Education atters Education atters - EBRPSS News - East Baton ...

SPRING / SUMMER 2011
Education Matters
A Publication of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System
INSIDE
3 Gates Millennium Scholars
4 State Student of the Year
5 National MATHCOUNTS Winner

2010-2011 Was Great Year for EBR
What a great year for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.
Over the past year, 78 percent of our schools showed growth with
37 meeting or exceeding average state growth in test scores. In
addition, six schools were released from state sanctions. Our graduation rates
increased by 3.2 percent to 60 percent for on-time graduates, the drop-out
rate decreased from 10.2 percent to 5 percent since May 2008 and our average
ACT score is at 19.7 points.
Our schools are the driving force behind increased student achievement. This year, Ryan
Elementary joined the ranks of our eight other Blue Ribbon Schools, which include Baton Rouge
Magnet High, Forest Heights Academy of Excellence, Glasgow Middle, McKinley Middle Magnet,
Northeast Elementary, Shenandoah Elementary, Sherwood Middle Academic Magnet and Westdale
Heights Academic Magnet schools.
In addition, 14 of 15 student Semifinalists from the district met the criteria for National Merit
Scholarship Finalists, three schools earned the 2011 Magnet Schools of America Awards (Baton
Rouge Foreign Language Academic Immersion, Sherwood Middle Magnet and Westdale Heights
Academic Magnet schools) and one received the Magnet School of Distinction Award (Baton Rouge
Center for Visual & Performing Arts).
More good news for the district came in the form of individual and team student achievements.
David Holmes, a senior at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, was named the 2011 Louisiana
High School Student of the Year. Three students, John Queen of Belaire High School, Ashleigh
Ray of Scotlandville Magnet High School and Tracey Victorin of Tara High School, received full college
scholarships thanks to the 2011 Gates Millennium Scholars Program. Scott Wu followed in the
footsteps of brother Neal Wu (2005 national winner) by winning the 2011 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS
National Competition in Washington, D.C. Plus, Justin Moore of Baton Rouge Magnet High School
was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar.
Our new East Baton Rouge Parish School Board members started in January, and they are well
on the way to obtaining a large sample of input from as many community, teacher, student, business
and other key representatives as possible on revising our current Strategic Plan for the district.
As we close out the current school year, we also look forward to next year. We plan to open
the new Claiborne Elementary School in August, and work continues on the renovation of Baton
Rouge Magnet High School, which is slated to re-open in the fall of 2012.
It’s been a great year for the district and its staff, students and volunteers. I know next
year will be even brighter thanks to the hard work of our employees and collaborative processes
in planning for the future success of our students and this district.
John Dilworth,
Superintendent of Schools
Education Matters is a publication of the East Baton Rouge Parish School
System.
John Dilworth
Chris Trahan
Superintendent of Schools
Director, Department for
Communications
SUBMIT STORY IDEAS TO:
& Community Engagement
sgordon@ebrschools.org
Phone (225) 922-5611
Sonya T. Gordon, APR
Editor/Designer,
www.ebrschools.org
Public Information Officer
2

Including Community in Planning the Future
Part of the job of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board is to evaluate the needs of the
district’s children and determine how best to meet those needs by talking with staff and key
stakeholders. That’s why the district has been conducting focus groups and asking for community
input over the past few months. The School Board is in the process of revising the current
Strategic Plan, and it wants to make it a plan that creates a school district that serves everyone
in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Over a three-day period in early April, more than 230 people took part in 20 different focus
groups. Participants ranged from community and business leaders, members of the faith-based
community, teachers, students, parents, administrators and School Board members. Combined
with online comments about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to this
School System, data is being streamlined by district administrators to see how we can best meet
the district’s strategic goals to increase student achievement, promote a safe and caring environment,
expand student and stakeholder engagement, promote effective and efficient internal processes
and maximize employee learning and growth.
This is a transparent process that has enabled people from all walks of life to give the district
their opinions of what direction the school district should go in the next few years, and the School
Board takes this input seriously.
Now the School Board and district officials will be reviewing the information and getting
down to the hard task of planning for our students’ futures.
Doing Well, Despite Poverty:
Three EBRPSS Schools Recognized by State Dept. of Education
Three public schools were honored by the Louisiana Department of Education for performing
well despite high poverty at a March ceremony. Forest Heights Academy of Excellence,
Glasgow Middle and McKinley Middle Magnet schools were recognized at the High-
Performing, High-Poverty Schools Awards Ceremony.
To earn the designation, a school must have a baseline School Performance Score of 100
or more for two consecutive years and have at least 65 percent of students receiving free or
reduced-fee lunch. This year, 56 schools statewide have earned the designation.
Seniors Earn Full Rides as Gates Millennium Scholars
Seniors John Queen of Belaire High School, Ashleigh Ray of Scotlandville
Magnet High School and Tracey Victorin of Tara High
School and their parents don’t have to worry about covering the
cost of four or more years of college. That’s because all three students
from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System have won full
scholarships for college and expenses through master’s degree studies
to any school they would like to attend in the country – thanks to
the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.
In Louisiana, the Gates Millennium Scholars Program named 12
scholars for this honor in 2011. Only four came from this immediate
area.
Every year, the Gates Millennium Scholars Program selects
1,000 talented students from across the nation to receive goodthrough-graduation
scholarships to use at any college or university of
their choice. It provides Gates Millennium Scholars with personal and
professional development through leadership programs along with
academic support throughout their college careers.
3
Queen
Victorin
Ray

