School district making long-delayed improvements

The Evangeline School District is drawing on funds from the sale of timber harvested on its property in the Mamou and Turkey Creek to pay for painting and window replacement at all 12 schools within its jurisdiction.
One of the first priorities in painting the interiors was the school’s foyer. Principal Troy Fontenot said that area was a priority because it’s at “the heart of the school,” where all the students pass through either to get to the gym for phys ed or to get to the cafeteria for lunch.
The school district is also expanding its fiber optic computer network parish-wide, continuing to add to its computer labs in elementary and high schools and upgrading its math textbooks to conform with new Common Core standards.
The district has been unable to make many of those improvements because of a court order in place for 13 years requiring the district to direct its resources on mandated improvements to Ville Platte High School.
The court had determined Ville Platte High had been improved to the point that the restriction on school district spending was lifted in 2012. Until then, “my hands were completely tied,” in regards to needed improvements in other schools in the district, Superintendant Toni Hamlin said.
The math textbooks had not been upgraded for seven years, Mamou Elementary Principal Fontenot said.
Hamlin said the new textbook tutorial content can be accessed online, where a step-by-step process is available so parents can easily follow the steps to help their children learn the lessons.
The school district was able to secure a $2.5 million loan it’s using to improve the parish’s computer network infrastructure. In addition, Mamou Elementary School has two fund raisers each year when the public, as well as businesses and industries in the parish, can support the schools in projects like providing computers for their computer lab, classroom supplies or other items.
One of those attending a recent gathering of Mamou Elementary teachers and school district officials was 40-year Mamou Elementary kindergarten teacher Jane Thomas, who retired in May. She said the improvements being made at the school will promote more motivation “for the children to learn and for the parents to volunteer” to help at the school.
Thomas remembers when the school first opened in 1956, before there were any houses in what now is a residential neighborhood. The school then consisted of an elementary school and a high school, where she graduated in 1958.
Principal Fontenot said parents would specifically ask to be put in Thomas’ class.
Thomas also has brought pastors and members of the congregations from some 20 churches in the Mamou area to the school just before the school years began to bless each classroom in the school. “We need all the help we can get,” Fontenot said.