St. Mary ACT: More students, better scores

CENTERVILLE — St. Mary Parish high schools set a record when 604 students took the ACT during 2014-15 school year, announced Leonard Armato, school superintendent, at Thursday’s monthly board meeting.
The school district’s composite score for 2015 is 18.5, an increase of 0.5 of a point from 2014.
The state’s 2015 composite score is 19.4. This is an increase of 0.2 points since 2014.
“All six of St. Mary high schools increased their composite scores from 2014,” Armato said. “I applaud the concentrated efforts of our students, teachers and administrators, and anticipate continued growth in college and career readiness.”
Armato thanked the board for approving allocations to high schools for ACT prep.
“The importance of ensuring our students are college ready is evident in the fact that despite budget constraints,” Armato said in a news release, “the school board once again approved a $3,500 annual allocation for each high school to subscribe to ACT and EOC readiness software.”
“Even a slight increase in a school’s composite score is a commendable achievement, considering that benchmarks must be met in four major subject areas.”
“High schools have undertaken exhaustive efforts to offer preparation courses,” Theresa Bagwell, assistant superintendent of schools, said in an email.
Students attended Saturday workshops and utilized online resources as a means to improve ACT performance.
ACT scores comprise 25 percent of a school performance score.
“Any fluctuation in the ACT composite score can correspondingly reflect a change in a high school’s SPS and letter grade label applied as a result,” Bagwell said.
In other action, the board approved a plan to refinance bonded debt for Consolidated District 1 and Special District 4.
The issue for District 1 was “originally used to finance the construction of Raintree Elementary School in Baldwin,” Alton Perry, school board chief financial officer, said in an email. For District 4, the issue was “originally used to finance renovations of Centerville School in Centerville.”
“The market has changed and allowed us to refund the existing debt and reissue new debt that will ultimately save the taxpayers money. It is similar to when an individual refinances their home and receives a lower interest rate.”

This story was written by Shea Drake of The Daily Review staff. Reach her at sdrake@daily-review.com