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School hiring faulted

By JEAN L. McCORKLE jmccorkle@daily-review.com

No Child Left Behind, the federal act passed in 2001 designed to promote student achievement and preparation for a global economy, requires 100 percent of teachers and paraprofessionals be “highly qualified” — something St. Mary Parish has not accomplished, according to its auditors.
By the end of the 2005-06 school year, the School Board was supposed to ensure that all the professionals met the mandate, but the condition was not met as of June 2014.
In the fiscal year-ending audit released in December, it is noted that management “is aware of this issue and is continuing to strive in its effort to attract highly qualified teachers and paraprofessionals.”
The audit was first released to the public in December, but the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office tagged it today as being noteworthy for the finding.
Chris Miller, the school system’s auditor and a partner with Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick, said the mandate is examined by identifying the total number of core courses and comparing that number with the number of certified instructors teaching them.
In St. Mary Parish, Miller said, there were 2,021 core courses taught during the 2013-14 school year. They were taught by 1,519 certified or “highly qualified” teachers, creating an average of 75.2 percent.
Core courses are defined under No Child Left Behind as English and reading, language arts, math, science, foreign language, civics, economics, arts, history and geography, Miller said.
“I think it’s a very difficult requirement to meet because statewide it is only at about 80 percent,” Miller said.
As a comparison, statewide there were 165,915 core courses taught the same year and 132,828 teaching them for a statewide tally of 80.1 percent.
The school system noted, through correspondence with various Louisiana Department of Education “that total compliance with this requirement has not been accomplished by any school district in the State of Louisiana,” the audit states.
Not meeting the requirement does not jeopardize funds for school districts, Superintendent Donald Aguillard said.
As a result of the audit finding, the St. Mary Parish School Board was required to submit a Corrective Action Plan to the Louisiana Department of Education. The School Board has complied with the request and the Corrective Action Plan was accepted by the Louisiana Department of Education, according to the audit.
Aguillard said this morning via email that Ricky Armelin, director of human resources, “works aggressively to attract certified and highly qualified teachers to consider employment within our parish.”
Armelin, Aguillard said, participates in numerous recruitment events occurring at local and regional universities as well as scanning online applications in order to routinely sends contact information to principals for consideration.
“In a nutshell, we along with other districts, are experiencing a shortfall in the number of certified available job applicants,” Aguillard added.
Ginger Griffin, School Board president, agreed.
“I would imagine we’re facing the same struggles that other parishes have to deal with … I know that (Armelin) attends recruiting events to get certified applicants here in St. Mary Parish.”
The parish does not offer any incentives for new hires. However, the school system routinely budgets federal funds to help non-certified teachers in Title I schools to pursue certification.

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