LaPESC Releases Positioning Statement; Wants Collaboration Between School Board Members, Superintendent

The Lafayette Parish Public Education Stakeholder's Council wants the Lafayette Parish School Board to "govern" and "set policy...and let [Superintendent Dr. Pat Cooper] do his job."

Jan Swift, who joined "Nathan & Bernie in the Morning," said the community would like to see more of a "collaborative effort" between Cooper and members of the school board.

"Everybody supports the teachers and the kids," Swift said. "We elect our school board members to govern. The longer this [the ongoing conflicts between Cooper and the board] continues--I think the community continues to be turned off--we're not going to work as a team to build the facilities that we need to get our achievements up."

State Rep. Nancy Landry has filed a bill, which passed 9-8 in committee Wednesday, would prevent school boards coercing superintendents and principals when they are hiring, firing, or signing employees. Swift said that bill would allow superintendent to act as the CEO he was intended to be, while the school board set policy.

"It's not like this is a new issue. We've been going through this for decades," Swift said. "You can see the results in our crumbling facilities and a lot of it is community lackluster support because they don't like what they see."