Donatto: Lower truancy, raise grad rates

By the lowering truancy rate and increasing the graduation rate, St. Landry Parish School Board member Mary Ellen Donatto believes that more businesses – and more tax dollars – will come into the parish.
“My focus when I ran was the parish’s graduation rate,” Donatto said as she addressed the Eunice Rotary Club. “If we do better, and we are, we would be a more upstanding place for businesses to come to and that would generate more money.”
“Our graduation rate is increasing. It was 65.4 percent when I was campaigning and one year later, during the 2013-2014 school year, it was 74.6 percent. Our graduation rate grew more than 9 percent. We are at the state average.”
In recent years, St. Landry Parish had a truancy program, run by the district attorney’s office and funded by a grant which has since run out.
“We need a truancy program,” Donatto said. “If they don’t come to school, we can’t help them graduate. We are at a 75 percent gradation rate. We need to be at least at 90 (percent). If you have a way to help combat truancy, please call me or come forward.”
The School Board member sees the departure from “one-track” curriculum as a boost to the parish’s graduation rate, and she cited the oil and gas curriculum at Eunice Career & Technical Education Center as one of the different career path opportunities open to high school students.
Donatto has been an educator for 45 years, climbing her way from a teacher’s aide working to pay for college, to a teacher, then principal and finally a school board member.
“I skipped no rungs on the ladder,” she said.
“There are changes when it comes to being a school board member,” Donatto continued. “There is a difference in the way you operate when you make district decisions. As a board member, we are obligated to tell parents where the money goes in the school districts. We’re talking about your tax dollars here.”
“We are policy makers. We do not manage schools.”
According to Donatto, the School Board’s priorities, in order, are student achievement, financial efficiency and workforce development. The school board is made up of 13 members, and the school district employs more than 2,000 individuals. There are more than 14,600 students in the parish’s school system, and there are 37 public school campuses.
The School Board also has five committees which are the executive committee, the building, lands and sites committee, the finance committee, the academic committee and the personnel committee. There are five members on each committee, and most school board members serve on at least two committees. Each committee meets once a month, and issues discussed at the committee meetings are then brought before whole board at regular school board meetings.
Donatto described each committee’s purpose and gave a brief update on what some of the committees are currently working on as the new school year approaches. The executive committee is editing a few of the school board’s policies, and the Building, Lands and Sites committee is focused on resolving structural issues at the Palmetto and Leonville elementary schools.
“The average age of a school in the United States right now is 40 years,” Donatto said. “Here in St. Landry, it’s 50 years. Humidity and rain cause of a lot of problems.”
“We have one building from 1921, and our newest high school is 30 years old. New buildings are part of our focus.”