Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
publicinfo@selu.edu
SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: 3/9/01
Contact: Christina Chapple 25
SLU PK-16 COUNCIL TO MEET MARCH 14
HAMMOND -- Teachers, principals, business people and university representatives from
the Florida Parishes will gather at Southeastern Louisiana University on March 14 to begin
addressing a statewide committee's recommendations on teacher quality.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on Teacher Quality, formed by the Louisiana Board of
Regents and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, has charged the state education
community to work together to "create authentic partnerships, recruit teacher candidates, prepare
quality teachers and create essential conditions and environments."
Wednesday's meeting at Southeastern, scheduled to begin at the Southeastern Alumni
Center at 9 a.m., is the first step to meeting the commission's first directive, said Southeastern
education professor Shirley Jacob.
"Under the heading of 'creating partnerships,' the Blue Ribbon Commission
recommended that universities appoint a 'PK-16+ Council' with representatives from all levels
of education from pre-kindergarten through post-graduate study," said Jacob, Southeastern's PK-
16+ coordinator.
Jacob has put together a group of 31 educators and community representatives from
Tangipahoa, Livingston, St. Tammany, Ascension, East Baton Rouge, St. Charles, St. John and
Washington parishes.
The PK-16+ Council includes Southeastern President Sally Clausen and River Parishes
Community College Chancellor Joe Ben Welch. Area superintendents serving on the panel are
Virgil Allen, Tangipahoa Parish; Robert Clouatre, Ascension Parish; Christopher Donaldson, St.
John Parish; and Lenny Monteleone, St. Tammany Parish.
Southeastern representatives include Provost Randy Moffett; deans Martha Head, College
of Education and Human Development, and John Miller, College of Arts and Sciences;
department heads Sue Parrill, English; William Robison, history and political science; and John
Trowbridge, teaching and learning; professors Jacob, Beth Gray, Christine Mitchell, Sara Bidner
and Ellen Ratcliff; students Sara Bellot, Jennifer Byrd, and Gerra Wellman-Perkins; Rebecca
Day, director of the Office of Performance Assessment; Linda Munchausen, liason for education
programs; and Dale Hair, coordinator of the Louisiana Principal Internship program.
Other educators are principals Ora Finn, Amite High School (retired); Anne Smith,
Kentwood High School; Lauren Spencer, Madisonville Elementary; Anita Swindle, Live Oak
Lower Elementary; teachers Michelle Cardaronella of Pontchartrain Elementary, Toni Tageant of
Franklinton High School, Jamie Trueting of Ethel Schnoeffner Elementary, and Denise Barnes,
St. Tammany Parish supervisor of instruction.
The business community is represented by Tommy Lofton of Lofton Staffing Services in
Baton Rouge and Mandeville CPA Tim Ratcliff.
At the meeting, Jacob said council members will hear from a panel of teachers, all
Southeastern graduates, who will discuss the training they received and the strengths and
weaknesses of the university's teacher education program.
Panel members are Eddie Frederick, a student teacher at Lee Road School in St.
Tammany Parish; Mercy Burtch, a Spanish teacher at Fontainebleau High School in Mandeville;
Patricia Morgan, Springfield Elementary, who works with students who have difficulty passing
the LEAP test; Charlotte Bickham, a science and history teacher at Independence High School,
and Rhonda Lagard, a Southeastern teacher education graduate who did not go into the teaching
profession.
After hearing from the panel, the council will divide into groups to brainstorm on ways to
address the Blue Ribbon Commission's four recommendations. Dale Hair will then lead a
roundtable discussion summing up the groups' findings and detailing the council's charge.
-SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp01.htm