East Baton Rouge Parish School Board
District 1 District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5
David Tatman Vereta Lee Kenyetta Nelson- Tarvald A. Smith Evelyn Ware-
Smith Vice-President Jackson
District 6
Craig Freeman
District 7 District 8
Barbara Freiberg Connie Bernard
President
District 9
Jerry Arbour
District 10 District 11
Jill Dyason
Randy Lamana
BRMHS’ Holmes Named Top
Student of Year in Louisiana
At a special ceremony held March 3 at the Louisiana State Museum,
the State Department of Education named Baton Rouge
Magnet High School Senior David Holmes the 2011 Louisiana
Student of the Year at the High School Level.
The 17-year-old student just learned in mid-February that he
was a Region 2 Student of the Year winner after winning the high
school level title in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System in
January. He was one of 13 candidates in the regional and six in the
state competitions at the high school level.
Holmes received a $200 U.S. Savings Bond and a Lucite obelisk
engraved trophy from the state. He moves on to the national Student
of the Year competition this summer.
As president of the Student Government Association, Holmes
also is a member of the Interact Club, as well as a member of the
National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta and the Beta Club. He is a
National Merit Scholarship Finalist and earned a 34 on the ACT college
entrance exam. Holmes plans on becoming a lawyer some day. He
already has been accepted at four of seven colleges in which he has
applied, although he is still waiting on replies from Duke, Harvard and Vanderbilt.
In addition to Holmes, the district’s 2011 Students of the Year were Rosemary Johnson
of Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School and Anjana Nair of Woodlawn Middle School.
4
Holmes

National Champ: Glasgow’s
Wu Wins 2011 MATHCOUNTS
Anational math award remains “in the family”
with Glasgow Middle School eighth grader Scott
Wu taking home the National Middle School
Mathematics Championship May 6 at the 2011 Raytheon
MATHCOUNTS National Competition in Washington,
D.C. His brother, Neal, a former Baton Rouge Magnet
High School student who now attends Harvard University,
won the national title in 2005.
The Glasgow Middle School Gifted student competed
against other middle school students in this
prestigious competition in which the best and brightest
mathematics students go head to head.
Glasgow Middle Principal Judy O’Dell said Wu
won the national championship in the Countdown
Round after getting second place in the Written Round.
The entire Louisiana team, consisting of three Glasgow
Middle students and one from Alexandria,
placed 11th nationally
– the highest level the state team
has ever reached.
Team member Louie Kam
of Glasgow Middle placed 116th
overall as an individual, while
Glasgow’s Elvin Gu was 79th.
About 224 students from 56
states and territories competed
in MATHCOUNTS. O’Dell said Wu,
12, has completed Calculus A and
B and all high school math
courses while in middle school.
Wu with Team advisor
and Glasgow teacher
Joan Moroney
Students Achieve National Merits
Several district seniors have received scholarships
from the National Merit Corporation and its affiliates.
In May, five students won National Merit $2,500
Scholarships: Erin Baldwin, Jaime Ding and Justin Moore
of Baton Rouge Magnet High School and Miller Hane and
Samiul Haque of McKinley High School.
In addition, Moore also received a National Achievement
Scholarship from the corporation in April as one of
four finalists from the district. These scholarships generally
vary from $500 to $10,000 per year. All total, 14
of 15 district Semifinalists made the Finalists list for the
2010 National Merit Scholarship Program competition.
5
Moore Named
Presidential Scholar
Justin J. Moore, a senior at
Baton Rouge Magnet High
School, has been named a
2011 U.S. Presidential Scholar
by the U.S. Department of Education.
Moore was one of only
two students in the state and the
only area student to receive the
honor.
Candidates were selected
for their exceptional performance
on either the College Board, SAT
or the ACT exams. Consideration
also is based on student essays,
self-assessments, descriptions of
activities, recommendations and
school transcripts.
An Advanced Placement
(AP) Scholar with Distinction,
Moore won six state Science
Olympiad medals and first place
at the Chemistry Olympiad at
state and regionals.
In addition, Moore conducted
research as an intern with
Dr. Jason Walker and Dr. Yong
Hwan Lee at Louisiana State University
on a cancer cure using
oncolytic virotherapy and other
modern gene therapy methods.
His work placed in the prestigious
Toshiba ExploraVision Contest.
Moore
ss
is valedictorian
of his
class, president
of the
National Honor
Society
and Tennis
Team captain.
He plans to
study Neurology.
Moore

