A week and a half into the new school year and the Lafayette Parish School System is now in need of six more teachers. This comes after the system filled 10 extra positions that were already added to the budget.
Superintendent Dr. Don Aguillard says this is necessary so that all students get a fair chance at learning.
“We are running about 250 today students over our October 1st count last year,” Aguillard said.
District officials say schools on the south side of the parish like Green T Lindon, Milton Elementary, and Southside High School are overpopulated and will get new teachers.
“We believe that we will need a few more additional teaching positions, we have used up the 10 additional teachers that have been authorized in the budget for extra teachers,” Aguillard said.
Specialty classes like special education and advanced placement have forced the district to use those 10 additional positions earlier than expected. Now, with the latest move, principals at the affected schools can start hiring as early as Tuesday morning. Officials say this will give students an equal student to teacher ratio.
“Adding six more positions to the budget should have no effect because we will ultimately be getting additional state dollars,” Aguillard said.
The state will fund the new positions and the school system will turn in its final enrollment numbers to the state on October 1st.
Other changed approved by the board tonight:
- Classes on November 6th have been canceled because of Election Day.
- The half-day planned for November 14th is now a full day.
- The board also voted to reinstate the Transformation Zone Officer position, and pay bus drivers an overtime rate of 38 dollars an hour for all work done outside of their regular shift.
