By David Vitrano
L’Observateur

RESERVE—Members of the St. John community now will have an easier time keeping tabs on school improvement progress thanks to a couple of measures recently put in place by CSRS, the consulting firm hired by the school board to aid in the implementation of the district’s Educational and Facilities Master Plan.

The first of these is a real-time Web site that shows the schedule and budget for the various projects as well as updates on the progress made on the various projects. The site also features photos and additional information about each undertaking.

The address for the Web site is http://sjbp.csrsonline.com. The site also can be accessed through a link on the St. John the Baptist Parish Web site at http://www.stjohn.k12.la.us/. CSRS is still working some of the bugs out of the site, but everything should be up and running within a couple of weeks according to CSRS’ Chris Pellegrin.

Besides the Web site, CSRS also has begun to place signs at work sites to keep parents and members of the community abreast of plans, many of which are currently in the planning stage.

These reusable signs tout the nature of the work that will be done at the school and, in some cases, display other information such as project schedules.

According to CSRS representatives, these two measures were taken so that members of the community can understand that progress is being made even though ground has not yet been broken on the projects.

At the last school board meeting, CSRS also released its quarterly report. According to the report, five of the projects—the field house at East St. John High, renovations and upgrades to Garyville/Mt. Airy Math and Science Magnet, playground renovations and upgrades for nine St. John elementary schools, stadium upgrades for both high schools and renovations and additions to West St. John Elementary—have been started although all are still in the planning and design phase. For all of these projects except West St. John Elementary, construction will begin at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010. The construction at WSJE, the biggest project in the master plan, is scheduled to begin in May of 2010.

Pellegrin also introduced the school board to Robert Sands, the former executive director of facilities in Plano, Texas, who will be overseeing the firm’s K-12 programs.