St. John the Baptist Parish school board outlines strategic priorities, details staffing and safety plans

Interim Superintendent Kendria Spears presented the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board with a strategic plan focused on three priorities — Exceptional Student Experience, Excellent Instruction and a Thriving Team — and described steps the district is taking to align curriculum, professional development and staffing to those goals.

Spears told the board the strategic plan will guide district work on curriculum and teacher support. “Tonight’s report will focus on key areas to support our district. As your superintendent, my focus is on teaching and learning,” she said, before outlining quarterly curriculum professional development, principal training on intervention protocols and structured teacher-collaboration practices.

Why this matters: The plan frames how the district will allocate staff time and professional development in the coming year, and the board was presented with concrete recruitment and certification steps intended to reduce classroom vacancies.

Spears described recruitment measures including targeted sign-on bonuses for hard-to-staff campuses, district and third-party advertising, and attendance at recruiting job fairs. The board record lists sign-on bonuses by campus codes (examples in the presentation): WSJH and WSJE — $5,000; ESJH, ESJP, GMM, LES — $3,000. She said the district also partnered with Chief of Minds to help process teacher certification applications; about 50 teachers had submitted renewal packets to the Louisiana Department of Education and received case numbers as of Oct. 12, 2023.

The superintendent presented teaching-vacancy counts described as “teaching vacancies only”: ESJH — 8; LES — 4; WSJH — 1 (band director); GMMS — 2; STEM — 1; several other sites were reported as fully staffed.

Spears also reported enrollment gains: Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) count for 2023–24 of 4,912 and total enrollment of 5,217 (including Head Start and early childhood), up from an MFP of 4,814 and total enrollment of 5,095 the prior year.

On school safety, the district announced operational policies for events: metal detectors and/or wands for entry at sporting events and gymnasium events, a clear-bag policy, nonrefundable tickets with no re-entry, and a requirement that K–8 students attending events be accompanied by an adult. The superintendent framed these measures as districtwide steps to standardize event security.

The presentation closed with brief community-event updates, including a National Hispanic Heritage Family Night and a College & Career Fair that district staff said attracted more than 80 vendors.

The board did not take a separate vote on the strategic plan during the meeting; the presentation served as an informational report. The meeting record shows discussion and acknowledgement by board members, and the agenda moved on to transportation and finance items.