Calcasieu request denied.

In a BESE Regulation Waiver Request dated April 29, 2021, Calcasieu Parish Superintendent Karl Bruchhaus submitted a request to waive state requirements that 1.) End of Course LEAP 2025 scores count as 20% of a student’s final course grade, and 2.) graduation and promotion be dependent upon passing required End of Course LEAP 2025 assessments. In a special meeting held on May 12, 2021, BESE approved request #1 and denied request #2. Click here to read the request.

There is no denying that the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year has been a very trying year for the entire country. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools across the nation in March and April of 2020, and the federally mandated requirements for state assessments and accountability were suspended for most, if not every, state.

So why would the superintendent of the school system ranked 5th in both population and revenue request an additional assessment waiver? Well, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, this bustling school system located in southwest Louisiana suffered through not one, not two, not three, but four federally declared disasters. At the time that Supt. Bruchhaus submitted the waiver request, the Calcasieu Parish School System had sustained major damage from two Category 4 hurricanes (Laura and Delta) and Winter Storm Viola. Just a few weeks after the request was submitted, almost the entirety of the Lake Charles city limits experienced catastrophic flooding.

I wanted to make these points because Louisiana Revised Statute 17:10.1 Section C requires BESE to establish a policy to invalidate the assessment data any school district affected by a natural disaster as shown below:

Anytime a new law is passed, or an existing law is amended, the affected agency has the responsibility of promulgated rules that adhere to the law. The current BESE policy includes one that is authorized by R.S. 17:10.1

In addition to establishing a policy, BESE also established that at least one of the two conditions shown below be met for scores to be invalidated.

This policy is important to understand because when using the formula provided, Calcasieu Parish suffered an 18% loss in enrollment; therefore, the 2nd requirement wasn’t met; however, when you consider the first requirement that schools be closed for 18 consecutive days, it appears that BESE denied the request in a vacuum without considering that the original school start day was pushed back from August 13th to August 25th (12 days) due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, school did not start on the 25th because a tropical weather warning was reported and the school system remained closed due to the approaching Hurricane Laura. It wasn’t until October 2nd that schools began rolling openings (40 consecutive days), and then with only a handful of schools open, schools were closed again on October 6th due to Hurricane Delta. After Hurricane Delta, rolling openings began on October 19th (50 days consecutive). It wasn’t until October 29th (58 consecutive days) and well into November before every school was open to receive students.

As if this wasn’t enough, after the local school board eliminated a few inservice days, Spring break days, and extended the school year an additional week to recover some of the lost days, Winter Storm Viola forced a three day school closure, and in May, catastrophic flooding forced school closures for another four days. All in all, the 179 day school year was not in session for nearly 70 days. Even if you consider the late start due to COVID-19, the consecutive days missed far exceed 18 days. Additionally, the four federally declared disasters resulted in nearly 40% of the regular school year shot to shit. In its infinite wisdom, BESE denied the request to waive End of Course requirements for advancement and graduation because of a statute that was passed in response to a single catastrophic event with no expectation that multiple events would occur in the same year.

Let’s examine some of the reasons that BESE failed in its duty and exhibited a lack of compassion for the students, parents, and teachers of Calcasieu parish. Below, I’ll list some of the hardships that I have witnessed just at my school; one of more than sixty schools.

• One of my students contracted COVID-19 and lost a grandparent to it. Another lost three grandparents.
• One coworker rode out Hurricane Laura in a house with her ninety year old father enduring weeks without power. She lost her father just over a week ago.
• At last count, roughly two dozen of my coworkers are living in campers.
• One coworker had minimal damage from Laura, and just three days after getting a new roof, Hurricane Delta took the new roof and damaged the interior.
• One coworker was preparing to build a new home, and living in a camper with all of the family’s belonging stored in a metal building before Hurricane Laura and lost everything in storage.
• The coworker shown below suffered damage to her home, and after growing tired of living in a camper purchased another home to live in while the first home was being repaired, and the second home was flooded in the 4th federally declared disaster. Now both homes are gutted.
• Roughly half of my students were unable to attend their homeschool because they were displaced out of town, and of the half that were able to attend, roughly half were not living in their homes.
• The location where the two story home once own by Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Shannon Lafargue, is now nothing but a dirt mound.
• One person in my neighborhood began construction after Hurricane Laura, suffered additional damage from Hurricane Delta, had to start over when the winter storm bursted pipes and filled the house with water, then finally, got flooded in May. But, hey! Testing!!

I know there are those who will try to discredit what I am saying by pointing out that most of what I’ve listed relates to teachers, but the point missed is that if all of these teachers, at one school, have suffered this much, imagine what the students across the parish have endured. There is no valid reason for BESE to insist that the students in Calcasieu parish meet End of Course requirements during a school year such as this. It displays a total lack of compassion, understanding, and concern for the mental health of ALL of the people involved in the success of our students. BESE must hold an emergency meeting to either reconsider the waiver request, or make a policy change that eliminates the unintended limitations.

Below, I’ve included a FaceBook post of a coworker who has suffered and endured more than I can even imagine, yet in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura when my family and I were evacuated to Arkansas without the financial resources to cover lodging, travel back home, or begin repairs, she sent me money to help us out. My message to BESE…you have no idea.