Robotics Team
Wins Regionals,
Goes on to Nationals
The Woodlawn High School Panthrobotics
robotics team, with
the help of two other teams on
its competing alliance team, took over
at the Bayou Regional FIRST Robotics
Competition and won the competition
held in Westwego, La, in March.
The alliance team of Woodlawn High
School, St. Patrick Catholic High
School of Biloxi and Gulfport High
School Technology Center worked together
to win the overall Bayou Regional FIRST Robotics Award. The team also walked away
Woodlawn High’s Robotics Team
with the Judges Award.
In April, the team moved on to the World Championship in St. Louis, where team members
and the robot, Dunker, won four out of 10 national games and ranked 59th out of 88
teams in the division. They competed against a total of 350 teams nationally.
Panthrobotics is one of 500 U.S. high-school teams J.C. Penney is sponsoring to participate
in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), an annual event for high school students
to compete against each other and test their robotics skills. To prepare for competitions, the
team was given a box of parts, an objective and six weeks to build the robot.
BRMHS Continues Makeover, New Claiborne to Open!
Renovations of Baton Rouge Magnet High School continue, and the makeover will retain all
the nuances and charm of the older school while updating its interior look and technology
and making expansions. The Government Street site, which was built in 1926, will re-open
in August 2012 after a $45.9-million expansion and renovation. Until then, students will make use
of the former Lee High School campus on Lee Drive. In addition,
work on building the new Claiborne Elementary School
is almost complete, and preparations are being made for a
grand opening and celebration in August -- just in time for
the 2011-2012 school year.
An old mural found beneath the wall
work in one section of BRMHS
Magnet Schools: Tops in Nation Again!
Magnet Schools of America (MSA) has once again
singled out four East Baton Rouge schools for
awards recognizing their curriculum as a standard
of excellence for others in the nation. Baton Rouge Foreign
Language Academic Immersion Magnet School, Sherwood
Middle Magnet School and Westdale Heights Academic Magnet
School each were selected for an MSA Magnet School
of Excellence Award, MSA’s top Merit Award. In addition,
Baton Rouge Center for Visual & Performing Arts (BRCVPA)
received the coveted Magnet School of Distinction Award.
6

Moonbuggy Madness
Ta’Mara Adams and Steven Bradford (pictured,
left to right) pedaled their hearts out
April 1 and 2 in Huntsville, Ala., and helped
the A Team place 18th in the world at the
high school level for Scotlandville Magnet
High School at the international 18th Annual
NASA Great Moonbuggy Race. The
event, held at the U.S. Space & Rocket
Center, also featured the school’s B Team
and its 29th-place vehicle.
Scotlandville High’s teams were two
of more than 80 from across the world and
the only ones from the state of Louisiana to
be in the race. Competitors arrived from
as far away as Russia, India and Ethiopia.
As in years past, students were required
to design a vehicle that addresses
a series of engineering problems similar
to those faced by the original NASA Moonbuggy
team. Each vehicle must be human
powered and carry two students over half
a mile of simulated lunar terrain.
WHS Food Prep, Ag Science
Classes Partner in Learning
Chickens seem
to be creating
a unique partnership
between two
educational programs
at Woodlawn High
School. The school’s
ProStart food prep
classes are learning
how to cook chickens
and eggs. The meat
comes from Wal-
Mart, but the eggs
come from the school’s hen house, which is managed
by the school’s Agriculture Science classes
and Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter
members.
Instructor and
chef Steven Oubre
(above with a student)
has teamed up with Ag
Science teacher Cade
LeJeune in the newly revamped
programs. Ag
students (such as those
pictured at left) learn
how to raise and care for
vegetables and chickens,
and the Food Program utilizes the ingredients --
eggs for cakes and cookies and vegetables for
stews and other treats.
Students have made King Cakes and other
goodies to sell to staff and students, and the Ag
students have sold fresh eggs to the community,
too. Funds are shared for programs, competitions
and materials.
Junior Achievement Hosts Financial Literacy Days
More than 1,500 public school students participated in the Annual Financial Literacy Days
at four schools May 3 and 4. The event was sponsored by The Society of Louisiana
CPAs (LCPA) and Junior Achievement (JA) Greater Baton Rouge & Acadiana. East Baton
Rouge Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden proclaimed May 4 LCPA-JA Financial Literacy Day and
presented a proclamation at Riveroaks Elementary School. With the federal government struggling
with its budget and hard economic times for families, this was an event where CPAs and
concerned citizens joined forces to stimulate young minds about work readiness, entrepreneurship
and money management.
7

