BATON ROUGE, La. – State Superintendent John White issued the following message to school leaders regarding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The message led the Department’s weekly newsletter.
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing today regarding two issues requiring immediate attention.
First, as you likely know, there have yet to be any reported cases of the Coronavirus in Louisiana. At the same time, school system leaders are right to have concerns and to be proactive about resolving them.
For information regarding the Coronavirus itself, you may wish to consult the Louisiana Department of Health website, which has regularly updated information about the disease, prevention, and any occurrences in Louisiana. The Department of Education has also created a brief Frequently Asked Questions document that is specific to the concerns of school systems and that will be regularly updated as the Coronavirus impact becomes better known.
Second, the MFP Task Force met two weeks ago in order to create a recommendation to BESE regarding the 2020-2021 MFP formula. The Task Force, whose recommendations are non-binding, debated the issue at length, ultimately recommending that the board develop a formula that increases the base per pupil cost in the MFP by 2.75 percent. The Task Force further recommended that school systems whose average teacher salary does not meet or exceed the Southern regional average dedicate at least 50 percent of the increase in base per pupil revenue to increases in educator pay.
The non-binding recommendation from the Task Force is one source of information the Department will use in recommending a formula to BESE. By close of business Friday, March 6, the Department will post a recommended formula and will send to school systems an estimate of the financial impact this recommended formula would have on each local school system. BESE will then take up the recommended formula at its committee meetings Tuesday, March 10. Upon BESE’s approval, a formula will be submitted to the Legislature for its consideration.
I appreciate your attention to both of these important matters.
As always, thank you for all you do for our children,
John
View the full newsletter.
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