Another School Closure?

     Could the Calcasieu School District be closing another school?  Talk surfaced last night at the school board meeting of possibly closing Reynaud Middle School.  It was just two years ago Lake Charles Boston High School was closed.  And now this. The talk comes amidst concerns of a looming budget deficit for next school year.  Tuesday night, the budget committee presented a list of proposed cuts to make up for a more than two million dollar deficit.  According to research from the chief financial officer, closing Reynaud Middle School would save the parish 2.3 million dollars.  School Board member Bill Jongbloed says there're only 150 students at Reynaud, and therefore he doesn't think its financially prudent to keep a school open with such a small student body.  If Reynaud is closed, the students would attend either Oak Park or Molo Middle Schools.  The other cost cutting measures that are on the table include the salaries for 15.5 elementary school teachers, 24.5 middle school teachers, and 9 high school teachers.  The full school board will take up the recommendations next week at the regular meeting. What do you think about the budget committee's proposals, especially the closure of Reynaud Middle School?

Comments

[TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT]

why not cut back on the CPSB and what they spend.

one day, i hope,,,the people of this town will stand up and see what is going on.

the casino passed but how many "AMERICAN" workers will have jobs? how many "TEXANS" will take our jobs?

i pray the next hurricane takes this town down...before i go to bed every night...it's in my prayer's, along with the idiots who live here and vote these people and this crap in.

main reason we don't buy gas here, food here or clothes here in louisiana....can't stand texas either but hell,, it is cheaper.

we do NOT spend any of our taxes here unless we have too....

TEXAS PLEASE GET CASINO'S....PLEASE

[jock martin]

There are savings and cost reduction measures that can be taken with any public or government operated entities including federal, state, etc. It takes courage to make changes and eliminate much of the fat that creeps in over time because there is no motive in most cases to get rid of the fat. Moving more toward private ownership is one method to save, and do the same things more efficiently. Getting rid of schools that do not produce because of a lack of students is likely the result of poor management at some level because I doubt there is that much shift in population to places like the Barbe district. The school board needs to take a good look at what is going on and why. We may have good reason to close the school, but at the same time I see schools that are running over with students and don't have the proper teacher/student ratio that is opposite Reynaud's problem. The school board needs to do their job, cut cost and make learning a priority. Both can be done with good management. I personally think the public system should take a close look at how to run a good business, and there many good examples in the private sector including schools to go by. America is full of good examples.

[Rev. Roland Mouton/ Pastor of New Emmanuel Baptist Church]

I see that Mr. Savoy is not a man of his word. He should remember in the Advocacy meeting a few years ago at Rev. Franklin church, I Rev. Mouton stood up and ask him to promise that night that he would not close Raynaud. He stood there for 5 minutes and then before his whole staff and all present promise he would not close that school. I want him to meet me at KPLC to my face tell the entire parish I'm not telling the true.

[DA. GARDNER FOR MAYOR]

If I understand this correctly, we have a school that is staffed yet has hardly any students, and we have schools that are over crowded, take St. Johns I see they are already expanding, well why not bus the kids from one to another. Heck most of the school buses are empty anyways have you ever seen the amount of cars to drop off the kids. Make them all take the bus so traffic will not be so bad.
And as far as salary cuts, only if they start at the TOP first, for every 1 school board member they would save the salary of what 3 teachers.

[Hahaha]

Half of the schools in this parish could be closed . Its called consolidation . There are to many 200 student schools around here and not enough 400 student schools. We don't need a school in every neighborhood around here. Millions could be saved if we had central locations. But of course we couldn't do that because that would mean shrinking the size of the school board and that would mean some 6 digit salary people would be out of work.

[WhoMe]

May I ask? The teacher student radio is 6 to 1 at Reynaud School. How are their grades better than our over crowded Schools if so we should be sending student's from Oak Park to them. Sending 150 students to a School that has to many children in it already is not a good idea. Next Question! How long has Raynaud had so few student's and if the money was still there to spend would you have wasted it on so few students.We the People expect you to spend our tax dollars wisely but it seems you only do that when the money runs out. If what I think is true you could have been saving millions of tax dollars for years. We are Watching You!

[JAMES]

Take a ride around the parish and see how many schools have been closed and are still on the books with other things such as testing going on there. These buildings and property need to be sold. The tax payers still pat utilities and janitorial staff and mateinance on these buildings. Just a thought on how to save money.

[Frustrated Tax Payer]

If you have a school that has too many and the classes are over crowded and you have a school that has less students and the classes are smaller would it be possible to move students from the overcrowded school to the less crowded school split the difference in the taxes the schools recieve to help both schools and have no closure?? To change the subject for a moment I cant believe there is a $10.00 per head cover charge to get into Contraband just to walk around we are not going this year.

[CTtcg]

This is why busing kids out of district must not be allowed. That school should be closed; there is no point to it.

Busing minorities to other schools just because of their skin color is racist in and of itself.

[DA. GARDNER FOR MAYOR]

CTtcg-You should not look at things in terms of skin color, that's what perpetuates racialism in the first place.

Look at it as a better education for the child, if one school is overcrowded and the other is under-crowded then makes sense to transfer students, of course some logic would have to be used like looking at the child's address, so he does not ride a bus for half a day to get to school.

[Sanc ti money]

People, people, people!!!! We elect our officials to manage our taxes. Then when they try to live within their check books we throw rocks. My check book has to balnce or they come get me and put me in jail. The bankl is quick to charge me fees for all my over spending. Let them do thier jobs. It's time we get rid of all the Pork. We have to live within our means and so do they. No body is going to go uneducated in America if they want to be educated. Even college can be had for those who are willing and want it bad enough. I went to school and held down a full time job to get mine. Even in High school I worked every summer and after school. Fix the blood loss and get on with it. Nothing is really free. We have to stop the spending beyond measure.

