Summer beckons St. Mary students

With the 2014-15 school year coming to an end, the St. Mary Parish School System will use the summer to do school renovations, prepare curriculum and complete the process to hire a new superintendent.
Today is the last full day of the school year. Students receive their report cards Tuesday.
During the summer, construction will take place on a multipurpose building at Hattie Watts Elementary in Patterson, expected to be complete by the start of the school year, St. Mary Parish Schools Interim Superintendent Teresa Bagwell said. Hattie Watts is currently without a gym, which the new multi-purpose building will have, she said.
“It’ll be the first time they’re able to put the entire student body in one place,” Bagwell said.
Also this summer, workers will begin removing portable buildings and trees in order to prepare for construction of the new Patterson Junior High School, she said.
At the start of next school year, access to a driveway behind Patterson Junior High School will be eliminated, Bagwell said.
“Next year, dismissal of students will have to change because parents are not going to be able to line up behind the school like they do now,” Bagwell said.
School system officials hope to start construction on the new Patterson Junior High School in mid to late fall, Bagwell said. Construction will take between nine months and a year, she said. The front of the school will face Catherine Street.
A two-story wing of the current Patterson Junior High School will be saved and connected to the new building, Bagwell said.
“So it’s not going to be just construction of a new school. It’s actually going to be migrating parts of the old school to the new building,” Bagwell said.
Significant renovations are required on that two-story wing of the current school, which will eventually house the fifth-grade, she said.
Beginning in December 2016, the sixth, seventh and eighth grade at Patterson Junior High will move to the new building in order to allow renovations to begin on the old two-story building for the fifth-graders, she said.
The fifth grade at Patterson Junior High will move into the renovated building in the summer of 2017, Bagwell said.
During this summer, J.B. Maitland Elementary and Wyandotte Elementary will undergo repairs, which include fixing some roofing problems, Bagwell said.
On Wednesday, the school board announced the 10 applicants for the superintendent position to replace former Superintendent Donald Aguillard, who was hired as the new Lafayette Parish Schools superintendent.
The school board will hold a special session May 26 to refine the superintendent selection procedure before the interview process, according to a school system news release. The board expects to announce a final selection by mid-June, the release stated.
Looking back on the 2014-15 school year, Bagwell said, during the 2014-15 school year, students showed their abilities to transition to higher education standards. Some skills previously taught at one grade are now being taught in a lower grade, Bagwell said.
“The fact that students have been to make adjustments and be successful and gain confidence in their intellectual abilities over the course of just nine months has been phenomenal,” she said.
Teachers will waste no time prepping for the 2015-16 school year with second through fifth-grade math and English teachers working next week to create an instructional calendar for the school year, Bagwell said.

2015-16 Calendar
All Teachers In-Service — Aug.5, 2015
First Day for Students — Aug. 6, 2015
Labor Day — Sept. 7, 2015
Fall Break — Oct. 9 and 12, 2015
Parent/Teacher Conference Day — Oct. 13, 2015
Election Day/Teacher In-Service Day — Nov. 3, 2015
Thanksgiving — Nov. 23-27, 2015
Christmas — Dec. 21, 2015-Jan. 4, 2016
Parent/Teacher Conference/In-Service Day — Jan. 5, 2016
Fall Session Ends — Jan. 6, 2016
Students Report to School — Jan. 6, 2016
Spring Session Begins — Jan. 7, 2016
Martin Luther King Day — Jan. 18, 2016
Mardi Gras — Feb. 8-10, 2016
Parent/Teacher Conference/Middle and High School In-Service — Feb. 29, 2016
ACT — March 1, 2016
PARCC Testing Phase 1 — March 14-18, 2016
Easter Holiday — March 25-28, 2016
i-LEAP and LEAP Science/Social Studies — April 4-5, 2016
ACT Series Explore/Plan — April 4-8, 2016
Spring Break — April 11-15, 2016
PARCC Testing Phase 2 — April 25-29, 2016
EOC — April 25-May 20, 2016
Spring Session Ends — May 26, 2016
Memorial Day — May 30, 2016
Note: After Dec. 17 exams, high school students will be dismissed at 12:30 p.m. Buses will run at the regularly scheduled time. On Dec. 18, all grade levels will have early dismissal with bus pick-up at 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.

Emergency Days
1. Oct. 13, 2015*
2. Jan. 5, 2016
3. Feb. 29, 2016
4. May 26, 2016
5. May 27, 2016
6. May 30, 2016
7. Dec. 21, 2015
8. May 31, 2016
9. Dec. 22, 2015
10. October 9, 2015
*In the event that October 13, 2015, is utilized as an emergency day, November 3 will serve as a Parent/Teacher Conference and In-Service Day.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review. Reach him at zfitztgerald@daily-review.com.