Tensas Parish School Board
The Tensas Parish School Board is an entity responsible for the operation of public schools in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. It is headquartered in the town of St. Joseph.
The superintendent is Carol Shipp Johnson. Her husband, Lanny Johnson, is the former Tensas Parish superintendent who currently serves as superintendent in neighboring Franklin Parish. Lanny Johnson was also a state representative from Tensas and Franklin parishes between 1976 and 1980.[1]
Other former Tensas Parish superintendents were the late Thomas M. Wade, A.E. Swanson, Stathum Crosby (1910-1977) and Charles Edgar Thompson (1932-1993). Thompson, a native of Waterproof, later accepted the position of deputy superintendent for special education in Baton Rouge under state Education Superintendent J. Kelly Nix.[2]
School board members from the early years included George Henry Clinton, John Newell, J. H. Netterville, and Thomas M. Wade. Newell had worked particularly hard to establish Newellton High School.
In 2006, the Tensas board closed the former Newellton High School in Newellton in northern Tensas Parish. High school students from Newellton are bused to St. Joseph to attend Tensas High School, formerly known as Joseph Moore Davidson High School, named for a heroic soldier killed in France during World War I and a son of Mayor William Mackenzie Davidson of St. Joseph. The former Waterproof High School building, now vacant, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is considered historically significant for the period from 1925-1949, but it was used into the 1970s.[3]
The Tensas superintendent has struggled to improve pupil standardized test scores. For the 2012-13 school year, only 21 percent of pupils in Tensas Parish public schools ranked as proficient in the subjects of Algebra I and English II on the end-of-course examinations. That number, however, is an improvement from the 15 percent level in the preceding year, 2011-2012. Tensas Parish ranks last in the sixty-four parishes in pupil performance. Johnson said that she is taking steps to address the problem and replaced the principal of Tensas High School after the 2011-2012 scores became known.[4]
Schools
- Grades 7-12
- Tensas High School (St. Joseph)
- Grades PK-8
- Grades PK-6
- Tensas Elementary School (St. Joseph)
Demographics
- Total Students (as of October 1, 2007): 768[5]
- Gender[5]
- Male: 54%
- Female: 46%
- Race/Ethnicity[5]
- African American: 91.54%
- White: 6.64%
- Hispanic: 1.82%
- Socio-Economic Indicators[5]
- At-Risk: 90.10%
- Free Lunch: 84.77%
- Reduced Lunch: 5.34%
See also
References
- ↑ "Membership in the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2008" (PDF). house.louisiana.gov. Retrieved December 30, 2009.
- ↑ Nix keeps deputies on payroll", Minden Press-Herald, Minden, Louisiana, July 31, 1981, p.1
- ↑ "National Register of Historic Places: Louisiana, Tensas Parish". nationalregisterof historicplaces.com. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
- ↑ "Barbara Leader, "Proficiency slips in Tensas, Franklin Parish schools", July 13, 2013". Monroe News-Star. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 "Multiple Statistics For Total Reported Public School Students - October 2007" (PDF). Louisiana Department of Education. 2007-10-01. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
External links
- Tensas Parish School Board - Official site.