Staying ahead of the technology curve, learning conducive environment

to benefit students and teachers primary goal for schools

By CALEB FREY

Staff Reporter

HAHNVILLE – As the school year kicks off in St. Charles Parish, staying at the forefront of technology and providing a learning conducive environment that will benefit students, teachers and employees are the goals the school system has put into action.

Early enrollment numbers from the first week of school show about 8,300 students total in the system, about 100 less than totals from last May, but those numbers are growing daily still and an official count will not be finished until October, according to Public Information Officer Rochelle Cancienne.

&#8220Everyday we’re enrolling new and displaced students,” Cancienne said. &#8220Some are still relocating, some are living with family and friends, but we’re still seeing students displaced by Katrina and probably will for a long time to come.”

With new students come new challenges and goals, and one that St. Charles is trying to achieve is brand recognition. The slogan the school system adopted is &#8220You and IŠWe are St. Charles Parish Public Schools,” which was chosen carefully by the School Board to include the community, Cancienne said.

&#8220We want everyone in St. Charles to know, anyone who resides or works in St. Charles, regardless of if they have kids in the school system or not, plays a part in our school system whether they think they do or not,” Cancienne said. &#8220We’re all working together as a team.”

Even though the School Board is a governmental entity, it’s important that fiscal responsibility is taken on behalf of the School Board, which is why St. Charles likes to look at the school system as a business, and the students and parents as their customers.

&#8220Our focus is on customer service, especially at the central office level – not just for the students and parents, but for the community as well,” Cancienne said. &#8220Our goal here is service.”

Technology is not only being embraced within the schools, but it’s something the entire school system is finding to be an extremely useful and necessary tool. Their website, www.stcharles.k12.la.us, has recently been updated to include online accessible documents of virtually anything the school system has to offer in terms of information sent home with students including calendars, notices, and basic news from within the school system.

The site has also been streamlined to make perusing as easy as possible. Parents with children in different schools within the system can also combine calendars easily though use of the website to get an overall view of each child’s school calendars and availability on certain days without having to surf several different school sites.”

Luling Elementary School recently received a nearly $20,000 grant to fund a Dell Mobile Computer Lab for the school’s land lab which was destroyed during Katrina. This is just one such incident of the never-give-up spirit of St. Charles, Cancienne explained.

&#8220After everything this district faced last year with Katrina, the resilience of our people is what I attribute to the fast recovery,” Cancienne said. &#8220We’re going to do what it takes and that’s it.” St. Charles also boasts a technological wonderland in its satellite school, which is available to juniors and seniors. &#8220It’s the flagship facility of the district,” Cancienne said. &#8220They’re launching students into things they wouldn’t see until possibly their third or fourth year of college.”

Even the School Board members conduct their meetings with the aid of laptops removing the need for paper and pen in most cases.

With many improvements for the new school year and more certainly to come, the outlook is bright for St. Charles, but according to Cancienne, it’s just business as usual.