[ALLEN]

MR GARDNER YOU TALK ABOUT RACISM, LOOK AT WHO WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT CLOSING REYNAUD ,WAS THAT NOT RACIAL REASONING ON THE PART OF SOME OF THE BOARD ????

[ALLEN]

I AGREE WITH THE COMPLAINT ABOUT CONTRABAND. IMAGINE A COUPLE WITH TWO KIDS GOING TO CONTRABAND. TWENTY DOLLARS FOR PARENTS, TEN DOLLARS FOR KIDS PLUS PARKING FEE. DO THE MATH, THIS BEFORE ANYTHING IS SPENT ON FOOD,GAMES RIDES ETC. WHAT A DEAL FOR LAKE CHARLES RESIDENTS HA !!!!

[elohssa]

Okay... We're gonna take kids from a school that is so bad that the people in its vicinity don't want their kids going to it, and we're going to send them to schools taht are doing better, and the same parents and kids that destroyed the first school are now unleashed on yet another school, and that's a FIX?

If you want a school to WORK, give it some raw materials: Parents that want their kids to get an education, not an "I attended school most of the time for twelve years" certificate.

And remember, "No Child Left Behind" means we get to pace the race to the slowest runners. That's a prescription for a failed education system.

Let's just recognize that EVERY kid isn't destined for a Harvard doctorate. The country needs ditchdiggers, too.

[Hahaha]

First of all ,noone is gonna come and throw u in jail for not living within you're means. No more debtors prison. Second, contraband days is not getting a penny from me this year. I take the family every year, but get real. 10 bucks a head. That's 50 bucks to get in the gate, probably 80 bucks to get the wristbands for the rides, and of course u can't bring in you're ice chest, so you are forced to buy their rediculously priced drinks, and God forbid the kids want a little toy. Easily 150 bucks for a family of 5. thanks Lake Puke for out pricing half the families in this area. I hope the turn out this year is horrible and the festival runs at a loss.

[DA. GARDNER FOR MAYOR]

Allen-The story reads: School Board member Bill Jongbloed says there're only 150 students at Reynaud, and therefore he doesn't think its financially prudent to keep a school open with such a small student body.
HOW YOU get a racist remark from that is beyond me. If WE all continue to look at things in a color spectrum vice a human spectrum, then WE will have never really advanced beyond the stone age.

Contraban Prices-Way to high, I used to love to go there as an alternate source for my Gardner Girls, heck the clubs do not even have a cover that high.
Now I am forced to sit across the street.

[ALLEN]

I SUPPORT GAY RIGHTS!!!

[kyle]

I dont think race has anything to do with this. If you have not noticed most white people have moved out of Lake Charles by the groves. I went by F.K. White the other day when school let out. I went there as a child. It was almost completely white school. I did not see one white kid in the bunch. My problem is cost. That is over 15,000 bucs a kid. As someone else said I wonder if the children are excelling. They should be. If not these are the first teachers that need to be fired.

[Sammy]

That particular school should have been closed many years ago. Once again, it has nothing to do with race, so do make it out to be. It's a very very small school with 5 to 6 students to a teacher. Don't you wish all schools had that privilege? Plus the teachers are paid more to teach there.

[etaoin shrdlu]

Gas for us peasants is $3.80 a gallon. diesel is over four bucks. The school board is already busing kids from one side of the city to the other, and we want to close another school and BUS SOME MORE?

I have a brilliant idea: How about we just send kids to the school geographically closest to their address of record?

Or are we saying that just being located in the wrong part of town makes a school "bad"? Isn't THAT racist?

[DA. GARDNER FOR MAYOR]

I like the central school idea: Build a middle,jr high and sr high school large enough to handle all kids allowing extra room for growth and put them all in one central location.
then sell all existing schools, and donate the playground equipment to the mill. park

And why is gas so damn expensive, when oil was pumping into the gulf last year at millions of gallons we had low fuel cost, now unreasonable cost.

Also I see the the police jury donated 50k to the new millennium park, just exactly where do they get their money????

[Justathought]

I think if a child is not up to satisfactory progress, then hold them back until they are making satisfactory grades and understand. It really is ok to leave a child behind for academic reasons, maybe they are not quite mature enough as Joe Blow, the kid who sits next to him. Allowthem to make mistakes and learn from them. I see so many children who are being educated now, and wonder how they have made it this far, and then I meet the parents and find them in the same predicament their child is-- being pushed thru school without the academic knowledge to help them as classes get harder. I went to a elementary school that had 800 students and a middle school with 1800, and high school with 5200. If you were not making satisfactory grades and progress you did not advance ahead till you made the grade. That is the way schools should be. Remember thes children are our future. Would you trust them?!!!!

[CTctg]

Like LCB it needs to be closed. Education is a long term thing. Progress is slow and hard but I'm sure Lake Charles is progressive enough to do this.

[throw them all out]

If it only has 150 students going to that school ,close it and sell the property so the tax payer doesnt have to pay upkeep. I quit going to Contraband years ago when it became all about gouging the public with all the fees.The public should be able to park and get in free,after all we own the civic center and all the land around where its all taking place. if they want more money ,up the vendors fees.like I said I quit going several years ago,so I really dont care.The Elite that meet to discuss these things (fee hikes) think ,What the heck The peasants can come up with the money if they want to go,and if they can't "Let them eat cake".

[elohssa]

By the way, what's 0.5 teacher? Another football coach?