|
|
Welcome, Parents ::..
 A child’s education is one of the most important concerns parents have, and good information about schools is important to parents living in the community and those relocating to the area. The School System offers numerous information sources, including the System Web site, which is designed to provide timely, factual information about the System and schools. Parents are encouraged to visit the Web site frequently and take advantage of the other information sources mentioned throughout the site.
 In St. Tammany public schools, we value the confidence and support parents give us in our efforts to provide students a high-quality education in a caring environment for learning. We also value the tremendous parental involvement in our schools, which underpins the success of our students and School System. Parents are encouraged to take an active role in the partnership between home and school.
Good communication is an important component of that partnership. School and School System officials welcome questions and input from parents and offer many opportunities for parents to become involved in decision affecting schools.
Slidell Area PTAs Conduct Drive To Help Cameron Parish School
Spearheaded by the Northshore High School PTA, a major collection effort to help Hackberry High School recover from damage caused by Hurricane Ike was held recently by five PTA groups in the Slidell area.
“It was the first time I can remember that several PTA chapters, from kindergarten through high school, all worked together on a single project,” said Sharon Hewitt of the NHS PTA. “We pooled our efforts, each chapter doing its own thing, and it was amazing how people came together for this project. It was an opportunity to give back for all the help and compassion we got after Hurricane Katrina.”
Hackberry High School was hit by two feet of water during Hurricane Ike, and the other Cameron Parish high school south of Lake Charles had nine feet of water go through it. “Johnson Bayou High School was destroyed, and all of its students now travel another 45 minutes on buses to go to Hackberry High,” Ms. Hewitt said.
Northshore High PTA members talked with Principal Michael Peterson, who said that several faculty members were also talking about doing something to help a school in southwest Louisiana that had been hit hard by the September hurricanes.
When Hewitt talked to Cameron Parish school officials, their top request was for school uniforms, not just for high school students, but all the way down to Kindergarten, since the school was now teaching 300 children across all grade levels. That prompted Northshore PTA officers to contact PTA officers at other elementary, middle, and junior high schools in the Slidell area to ask for help in the drive. From there, it took off.
They gave themselves a week to collect the money, secure the items and deliver them to Hackberry, since the schools were reopening soon. The total money collected came to $5000, thanks in part to “passing the hat” at two homecoming football games and a band festival at Northshore High that brought in band students from across a wide area.
“Someone dropped off 300 uniform shirts at Honey Island Elementary, we don’t even know who it was,” Hewitt said. “Little Oak’s PTA took $90 out of their budget, shopped around for bargains throughout south Louisiana and Mississippi, and came back with $1800 worth of uniforms they had found on sale.”
The donated khakis were laundered at no charge by the local St. Tammany Association for Retarded Citizens commercial washing service.
It was a four hour drive from Slidell to Hackberry, with a truck driven by a worker
from the School System’s maintenance department. They hauled 40 boxes stuffed with khaki pants and other items. Several members of the Northshore High football team went with them, to help unload the boxes at Hackberry High School. The shirts were ordered from a supplier, who shipped them directly to the school. All total, there were 800 pairs of khakis and enough shirts for every student to receive three.
The St. Tammany visitors found Hackberry High a school where the wall insulation and flooring had been ripped out, and teachers and students were working on concrete. “But the teachers and administrators were really resilient,” Hewitt said. “They were determined to have their schools re-opened within six weeks of the hurricane. It kind of reminded us of what we had been through during Katrina and how quickly we wanted our schools to be up and running again.”
Cameron Parish officials indicated that they had become aware of one more needed item, and that was a fabric book bag organizer that hung on the backs of chairs in the lower grades. “They had the younger kids sitting in high school sized desks, and the students didn’t have any place to put their books and stuff,” Hewitt explained. “We searched the internet, found an organization in nearby DeRidder that made the chairback bags, and had them put together enough of them for the lower grade students at Hackberry. Everything just seemed to fall into place.”
Even after all the purchases, the group had $1300 left in its project fund, and when they went to Hackberry to deliver the items, PTA officers “kept our ears open” for any thing else that might be needed. The horrific story of the librarian at Johnson Bayou High School helped them decide to donate the money to help buy books for the library there once the school is opened again.
“The librarian said she had placed all the books into plastic bags and put them on top of the shelving units five feet off the floor. But when the nine feet of water came through, it just churned the books and furniture around and around,” Hewitt commented.
The whole project turned out to be a heartfelt reminder of the many groups and individuals who came from all over the nation to help out Slidell schools after Hurricane Katrina. “We found the faculty at Hackberry to be amazingly upbeat,” Hewitt said. “They weren’t wanting to complain about it, they were just making do with what they had, and they were making it work.”
