as the business industry sector so dr sle wants to thank you for that um and then you're up to talk about community service endorsements thank you good morning everyone we are happy to be here to introduce to
you the community service endorsement honores the community service endorsement is awarded to graduating seniors who complete a minimum of 80 hours of community service during grades 9 through 12 this year we have three systems that
we want to recognize first off edna carar high school with 263 endorsements mr royce hooks was supposed to be with her this with us this morning however he is stuck in traffic so hopefully he is on the way soon and maybe he will arrive before this meeting
ends we also have from jefferson parish school board dr archia thomas and they are i'm sorry edna carr had 263 endorsements jefferson parish school board had 220 endorsements and also st
tam parish school board had 195 endorsements so i'm going to ask dr archia thomas to come forward as well as dr melissa langua from st tam parish schools to come forward for this recognition [Applause]
i'm happy [Applause] we just want to congratulate those school systems for their impactful leadership [Applause] thank you next item please next item is
4.1 january 10th 2025 and 4.2 february 21 2025 approval of the minutes all right we'll take those in globo okay can i get a motion please mr burkin uh dr armstrong thank you any exception
hearing none motion passes next item please next item is item 5.1 report by the state superintendent of education uh do i need a motion sir no motion all right thank you mr superintendent yes sir thank you uh mr morris uh just want
to uh mention that i had the great opportunity a few weeks back to travel the state and visit uh some of the schools really crisscross the state we started off in um in vermillion parish uh we worked our way to uh st martin uh
lafayette uh shreveport boer um then worked our way over to mr harris as part of the uh the the map and spent time in uh parish then we went up to west carol uh then hit franklin
katahula lassau i feel like i'm missing one tinsaw good job dr chesley um but we were able to have conversations around what they were doing uh the highlights of the trip really for me were listening to the systems talk about their tutoring efforts and how they were incorporating
uh in practice the policies that you all have considered in past um so really highlights around tutoring and then hearing some of the conversations around differentiated pay uh one superintendent and i've shared this with some of you already one superintendent said "i'm i'm
using my portion of that money uh to pay our math teachers more to attract math teachers to our parish and it's really helped." and another uh superintendent uh who lives very close to the mississippi line suggested and shared that she's using her portion to use it
for merit pay to pay some of their most uh u effective teachers so that they don't go over into mississippiian work and so i thought that those were two really uh good um approaches to the funding that's being provided uh and it was affirming for the work that we're
doing and so we were obviously in some of the larger systems but also in the most um the smallest system in the state as well and so that that was fun also wanted to acknowledge we held our fast forward summit the ccr team pulled that
together several of you were able to attend we had 700 800 educators there talking about the high school experience um learning um some people take for granted the fact that if you teach something one year or present on something one year you don't have to do
it again but the fact is you have turnover in schools and you have new counselors new teachers and so they need to oftentimes start from the beginning and so we had sessions that were very uh uh foundational but also more sophisticated so i appreciate the approach that we took there and we also
had um probably a hundred individuals that are specifically focused on child welfare and attendance i know that this board has a real interest in in improving the the attendance uh processes we'll be making some shifts internally to to try to further support
that but i know you also have the chief justice of the supreme court uh engaged uh you have several legislators that we've talked to who are engaged and obviously you have dr clark running the star task force so a lot of a lot of movement there i just think we have to
figure out how do we channel all of that in a uh collective direction uh on attendance so work to be done there uh and then finally some good news uh the student of the year finalists were announced and you probably saw each of your region had a a a finalist they're
gone to compete for the overall winner um and we've had some just fantastic overall winners the last few years one of them being um zack crier uh who actually won uh mr morris mr pastile you may remember he won as a middle schooler
up from benton four or five years ago and then he won as a senior last year he's now at lsu uh and i referenced yesterday we we actually have employed zach as an intern at our agency so he's doing course work at lsu but also he's an intern here at the department so we
we try to look for um students that that um could offer value to the agency but also we could support and help them through their college experiences so if you ever have you know a student that you feel like you want us to have a conversation with around an internship opportunity we're trying to put you know
our money where our mouth is too with what we're suggesting to high schools across the state and trying with our budget to to try to provide some internship opportunities as well so that concludes my report mr morris thank you mr superintendent members any questions or comments with superintendent mr
burkin uh superintendent brown in your visits and conversations with school systems uh in regards to the new accountability system what are they making changes what are they doing
have you talked to any of i know when we were at the iet conference that superintendent from around i think it was alexandria the lady there was super excited about it and um u i was just
wondering are the rest moving towards that or what are they doing i mean i still think you have the the residual feelings uh in many cases um when we're talking about k8 um really no concerns and uh schools are
making the adjustments thinking about how to utilize tutoring uh how to make the most of core instruction so i i think that's well i still think the lingering uh conversations around the high school experience um uh have warranted some discussion from system
leaders and that's okay um but i i do see shifts happening i do see them engaging uh with their business and industry partners in fact uh on one of the visits that uh i conducted that i shared um i had the opportunity to visit
with some school system leaders as well as business and industry leaders and the business and industry leaders were talking about ways in which they were able to overcome the barrier of insurance because we had heard a number of times that insurance carriers uh were not comfortable with some of the
internship opportunities but these particular business and industry shared how they had conversations with their insurance companies and the insurance companies changed and and allowed it so you know i think you're going to see continued movement i think because of the revised formula um what you expect
is going to to grow uh and so i think the most rapidly improving indicator on the revised accountability will be that acceleration index because it is where you're now asking for credentials and internships and apprenticeships which previously were not really valued and i
