EDUCATION

The latest news and information on New Orleans area schools

• Cooler school buses on the way
The St. Charles Parish School Board will buy air-conditioned school buses this year, starting a journey that eventually will result in its entire fleet being equipped with air.

• Schools chief gets state honor
Recognized for innovation in education, St. Tammany Parish schools Superintendent Gayle Sloan has been named the 2009 state Superintendent of the Year.

• SUNO's top cop quits amid inquiry
The top police officer at Southern University at New Orleans resigned Tuesday, hours after the release of a report from the state inspector general accusing her of running personal errands when she should have been working, giving herself excessive overtime and skipping the required annual firearms test for five years.

• Teachers' union proposal rejected
In a split vote, the Orleans Parish School Board on Tuesday rejected a collective bargaining agreement as one of its final acts before five new members take office in January.

• UNO event to explore wide world of GIS
Feel like celebrating the technology that made possible such advances as Google maps and the global positioning devices that let you find your way in strange neighborhoods?

• Carville the class clown to get serious at Tulane
James Carville, the colorful political mastermind whose strategy helped propel Bill Clinton into the White House, will join Tulane University's political science faculty in the spring to teach an undergraduate course on this year's presidential election.

• Demoted workers get new SUNO jobs
Two Southern University at New Orleans employees who were demoted after calling attention to what they felt was a fraudulent enrollment scheme started new jobs Monday at the Lakefront campus.

• Alumna to discuss media roles in the Middle East
A Loyola University graduate who has covered the Middle East will return to her alma mater tonight to discuss the media's role in that part of the world.

• Teachers clothing tests Jeff schools
Should teachers be allowed to wear capri pants and blue jeans in the classroom? At some Jefferson Parish public schools, they are. At others, they aren't.

• Tulane hails relaxing of foreign lawyer rules
A Louisiana Supreme Court order this past week that allows lawyers from foreign countries with work visas to practice law in Louisiana will help the Tulane University Law School, the school's dean said Saturday.

• Ground broken for Slidell school
Three years and three months after the original school was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, work has begun on a new Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School in Slidell.

• Storm in 2009 would trim break
St. Charles Parish students will have fair warning next school year that their Thanksgiving vacation could be cut short if another hurricane forces schools to close.

• Vouchers add life to private schools in city
After Hurricane Katrina flooded its building and scattered its families, the Upperroom Bible Church Academy kept its elementary school open -- barely.

• Luling church given reprieve by board
St. Charles Parish School Board President John Smith said the board will give preservationists time to try to save the old St. Anthony of Padua Church in Luling, but he warned the time is limited.

• Union surveys teachers ahead of talks
With less than eight months remaining in its contract with the School Board, the Jefferson Parish teachers union has begun talks with teachers to solicit their comments on salaries, class size and other issues.

• Council refuses to view teen's tape
Warned that it could affect litigation involving the Youth Study Center, the New Orleans City Council on Tuesday refused to allow the showing of a three-minute video about alleged problems at the city-run juvenile detention facility.

• Early College High holding open house
The Capital One-UNO Charter Network will host open house sessions at Pierre A. Capdau Early College High School, 4621 Canal St., on Thursday.

• Lecture studies role of women in '08 elections
If you are looking for more information and insights on last week's election, the Newcomb College Institute has a lecture for you on Thursday at noon.

• Schools look for advice on security
The St. Charles Parish School Board will seek a security consultant to advise it on beefing up school security systems.

• Storms force change of plans
St. Charles Parish public school officials are revising the district's hurricane response plan based on lessons learned this year during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

• N.O. schools to host open houses
The Capital One-UNO Charter Network will host several open house events at its schools over the next two months.

• Program to improve schools, educators
Applications are due Thursday for the 12th annual School Leadership Center Fellows Program.

• Schools rewarded for ACT progress
Two St. John the Baptist Parish high schools and one in St. James Parish were honored recently for raising their ACT scores, as well as the number of students taking the college-readiness test over the past five years.

• Multicultural education meetings start on Wednesday
Southern University at New Orleans will be the host institution for a five-day conference on multicultural education that will start Wednesday at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.

• System sought to monitor charter schools
New Orleans' recent rapid-fire embrace of charter schools propelled the city to the vanguard of national education reform circles. But state and local educators are only now working on a charter-oversight system that demands performance and allows schools autonomy at the same time.

• Parish schools rank 3rd in state
Receiving a districtwide score for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, the St. Tammany Parish public school district ranked third in the state for school performance, accountability results released Friday for the 2007-08 school year show.

• School scores rise in River Parishes
Both St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes improved their school district performance scores last year, according to figures released Friday.

• Scores for Jeff schools delayed as state recalculates
BATON ROUGE -- As it released new performance scores for almost every public school system in the state Friday, the Department of Education withheld most of those for Jefferson Parish.

• $2 billion schools plan OK'd
The Orleans Parish School Board voted to approve a public school facilities master plan Thursday, pushing ahead on the largest school building effort in the city's history.

• Jeff board defers vote on magnet grades
If a gifted student scores a D or an F in Latin or physical education, but has Bs and As in every other subject, should that student automatically get booted from a Jefferson Parish magnet school?

• School panel agrees to put grades 2-5 in new elementary
St. Tammany Parish school officials on Thursday approved a recommendation to house grades two through five at the new elementary school near Madisonville.

• St. John aims for good bond rate
St. John the Baptist Parish school officials are optimistic that bonds to finance construction projects will sell at a low interest rate.

• Board to vote on schools overhaul
The Orleans Parish School Board likely will vote to support a revised public schools facilities master plan tonight, bringing the sweeping construction and renovation plan a step closer to reality.

• IMPROVEMENTS AHEAD
St. John the Baptist Parish School Board President Gerald Keller said voters graded the district's tax propositions and gave them an A-plus.

• Meeting to focus on library for Paradis
A town hall meeting to discuss when and how to build a new St. Charles Parish library in the Paradis area will be held Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the J.B. Martin Middle School, the parish's library board decided Tuesday.

• Roussel tells state to release test scores
Angry over implications that they have done something underhanded, Jefferson Parish school officials Wednesday demanded that the Louisiana Department of Education release the system's school performance scores Friday as scheduled.

• UNO talk looks at new U.S. regime
The future of European relations with the new U.S. administration will be the subject of a midday lecture Tuesday by a member of the scientific staff of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs.