Superintendent To Ask Lafayette School Board For Mediation

Lafayette Parish Superintendent Dr. Pat Cooper confirms to Kpel that he is suggesting that he and the Lafayette Parish School Board work to together and go to mediation to settle their differences.

Cooper is asking members of the board to agree to hold two sessions sometime in the next several weeks.

Cooper says one session would be to deal with mediation, and the other would be to focus on the state's Act I law that deals with structure for school systems across the state.

There have been multiple issues between members of the board and Dr. Cooper on a variety of issues including his hiring of a special assistant who did not have high school diploma required by the description of the job, complaints about discipline issues in the school system, the coast of legal representation and school construction.

The items have been place on the agenda for Wednesday night's meeting as introductory items, but Cooper says he hopes the board will move the items into the action section so they can handle the issues quickly.