Eight of Lafayette Parish School Board’s nine members have been designated as “Distinguished School Board Members” for receiving at least sixteen hours of professional learning over the past year. The designation comes from Act 705 of the 2010 Louisiana Legislature which outlines professional learning requirements for school board members. In addition to sixteen hours during their first year of service, board members must receive an additional six hours in each subsequent year of their term in order to retain the “Distinguished School Board Member” designation.
In order to ensure that members’ professional learning is relevant to their duties on the board, Act 705 designates which providers may offer sessions for credit towards the required hours. The Louisiana School Board Association, the Louisiana Department of Education, and state universities are among the approved providers who offer sessions on topics such as improving failing schools, high school redesign, school law, ethics, public bid law, the open meetings law, the minimum foundation program, and dropout prevention. This year’s Distinguished School Board Members for Lafayette Parish are Tommy Angelle, Elroy Broussard, Justin Centanni, Jeremy Hidalgo, Erick Knezek, Britt Latiolais, Dawn Morris, and Mary Morrison.