Zachary May Add More Teachers Officials Say School District Has 200 More Students Than Last Year
Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 18:00 CDT
ZACHARY - The Zachary Community School District may have to add one or more teachers at each of its four schools because of enrollment increases, Superintendent Warren Drake said after the first day of classes Wednesday.
Drake said the first-day enrollment was 3,320 students, about 200 more than were registered on the first day of classes last year.
"We may have more than that, but I hope people understand that school started today and you need to be here," Drake said.
The Zachary district is in its third year of operations, having won federal court approval, along with Baker, to separate from the East Baton Rouge Parish system effective July 1, 2003.
Teachers and other employees began the year Monday with a general assembly at a church auditorium and school-level meetings the rest of the day and on Tuesday.
"Our third-year opening was our smoothest ever," Drake said.
Drake said enrollment in 2003 was 3,050 students, but the next year the system lost about 80 students from outside the district who were enrolled in Zachary through the former "minority to majority" desegregation plan.
Despite the loss of the Baker-area students, enrollment still climbed to about 3,100 on the first day of classes last year.
"Our class sizes are higher than we would like and higher than what the School Board expects," Drake said.
"We may add another teacher at each school," he said.
Recruiting new teachers after school has started can be a delicate matter because a district could run into criticism for "raiding" neighboring districts for personnel, Drake acknowledged.
"And we really have to work together," he said.
Although pre-kindergarten students attended Wednesday, the 5- year-olds in kindergarten will go today for the first time.
Because many parents want to bring their pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade children to school on the opening day, the street in front of Northwestern Elementary turned into a one- way route with cars parked on both sides of Rollins Road.
"The (nearby) BREC park was absolutely full," Drake said.
With the arrival of 260 registered kindergarten children today, Drake said he expects traffic to be heavy around the campus.
The Zachary school system contracts with a private company, First Student Inc., for transportation.
Drake estimated that about 50 percent of the students rode buses Wednesday. "We hope they will ride the bus," he said.
Construction is under way on classroom additions and other improvements at Zachary and Northwestern elementary schools, and a new elementary school is being built on La. 964 south of La. 64.
Bids will be opened Aug. 19 for a major construction project at Zachary High School, and bids soon will be advertised for replacing Northwestern Middle School with a new building.
Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.
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