In St. Martin Parish, former superintendent Dr. Lottie Beebe showed up for work again today after the school board terminated her contract during Wednesday night’s meeting.
Beebe’s lawyer says the board terminated her contract illegally and broke several open meeting laws during the process at Wednesday nights meeting. Beebe herself told News 10 that she thinks her termination is political.
Dr. Beebe has served as superintendent for the past 6 years. Today, News 10 looks into the district’s performance ratings and other changes that have been made under Dr. Beebe’s administration.
In 2016 voters in St. Martin Parish approved $64.5 million in bonds for improvements in schools. That’s the largest amount ever approved for school improvements in the parish.
Annual district performance numbers and grades won’t come out for this year until mid-November. But we looked back, and these scores represent the entire district’s performance during Dr. Beebe’s administration:
- 2014 -B 85.7
- 2015 -C 84.2
- 2016 -B 89.3
- 2017 -B 88.5
The Louisiana Department of Education ranks St. Martin Parish schools 19th out of 73 statewide, and third in the Acadiana region as far as student growth.
“If the grades are improving, it’s moving in the right direction that’s how I see it and people of course will have different opinions,” says board member Aaron Flegeance. He has been in education for the past 57 years, and he’s worked with 11 superintendents.
“I place Lottie Beebe in the top three,” he said.
Flegeance says he thinks the board terminated Dr. Beebe’s contract “recklessly”’ He says, “Where’s the bad? What’s not so good about St. Martin Parish now? I think we are making giant strides you know in improving ourselves.”
News 10 reached out to the board lawyer’s, and all of the board members who voted to terminate Dr. Bebee’s contract, we have not gotten responses.