Northshore School of the Arts Offers Programs
The St. Tammany Parish Public School System and the Northshore School of the Arts (NSA) of Southeastern Louisiana University are continuing to work together to provide additional opportunities for high school students who want to take part in university-level advanced arts studies.
Students participating in the program are able to receive advanced instruction in the performing and visual arts while still attending public high school in St. Tammany Parish. Students earn college credits in the program, and, if desired, they can advance in pursuit of a degree in the arts when they graduate high school.
The Northshore School of the Arts aims to help high school juniors and seniors who are committed to the arts make a smoother transition to college as well as earn credit for courses in basic drawing, theatre, music theory, and applied music.
Participants attend evening classes at Southeastern Louisiana University, either at the Hammond campus or St. Tammany area SLU Center for hands-on instruction in college-level courses.
The NSA seeks to bring to life the talents of our “artists of the future,” whose creative abilities in music, visual arts, and theatre are nurtured, inspired, and guided by experienced Southeastern faculty and staff, according to Charlotte Collins, the program’s first permanent director. The NSA has portfolio, interview, or audition entrance requirements and is offered to high school juniors and seniors only. Classes are designed to reinforce instruction available in the public schools.
CLICK HERE for course and contact information and for an application to enroll in the Northshore School of the Arts. Please click on the Subscribe button to get updates on the growing list of opportunities available through the NSA.
For current course offerings and tuition/fee information, please visit the NSA Web site at http://www.selu.edu/nsa or contact:
Charlotte Collins, Director
SLU Box 10388
Magee Hall, Room 206
Hammond, LA 70402
985-549-2568 and 985-549-5014 (fax)
Student of the Year Information for 2008-2009
For information and application guidelines for the 2008-2009 Student of the Year Recognition Program, click here.
Summer Video Institute Trains Students In TV Production
Fifteen high school students from the St. Tammany Parish Public School System took part in an intensive one-week Summer Video Institute recently, learning video production techniques from shooting raw footage and standup commentary in the field to final editing procedures in the studio.
The seventh annual summer video program brought outstanding broadcast journalism students together with the experienced staff members of Channel 13, the School Board’s educational cable television channel. Each staff member led a class of four students as they created a video documentary from beginning to end. The institute included instruction on how to best tell a story employing camera handling techniques, lighting and music overlays.
A video festival held on the final day of the institute premiered the finished videos. One showcased the Abita Springs Opry; another the thoroughbred horse training industry; another the Bayou Lacombe Rural Museum; and, the fourth, a video overview of safe boating tips for teenagers. A fifth video produced by Channel 13 intern Chris Hewitt featured behind-the-scenes clips from all four.
The student-produced videos will be broadcast on Channel 13. They can also be viewed on the School System Web site by clicking on the links below.:
Abita Springs Opry
Thoroughbred horse training industry
Bayou Lacombe Rural Museum
Safe Boating Tips for Teenagers
Melody Swang, Director of Broadcasting for the School System, said, “We had a wonderful week; and, I must say, this has been the best institute we’ve had yet. The students came to us with some valuable experience from their school broadcasting programs and worked really hard for us.”
Instructors agreed that the “kids were awesome” and they were proud of what they had accomplished. The institute is a learning experience also for some the instructors, who came from television news production and were new to the idea of educating teenagers about their craft.
Learning the basics of camera work, editing, and post production, the students came with a wide range of experience. Most of them are interested in professional broadcast journalism careers, so the institute is a extra boost to their education. |
 |
| Stay informed about your child’s progress in school by using STI Home Access. STI provides parents and students access to class grades and attendance. Use the link provided on this Web site or consult your school principal about logging on to the system.
|
Personal Data Error Is Reported by State Board of Regents
The Louisiana Board of Regents has reported that it inadvertently posted on its Web site personal data, including social security numbers, of some students across the state who took part in the Louisiana State Educational Planning and Assessment Plan (EPAS) test between 2001 and 2003. The Board of Regents staff removed the personal data earlier this month, within hours of being notified that it was accessible.
" A security firm has been hired to determine whether the information was accessed by anyone or has been used in a malicious manner," according to State Superintendent of Education Paul G. Pastorek, in a special notice he sent to all school superintendents.
Parents with questions about the posting may contact the Board of Regents for more information at the web page http://notice.regents.state.la.us or call Kevin Hardy at 225-342-4253. CLICK HERE for more information. |
Financial Aid Office Issues Notice of Possible Data Loss
The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOSFA) recently alerted students and parents of the loss of back-up media that includes personal information on individuals participating in, or considered for participation in, programs administered by LOSFA. The information includes data from anyone who has applied for or received a TOPS Scholarship.
Click Here for notice about the breach of security.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