iPad Club Members Have Education in Their Pockets
When some students want to make a special presentation or do education research on the
spot, they can! They just take out their portable, WiFi-accessible iPads and make PowerPoint
presentations, surf the Web for information, blog updates on projects or conduct
interactive lessons with classrooms at other schools.
The world is literally in their pockets for students who are members of the iPad Club at
Sherwood Middle Academic Magnet School. The group includes Assistant Principal Jamie Noel and
students Richie Myers, Akosua Allen, Ethan Sam, David Yessayan and Alec Baker plus Eva Smill,
Instructional Technology facilitator with the East Baton Rouge Parish School System’s Office of Professional
Development. They made a presentation of their use of iPads at the fall 2010 Louisiana
Association of Computer Using Educators (LACUE) Conference.
Noel and Smill have been working with a group of students during the 2010-2011 school
year, and club members bring their own iPads to monthly meetings. Plans are to apply for funding
for more iPads next year. At each meeting, students participate in a lesson advisors have developed
to introduce them to new educational applications that support the curriculum. The group
also has created a blog, http://ipadsinthemiddle.blogspot.com, to showcase the lessons.
Getting in Shape!
Not only did the East Baton Rouge Parish
School System’s student team defend its
2010 title, it also walked away with the
2011 Louisiana Schools Elementary Fitness
Meet Championship title once again
after the state meet, which was held April
16 at Louisiana State University.
The district’s state meet participants
included: (pictured, front row, left
to right) coach Marc Luckett (LaSalle Elementary),
coach Carol Revel (Westdale
Heights Academic Magnet School-WHAM),
Chris Williamston (LaSalle), Joshua London
(WHAM), Daisia Rixter (LaSalle),
Malik Kelly (Shenandoah Elementary),
coach Courtney Comeaux (Shenandoah),
(back row, left to right) Jurnee Lindsey
(LaSalle), Alaycia Whitker (Wedgewood
Elementary) and Ken Jenkins (director of
the district’s Student Activities).
The district’s Fitness Meet Team also had several individual winners: Kelly – First Place,
Boys’ Individual Points Total (crowned Mr. Fitness 2011), Williamston – Second Place in Boys’
Individual Points Total and Rixter – Third Place in Girls’ Individual Points Total.
SMHS’ Academy
Receives National
Lead the Way
Certification
Scotlandville Magnet High School and its Academy of Engineering
are heading in the right direction when it comes to innovative and
original engineering programs for students. The school recently
received its national Project Lead The Way (PLTW) certification. The
school “passed with flying colors,” according to the program’s announcement.
Certification tour group members unanimously agreed
Scotlandville High met or exceeded the criteria to be labeled as a
certified PLTW campus. Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Middle School
also is participating in the program locally, and it is working towards
certification.
8

KaBOOM!, Foresters Help Fund School Playgrounds
Sharon Hills Elementary Principal Dawn Hayward
(center) jumps for joy at the playground ribbon
cutting.
The children at Sharon Hills Elementary
School received a brand new playground
March 12 thanks to the efforts of more
than 200 volunteers from Foresters, a life insurance
provider committed to the well-being
of families; East Baton Rouge Parish Schools;
and non-profit KaBOOM!
The new playground will serve 4,500 children
and their families in the Baton Rouge community.
Planning for the playground began at
a Design Day event held in January when local
children and community leaders met with organizers
from KaBOOM! and Foresters to design
their dream playground. The children’s
drawings were then used to create the final
playground design.
Foresters has invested more than $2 million
with KaBOOM! to build 32 playgrounds across North America since 2006. These playgrounds
eventually will serve more than 400,000 children, providing them and their families
with a place where they can play, learn and have fun together.
In less than eight hours, the child-designed playground was built from scratch by hundreds
of volunteers from Foresters, East Baton Rouge Parish Schools and the surrounding community.
In addition, children and families spent the day playing games and participating in arts
and crafts activities.
Children and their families now have a 2,580-square-foot playground to call home that
includes features such as a Horizontal Loop Ladder, an Inclined Cliff Hanger and a Vertical Adventure
Tube.
In addition, the Baton Rouge Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet School
was selected to receive funding for a new KaBOOM! playground thanks to an application by the
school’s Parent Teacher Organization. It was one of 10 schools nationally to receive the funding
with a partial decision made from online voting.
Moot Court Semi-Finalists
Six high school student competitors from the East
Baton Rouge Parish School System representing
the Southern University Law Center (SULC) Marshall-Brennan
Constitutional Literacy Project reached
the semi-final round at the national Third Annual National
Marshall-Brennan High School Moot Court Competition
April 1-3 in Philadelphia.
Student participants included: Istrouma High
School students Timothy Johnson, Jeffrey Tobias and
Lacey Uhiara and Scotlandville Magnet High School
students Dilton Anderson Jr., Tierra Harrison and
Camera Whicker. In November 2010, Whicker won the
area’s regional Third Annual SULC Marshall-Brennan
High School Moot Court Competition.
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Johnson, Tobias, Uhiara, Southern University
Law student Jonathan Reed, Harrison and
Anderson (not pictured: Whicker)

