By MICHAEL COBURN

I was once told that the definition of true change is to walk in one direction, then turn and go in the opposite direction.

If that’s an appropriate definition, then true change is definitely occurring at St. John the Baptist Parish Schools. Most notably, after losing students for the past nine consecutive years, the public school system is now reporting a significant increase in student enrollment.

We are beginning the 2002-2003 school year with 6,190 students in grades K-12, which accounts for 80 more students than we had last year. And that’s not counting the increased numbers we’re also experiencing in our Head Start and pre-K programs.

We believe this true change experience is a direct result of our implementation of our neighborhood schools program. The voters of this parish approved the funding for this plan back in July, which will convert our elementary schools on the East Bank to K-8 schools. The program will take two years and nearly $5 million to complete, but we have already added seventh graders to the campuses for this year.

Already, this plan is doing what we had hoped – to keep our current students in public school as they advance to their next grade level, and to attract students back to the system. In particular, we have more seventh graders this year than we had sixth graders last year. That means we kept our students from last year and added more to the rolls! We are hopeful that with the addition of eighth grade to elementary campuses next year that these numbers will continue to grow.

Not only does this turnaround in enrollment put our school system back on the right track, it helps to improve our fiscal wellbeing. The state allocates funds to each school system based upon its enrollment. As I noted earlier, the St. John the Baptist Parish School System has been losing students over the past nine years, and subsequently, it has also been losing money. The change in this year’s enrollment will account for more than a $260,000 increase in funding to our system. These funds will be used to hire certified teachers, purchase classroom technology and develop learning programs that can improve student achievement scores.

True change is not easy. Our schools still need to make strides in several areas, but clearly we’ve made our turn, and we’re moving in the right direction.

MICHAEL COBURN is the superintendent for St. John the Baptist Parish schools.