New Orleans School Board May Hire Truancy Officer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans school board wants to spend more than $100,000 to hire a truancy director, even though the Recovery School District already has that responsibility for all public schools operating in the city.

The board's finance committee approved $80,000 in salary and $29,160 in benefits, The Times-Picayune reports.

Expulsion and truancy matters are centralized under the state Recovery School District, which took over most of the city's schools after Hurricane Katrina.

A truancy center opened in 2007 as a collaboration between the Recovery School District and the New Orleans Police Department.

Orleans school system interim Superintendent Stan Smith says the new staffer would be hired soon to navigate a transition year, after which he said the system will take over the truancy center from the Recovery School District.