think that you'll see a change there but to answer your question i think k8 most uh systems are on board ready to go uh i think in high school school there is movement towards getting there but obviously still you know some emotions
left from the those conversations mr appel just personal comment um i'm of the opinion that the next 12 months could be the most pivotal period of time in many decades for education in general in louisiana the reason i say that is uh
first we're faced with the vote on the uh amendments to the state constitution which could have an a big impact on funding issues uh then we're faced with the legislative session and funding for the gator program uh and other
educational initiatives and then we have what's going on in washington as we all saw yesterday the the first steps to shutting down the department of education took place uh we don't know where that's going to go what it's going to mean but it could have a significant
impact on how we do business in as a as a state board uh in the next 12 months or so so i'm just i'm just pointing that out for this mainly for the folks that are watching from afar but we are we are paying attention uh and we meet we have
to pay attention because the future of what education looks like a year from now may depend on forces that are beyond our control and that that pretty much sums it up thank you thank you for that overview very very
important mr burkin to that and what changes i mean what what do you see is if the department is closed what do you how how is that going to affect us what are you going to do different
well i'm i'm just very thankful that we have this board that we have um because you guys have continued to make student centered um decisions uh i do think that the president i do think that president trump will continue to deconstruct the department of education federally uh
there there's obviously questions about his ability to unilaterally do that without congressional action to to to fully you know in the agency but i do think components of the agency will start being filtered out to other federal agencies um and you know
obviously i'm hopeful that they would do more block granting to the states without streams and so that we can bring you know decisions to you all as a board and say "hey we think that this is where funding should go based on the you know the the beliefs of of individuals within
the state of louisiana." you know i was i was asked a question um by a reporter about a week ago and and i felt like it was a pretty uh u loaded question but it was essentially you know would the state
of louisiana still take care of uh students that are coming from lower income communities or uh students that had special needs and the answer is obviously yes uh and i think that the um the actions of this board over the last couple of years specifically with
students with disabilities to try to make things more accessible to parents and and uh help make communication streamlined have been good and if you look at our academic outcomes on our leap test for three consecutive years students with disabilities have grown in proficiency rates and we're
outperforming the nation and so i mean i'm comfortable with this board making decision i am more comfortable with this board making policy decisions uh than i am any bureaucrat in dc um and so for me personally i will continue to support uh funding coming directly to the state so
that we can make those decisions thank you superintendent any uh any other comments members all right i just had a couple to share uh mr burkin you mentioned the nit conference you and i attended that it was just so encouraging uh superintendent brumley was the keynote speaker at the national
conference it was just so encouraging once again to attend the conference and louisiana is at the head of the conversation you know a national conversation on k- through2 education so uh superintendent appreciate you and also your staff i know there are a number of your staff there your team
that were making contributions so i want to recognize those folks and uh extend our appreciation to you guys and and the fact that that you guys are working with the local districts and and that's why um that's why we are in the in the top of that conversation in the nation in k
through2 education so really proud of that and and thank you guys for all you're doing mr morris could i add could i add to that yes i i mean i was the i was the keynote speaker for that event but what you all didn't see is the day before they had states from around the
country there talking about 100% how to improve instruction 100% and dr shassan led that conversation she led that conversation for the entire country um and so other states are looking at what we're doing around instruction and
trying to uh model their practices after that so i just wanted to recognize her for that thank you for sharing that thank you dr cheson all right next item please next item is 6.1 reports from members of bessie statutory and legislative task
force council appointees thank you can i get a motion mr castile dr armstrong thank you any exception hearing none members anything to share today all right i have one to share if
you give me just a second here we go just a just a brief summary uh you guys appreciate my passion for the lost stem advisory council uh they meet quarterly uh this last meeting was held in meety at the uh stem library um so there was an
impressive slate of new council members uh including dr sesh chirauru the 2025 louisiana teacher of the year and key representatives from industry partners like basf and the web-based startup company uh equalify the meeting
highlighted significant achievements across our re our stem our regional stem centers including the expansion of nasa astro camps to the largest in the nation now 105 locations statewide growing participation in serch
programs over 100 teams across the state in 2024 and the renewal of the department of defense grant that guarantees continued growth additionally innovative initiatives like the bars without barriers program at kado parish prison which recently gained
national attention at the nsf education advisory committee meeting any other shares all right hearing none next item please next item is 7.1 academic goals and instruction improvement committee mr pale on behalf of the academic goals and instructional
improvement committee i move to approve motions 1 through 25 noting that motions 20 through 24 are notices of intent can i get a second dr armstrong any objection hearing none next item please next item is 7.2
board administration education finance committee mr burkin yes on behalf of the board administration and education finance committee i move to approve motions 1 through 13 thank you can i get a second
champine any exception hearing none motion passes next item please next item 7.3 educator effectiveness committee dr clark on behalf of the educator effectiveness committee i move to approve motions 1 through 24 thank you can i get a second
miss champine is there any exception hearing none motion passes next item please item 7.4 legislative and government affairs committee mr harris on behalf of the legislative and governmental affairs committee i move to approve motions one through four thank
you sir can i get a second miss champine any exceptions hearing none motion passes next item please item 7.5 school innovation and turnaround committee mr castile on behalf of the school innovation and turnaround committee i move to approve motions 1
through nine noting my objection to item 3.2 all right can i get a second dr armstrong thank you any exception hearing none motion passes next item please that concludes the agenda thank you we're adjourned