BRCVPA Reading Gains
Earn ACHIEVE3000 Awards
Third-grade
teacher
Cory Lemoine (pictured,
right) was given
the Master Teacher Award
and his school, the Baton
Rouge Center for Visual and
Performing Arts, received
the ACHIEVE3000 Power
of Technology and Reading
and Writing Award May 9 in
a special ceremony. Representatives
of ACHIEVE3000,
as well as East Baton Rouge
Parish School Board member Craig Freeman (left),
helped present the awards.
The awards event recognized the efforts of
students who have significantly improved their reading
scores during the 2010-2011 school year -- along
with the teachers and administrators who helped
them succeed.
At the event, the school received its Power of
Technology Reading and Writing Award. Every year,
ACHIEVE3000 handpicks a few districts and schools
across the country for the award. These schools’ students
have significant reading improvement using the
ACHIEVE3000 solutions. At BRCVPA, that includes
the use of Kid Biz, which is a Web-based reading intervention/comprehension
program used for three
years now with grades 2-5.
Making a Wish: Fifth graders worked a little
magic in mid-May with the production of “Aladdin Jr.” at
Forest Heights Academy of Excellence. Student actors
included (from left) Jaleicia Miller, LaDereka Christian,
Saxon Boudreaux, Kemmyona Moore and Andrew Newton.
10
Banks ES Teachers
‘Pack the Box’ for
Teacher Certification
Various teachers from Banks
Elementary School completed
the complicated task of finalizing
their Take One entries for the
National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards in April and celebrated
by packing up the forms, videos and
classroom-based research during a
“Pack the Box” party.
They assembled forms representing
the culmination of a year’s
worth of job-embedded staff development
with the school faculty and
packed them off for mailing.
Teachers involved in the party
were: Francesca Vergara, Sarahann
Miller, Robert Marks, Arvin Dones, Valencia
Johnson, Deborah Baumann,
Sydney Hebert, Brittany Hutchinson,
Katie Dyess, Edie Gill, Marvin Harris,
Corinne Veach and Sandi Bourque.
3 District Office Pros
Named to State Board
Tanya Brumfield, Debbie Breland
and Marilynn Stokes, three East
Baton Rouge Parish School System
office professionals, were named
to the Louisiana Association of Educational
Office Professionals’ (LAEOP)
Executive Board for 2011-2012.
A swearing-in ceremony was
conducted at the 32nd annual Association
Conference held March 3-5 in
Bossier City.
Brumfield, who is the secretary
to the assistant superintendent of Elementary
Schools-Area I, was named
president-elect. Exceptional Student
Services steno clerk Debbie Breland
is the Board secretary, while Stokes,
an executive school secretary at the
Montgomery Center, was named treasurer.

