Superintendent Joffrion hosts community forums

New Iberville School Board Superintendent recently hosted a pair of community forums in an effort to reach out to the community and present plans to parents and community leaders.

Joffrion hosted the first forum on Oct. 19 at East Iberville School and the second at Plaquemine High School on Oct. 20.

“These were part of my 100 day plan coming in as superintendent,” Joffrion said.  “As superintendent it is important for me to be visible and available to the community and to hear from them things that they feel are impacting our school system.  This was a good first step in getting our community engaged.”

Joffrion presented a survey to attendees at the forums and will present the results to principles of the parish schools in an effort for school representatives to get a better grasp on community needs.

Joffrion addressed concerns from the east side of Iberville Parish in providing support and better program offering to MSA-East.  Joffrion was also questioned about exposing students at East Iberville to the same curriculum as Academy students.

“The answer is yes,” Joffrion said.  “All of our students are exposed to the same standards and we are working on increasing the rigor of the standards, making sure the teachers are teaching to the standard.”

On the west side of Iberville Parish, Joffrion was asked about providing arts and music programs for students that are not in either academy and what the school board will do to increase school performance and achievement.

As a district, Iberville is rated at a C level.  Joffrion and the board are awaiting results of the latest assessment (2016) that should be released in November or December of 2016.  

The last assessment received showed a drop in performance score (79.8 from 83 overall).

“This is going to be the base line for me as new superintendent that I will begin to set all of our goals around,” Joffrion said.  “We are not teaching to the level of Louisiana student standards.  We have to aim to teach the standard at the level the standard is written on.  If students don’t get the basic understanding of writing and math at a conceptual level, it becomes much more difficult to teach it when there are already achievement gaps.”

Joffrion presented five goals to community forum attendees which include: board relations, internal stakeholder relations, external stakeholder relations, student achievement and central office support.

He hopes to develop a trusting and productive relationship with individual IPSB members as a whole and with key internal/external stakeholders, examine critical issues that represent opportunities and barriers to student performance and reorganizing the central school board office in a way that focuses on support of parish schools.

Joffrion also will make a push to prepare kids to utilize technology effectively in order to be able to solve problems, write at a technical level and prepare for jobs and for their future.

Joffrion said he and the board will make sure teachers understand the standards so students can achieve not only on a standardized test, but outside of the classroom.

“We are hoping to see results quickly.  We are trying to make the right shifts, trying to provide the right professional development,” Joffrion said.  “Parents and teachers should begin to see their students exposed to a more rigorous curriculum.  We want to prepare our students not only for the next grade level, but with the skills and the knowledge necessary so that they will be able to enter into college or a career and be successful.”