Teachers from across Louisiana are in Baton Rouge today as the House Education Committee takes up key pieces of Governor Bobby Jindal's controversial education reforms package. Many of those reforms struck down by a state district judge as unconstitutional and now await the state supreme court.  While he says everything is under control, Lafayette Parish Superintendent of Schools Dr. Pat Cooper, adds that 57 teachers either took personal leave or sick time at Lafayette High School today.

Cooper says,

" We're all in favor of teachers having a voice, but the teacher organization, L-A-E, has paid people who can represent them and I was hoping they would do this on their own, try to coordinate this a little bit better so that you wouldn't have one school that had too many teachers out, but I've learned a lesson, they're not going to do that and so we are going to have to help them do that next time."

The superintendent says they had to try to find 25 substitutes today and that many parents come to Lafayette High today and checked their students out.

Cooper says about today's situation at Lafayette High School,

"It has caused some problems.  We were suppose to do 'end of course' testing today, and we've had to push that back.  A lot of kids were checking out, the parents were alarmed.  It's been kind of a fiasco in a way although Dr. Leonard and his staff has stepped up to the plate, and they've done a great job. I just think that the teacher's union let us down on this one.  The teachers are doing magnificiently well, they stayed in their classrooms and they're working really hard, but at Lafayette High, which is suppose to be our flagship school, I just don't feel like that the words at the school boardings that are, 'we care about the kids, we want to have face time with the kids'.....and they might as well have shut that school down today."

Across the district some 152 teachers either took sick time or personal time today.

More From News Talk 96.5 KPEL