District Applauds Top Teachers of the Year
East Baton Rouge Parish School System
(EBRPSS) teachers are exceptionally
dedicated, use cutting-edge technology
and have time for those in need no matter
how busy they are. The cream of the crop
rose to the top April 20 when the School System
recognized its Teachers of the Year.
The EBRPSS
2012 Teachers
of the
Year are:
C a n d i c e
Hartley of
W o o d l a w n
E l e m e n t a r y
School, Erica
Hebert, Badeaux and Hartley Badeaux of
S h e r w o o d
Middle Academic Magnet School and Brandon
“The one constant in some of
these children’s lives is the
teacher who fully believes
all students can learn.”
-- Superintendent
John Dilworth
Hebert of the East Baton Rouge Laboratory
Academy.
At the event, which was sponsored by
I CARE, Neighbors Federal Credit Union and
others, nine district finalists for Teachers of
the Year Awards also were honored: Angela
Clare of Westdale Heights Academic Magnet
and Ashley Ransburg of The Dufrocq School,
Lindsey Decoteau of Glasgow and MaShannon
Harris of Westdale middle schools and
Brandon Levatino of Tara and Michele Braud
of Baton Rouge Magnet high schools.
District Principals of the Year
About 85 years of educational experience was represented
by the East Baton Rouge Parish School
System’s three 2010-2011 Principals of the Year
Thursday afternoon, May 5.
The three awards (one at each level) went to the
best and brightest of the district’s principals: Brenda B.
Wilkinson of Winbourne Elementary School, Viola T. Jackson
of Capitol Middle School and Linda W. Lewis of Istrouma
High School.
Pre-School Palooza
On January 22, hundreds of
people turned out at Cortana
Mall for the annual school district
Pre-School Palooza. Sponsored
by Children’s Coalition of Greater Baton
Rouge, Cortana Mall and the district,
the free event offered one-stop
shopping for those with children in, or
entering, pre-school information on
community services available. Preschool
teacher Vicki Landry (pictured)
modeled storytelling and read aloud
to children.
Wilkinson, Jackson and Lewis
11

Glasgow Student Wins Fire Department Decal Art Contest
The Baton Rouge Fire Department turned up the heat on one lucky art student at Glasgow
Middle School March 4 with a special surprise announcement. Television crews were on
hand as Fire Chief Ed Smith entered
the school’s Talented Visual Arts
classroom with an unexpected award
for eighth grader Amber Johnese.
Johnese won the Fire Department’s
student contest for a truck decal
design to commemorate its Class
1 rating. She later unveiled the finished
decal affixed to a fire truck then
joined her mother, Felicia Johnese, in
a flashing-lights, siren-sounded ride to
celebrate her win.
Johnese on a fire truck with her
decal art at lower right
Vols Spruce Up Villa del Rey
S
unday,
April 3, was a sunny day for the GO-Team volunteers
from Istrouma Baptist Church as they spruced
up the campus of Villa del Rey Elementary School.
Volunteers from the church (pictured) painted a map of
the United States
on the basketball
court, cleaned
up the campus
and planted and
mulched flower
beds.
Afterwards,
children stayed
to hunt for Easter
eggs. The
church donated
Easter eggs,
plants, garden
hoses and sprinklers.
ARAMARK provided tools, paint and mulch.
“I AM EXTREMELY PROUD OF
AMBER. SHE IS ALWAYS TRYING
NEW THINGS IN ART AND
COMING UP WITH
EXCELLENT PRODUCTS.”
In the fall of 2010, student contestants were asked to
design a decal commemorating the Class 1 rating of the
Baton Rouge Fire Department. There were 29 total entries
in the contest. The Baton Rouge Fire Department was the
first city in the United States to receive such a prestigious
honor. The First Class 1 rating was achieved in 1980 and
has been upheld every year since. This rating is important
to the citizens of Baton Rouge. It not only reflects the outstanding
service provided to them, but it also helps keep
insurance rates low.
The concept of the contest was to have the art students
design a decal that will go on all fire department
apparatuses and vehicles to display the fire department’s
accomplishment. The winner was chosen by a panel that
included the fire chief and his administrators and a representative
of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.
12
-- tALENTED VISUAL ART
TEACHER GEETA DAVE
Career-Tech at Tara
Tara High
School Career
and Technical
Internship
and Marketing
Cooperative
programs recently
recognized
student
e m p l o y e e s
and employers.
This included students who participated
in Career Technical Education
(CTE) or the Distributive Education
Clubs of America (DECA) programs.
Marketing Education Students of the
Year Awards went to seniors Kailah
Battley (left) and Steven Jones (right),
who celebrated with Principal Luanne
Estess. Lakendra Taylor was the CTE
Internship Student of the Year.

