Kyle Jackson

Lafayette Parish School board candidates for districts 1 and 3 will face off this month in debates sponsored by the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce nd the Greater Southwest Louisiana Black Chamber of Commerce.

The District 1 debate will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at Carencro Middle School, and the District 3 debate will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21 at Alice Boucher Elementary School.

The School Board is destined to have a new face with four incumbents - Kay Gibson, Judy Cox, John Earl Guidry and Beverly Wilson - choosing not to run again.

Two of those seats already have new faces, with Hunter Beasley and Rae Trahan having no opposition.

The election will be held Sept. 30 for the contested seat.

In District 3, incumbent Rickey Hardy is facing opposition from two candidates. Hardy faces off against Elroy Broussard and former School Board member Dr. Raphael Baranco.

One of Hardy's key campaign issues is to get more parents involved in their children's education.  "We have to get parent participation and specific disciplines in the schools. It has to be distributed across the board," Hardy said.  "It doesn't matter if it's John Doe's child at Northside High or Bill Gates' child at Lafayette High, the child must receive the same education."  Another item Hardy wants to address the use of the 2002 tax revenue funds for incentive pay raises for teachers working in at-risk schools.

Broussard, a newcomer to politics, said he thinks the big issues surrounding the district and the parish are community schools and the lines of communication between the board, parents and the community.

"Busing is not allowing parents and kids to be involved in community schools," Broussard said. "By getting parents involved in the schools their kids are attending, we can make it better. I don't want to change it. I want to make it better."

And if individuals in the school system aren't doing their jobs effectively, they should be replaced, he said.

"Maybe I'm trying to already," Broussard said. "I'm trying to replace who I'm trying to replace, maybe it'll grow the level of effectiveness. We can do a much better job as leaders in representing the people we represent."

Baranco said he's running to get "all the board members to work together for the benefit of the system." He also feels low student test scores need to be addressed.

"Besides the financial accountability, the implementation of academic programs is an issue," Baranco said. "There have to be techniques investigated and implemented to address the low test scores of students."

In District 1, the main contenders for Guidry's seat are Russell Meyer and Mary Morrison.

"My main reason for running is the kids. I've had a long career in education. I just want to give back to the children some of my past experience and expertise," Meyer said. "It comes down to bringing my experience to the board."

Meyer, an educator for more than 20 years, is interested in aiding the board in reducing class sizes and offering a reasonable pay scale to faculty and support staff in the school system.

"I'm interested in working with the School Board to build a long range plan as far as the children of Lafayette Parish are concerned," Meyer said. "And anything I can do to be a part of that, I'm willing to be at the table."

Morrison who is employed as an instructor at Louisiana Technical College, said communication is key to the success of the board.

"We need to work harder to communicate with our students," Morrison said. "We are responsible as a system for the success of our students."
Morrison said her primary goals if elected to the board would be to focus on retaining high school students who don't make it to graduation day.
"I want to see the number of students not graduating to decrease. Students need a very comfortable environment and we need to continue to motivate students," Morrison said.

Originally published September 4, 2006

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