Dentists ‘Give Kids
A Smile’ This Spring
DeQualon Haywood of Delmont Elementary
was all smiles after his
check-up at Just Kids Dental.
About 600 elementary students
received free dental
care in February and March
thanks to the Give Kids A Smile
(GKAS) Project. As part of the
National Children’s Dental Health
Month, dentists donated services
and supplies to give first and second
graders free dental exams.
The services included free
screenings, oral hygiene instruction,
general dental check-ups
and sometimes cleanings or sealant
applications.
The Louisiana Dental Association
(LDA), the Greater Baton
Rouge Dental Association,
Health Centers in Schools (HCS),
the Children’s Coalition of Greater
Baton Rouge and the school
district teamed up to provide
educational materials and dental
screenings, as well as preventive
care, to selected children in
need.
The effort was part of the
American Dental Association’s
(ADA) National Give Kids A Smile
(GKAS) Program. According to
the Center for Disease Control,
nearly one in four children between
2 and 11 years old has
untreated cavities in their baby
teeth.
Istrouma JROTC Wins at State
Although Istrouma High School has not had a Junior
Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) team compete
at the state level in more than 10 years, the
school’s drill team won first place in February in the state’s
Unarmed Drill Exhibition. The Louisiana JROTC State Drill
Meet, held at Northwestern State University, included 29
school JROTC teams in competition. The team is coached
by Sgt. First Class Mickey McBride and Mstr. Sgt. Luciano
Malone.
Also among the teams representing the East Baton
Rouge Parish School System were: Belaire, Glen Oaks,
Northeast, Scotlandville Magnet, Tara and Woodlawn high
schools.
Cassidy Gives School U.S. Flag
During a flag presentation ceremony held February
3, U.S. Congressman William Cassidy, M.D., presented
Mayfair Middle School with a U.S. flag that
had flown over the U.S. Capitol. The flag was presented to
school staff who are veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.
After Mayfair Middle moved to its current site, the school
was without a flag. A School Board member requested one
from Cassidy, who also spoke to students about the importance
of recognizing and honoring military veterans.
13
Rock ‘n’
LEAP
Ryan Elementary
students held a Rock
Rally to get motivated
to take the
iLEAP and LEAP tests
in April. Students
dressed as rock stars
to “De-Stress and
Rock That Test!”

Lowe’s Funds 2 Schools’ Outdoor Reading Sites
Thanks to the generosity of the Lowe’s Foundation,
two East Baton Rouge Parish School
System elementary schools have new outdoor
reading sites for students.
A $5,000 Lowe’s Foundation Toolbox for Education
Grant and the hard work of community volunteers
resulted in three outdoor reading and study
areas being created at Jefferson Terrace Elementary
School. The grant was awarded to instructional specialist
Ellen Floyd for the school.
These outdoor areas will be used by community
volunteers, known as Reading Buddies, who visit the
school on a weekly basis to work with select students.
Each Book Buddy Bench area has been landscaped with plants, shrubs and trees and will include
tables and benches.
In addition, the Lowe’s Foundation provided a $3,800 grant to Riveroaks Elementary
School, which allowed construction of a new outdoor Reading Garden at the school by 60-plus
community volunteers. To celebrate, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on April 8. At the
event, the teacher who received the grant, Candace Landry, read the first story in the garden.
Target Funds Field Trips
Four East Baton Rouge
Parish School System
teachers, Melissa Morissey
of Audubon Elementary
School, Ellen Floyd of
Jefferson Terrace Elementary
School, Mark Zweig of
Glasgow Middle and Genedi
Shamburger of Woodlawn
High School, each were
awarded a $700 Target Field
Trip Grant. The grants have
allowed the teachers to use
the valuable experiential
learning gained from field
trips to enhance students’
classroom studies.
Zweig, Morissey, Shamburger
and Floyd
Morissey and Floyd used their grants to take 75
Audubon Elementary first graders and 105 Jefferson Terrace
Elementary second and third graders to the Global
Wildlife Center. As a part of a unit on ecosystems, Zweig
used his award to take 100 seventh-grade students on
a photo scavenger hunt at the Baton Rouge Zoo. Funds
from Shamburger’s award allowed 58 French students to
experience the history and culture of Louisiana at the historic
Acadian Village of Vermilionville.
14
Jefferson Terrace volunteers Blake Vetera
of HNTB Corporation and teacher Mark
Barth
Southeast Middle
Opens Parent Centers
With a ribbon-cutting ceremony
on February 14, Southeast Middle
School opened two centers to provide
a space on campus for parents
to meet with teachers; access computers,
a fax machine and telephone;
and get information about the school
and other district and community
services. “This is just another step to
make our school a ‘community,’” said
Principal Amber Renee Boyd. Participating
in the ribbon-cutting ceremony
were (left to right) Marlon Cousin
(Parental Involvement), David Tatman
(School Board member), Boyd
and Nancy LeBlanc (PTO president).

Glasgow Art Students ‘Bug’ Museum Exhibit
Gifted and Talented Art students took on the subject of “The
Beauty of Small Creatures: Can Bugs Be Art?” this semester
in sculpting and painting larger-than-life bugs at Glasgow
Middle School. The artwork was so good it was shown at the Ogden
Museum in New Orleans in March and April. Now the student art is
being exhibited at the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans through
late May.
Students from Glasgow Middle School modeled their art after
some of the rarest and most unique bugs in the world. Students enlarged
the bugs from between one-eighth or one-fourth of an inch as
a living creature to 2-feet long as sculptures. The purpose of enlarging
the bugs was so these small, beautiful creatures were easier to
view. It also served to help people appreciate insects, not fear them.
In addition, students got science lessons on issues such as bug habitats
to go along with the art instruction.
The bugs sculptured were from around the world, and they
were inspired by national bug mosaic artist Christopher Marley.
VIPS’ Faith Partners Meeting
T
he
Volunteers In Public Schools (VIPS) We
Believe in Children Council hosted a “Faith
Communities In Action” Open House February
9 at Capitol Elementary School. It allowed
representatives of Baton Rouge faith groups to
witness how three diverse congregations have
united to support Capitol Elementary. The We
Believe In Children Council facilitates effective
partnerships with East Baton Rouge Parish
School System sites that support academic
success. Capitol Elementary partners with St.
Paul Lutheran, Elm Grove Baptist and St. Mary
Baptist churches.
Graduation Certification
Forty-two middle and high school counselors
and graduation coaches/facilitators represented
the East Baton Rouge Parish School
System January 24-25 at the Career Pathways
Leadership Conference at Dutchtown High School
in Geismar, La. By doing so, they completed their
national Career Pathways Leadership certification.
The conference registration was covered by
the School System’s Office of Career and Technical
Education in keeping with the district’s Strategic
Plan -- 100 percent of the school counselors
and graduation coaches/facilitators completed
this national certification. The entire certification
process took two school years.
15
Student Ningyin Zhao and
her stag beetle sculpture
O’Shaughnessy Foundation
Grants $32,000 for Netbooks
The East Baton Rouge Laboratory Academy
is the recipient of a $32,000 grant
from the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Foundation.
Funds from the award were used to provide
each of the school’s 90 ninth-grade students
with a small lightweight, portable computer
known as a Netbook. The students have used
their Netbooks at school and at home to access
resources, collaborate with peers, publish
on the Web and acquire many other skills they
will need to succeed in the 21st Century.
The I.A. O’Shaughnessy Foundation
was established in 1941 by Ignatius Aloysius
(I.A.) O’Shaughnessy. His Foundation is focused
on providing grants to “support highquality
education that prepares students in
disadvantaged communities for educational
and life success.”
Netbook-using students with Principal Molly
Williams (third from left)

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Sherwood Middle Wins National Counseling Award
The American School Counselor Association
(ASCA) has awarded Sherwood Middle Academic
Magnet School the prestigious Recognized
American School Counselor Association
Model Program (RAMP) Award.
The school’s counselors, Mary Ann Robbins,
Ellen DeCuir and Missy Frye, will be honored
during a special ceremony at the ASCA’s annual
Rodrigue Paints ‘Blue Dog’ at Dufrocq, Donates Art Supplies
Blue skies and blue dogs. That’s what The Dufrocq School
Pre-K students enjoyed February 24 during a special visit
by renowned Louisiana “Blue Dog” artist George Rodrigue.
The artist, his George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts
and the local organization, Forum 35, were on hand to donate
a $2,000 Arts Closet Kit of arts supplies to the elementary
school – enough to supply them for a whole year!
Rodrigue and his son, Jacques, did a live art demonstration
with students that was facilitated by the Foundation’s
art project. Jacques read from his father’s children’s book,
“Why Is Blue Dog Blue?,” to students while his father painted
an original “Blue Dog” behind him. The large painting was
done on a reflective silver canvas with Rodrigue occasionally
asking students what color he should paint various aspects of
the piece.
Afterwards, Rodrigue joined the students as they painted
their own versions of the “Blue Dog” at cafeteria tables.
Rodrigue painting at Dufrocq
At one point, he was joined by East Baton Rouge City-Parish Mayor-President Melvin “Kip”
Holden, who grabbed a brush and began his own work of art. The students also enjoyed refreshments,
including cupcakes airbrushed with the “Blue Dog” image.
Two EBRPSS Staff Win Symphony Music Teacher Awards
The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra awards recently bestowed
on two East Baton Rouge Parish School System
teachers were sweet music to their ears. Jennifer Pearce
hit a high note at Parkview Elementary School as the 2011 Classroom
Teacher of the Year, while Winbourne Elementary School’s
Stephen Watkins earned the Symphony Orchestra’s Educator
of Distinction Award (there were six finalists). Both were recognized
March 3 at the Baton Rouge Symphony Masterworks
concert held at the River Center Theater.
Pearce
16
conference June 27 in Seattle.
The RAMP designation is awarded to
schools whose counseling programs align with
the criteria set forth in the ASCA National Model.
Only 98 schools were selected nationwide to receive
this award in 2011, and Sherwood Middle
Academic Magnet School is the only Louisiana
school chosen.
Watkins