Dear Grand Caillou family,

If you attended the meeting last night “THANK YOU!!!”   If you think your commitment does not matter you are wrong.  This is attested to by the comments that Ricky Pitre made concerning the involvement of those that were in attendance.  They judge the importance of an issue by the amount of public interest that it generates.

Good news!!  They passed the recommendation unanimously.  Philip Martin assured us that he will be selecting the committee today and will probably have the first meeting next week.  I pressed for a date for the committee to return with a recommendation.  That part failed.  But, Mr. Martin assured us that his goal is to have a resolution by the end of March.  If he holds true to his word, that will be an enormous accomplishment.  While this can be marked down as a great first step, we still cannot claim victory.  There are at least two more big battles, the biggest ones yet.

First, there will be the vote concerning the committee’s recommendation.  The board is split on what to do about the situation.  They have their own ideas of what is the appropriate resolution.  Not only that, our own community is divided on the appropriate resolution.  And, there are board members that do not want to do anything at all.  They want to move 3rd grade to the Middle School and move 7-8 grades to Oaklawn, which may also be their solution to our current crisis.  Many of you have heard this as a rumor, but there is more behind the rumor than you know.  They are counting on the board being split and using the disagreement in the community as an excuse to do nothing.  At our public meeting, Craig Luke reminded those in attendance of how we lost valuable hurricane protection years ago because our community could not unite and support the recommendation.  This very scenario can be played out again concerning a new school.  In fact, every board member is aware of our division as a community on the issue, some of them are quietly counting on that to defeat the building of a new school at all.  After meeting and talking with people in our community, there are 3 major ideas for resolving the flooding problem.  1) Building a new elementary school at the current location, 2) Building a new elementary school at the Saia location, 3) Building a new middle school at the Saia location and moving the elementary school to the current middle school.  No matter what decision is made, 2/3 of our community will be unhappy.  They are counting on that to block building any school and moving our 7-8 grades to Oaklawn.  Then that will be the end.  We must be united in supporting the committee recommendation in order to make it to the second battle.

Second battle, financing.  If we make it through the first battle, they will try to stall building using the lack of financing as an excuse.

These are the 2 major hurdles that we will be facing in the near future.

Personal Note: Several people have asked me to pursue being selected to serve on the committee to bring the recommendation to the board.  After much prayer, I have decided not to pursue a position on the committee.  I am a minister of the Gospel first.  My first desire is to serve the Lord and then every member of our community.  I cannot run the risk of being involved in making a decision that has the potential to make 2/3 of our community angry.  I love this community, I love the people here, and I have worked hard over the last 14 years of my ministry to build relationships with people in the community.  I feel that I have become part of the community.  I cannot run the risk of jeopardizing the loving relationships that I worked so hard to establish.  I am passionate about a new school for Grand Caillou, but I am more passionate about relationship with you.  I will try to find other ways to be involved in the process and to keep you informed.

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Thank you for your support and prayers,

Marcell McGee, Pastor
Grand Caillou Baptist

Citizens for an Equal Education (CEE) is being formed with only two goals in mind.

1. Immediately reduce overcrowding of classrooms

2. Push for the construction of a new school in our community

The students of Grand Caillou community have some of the lowest standardized test scores in the parish. A chief contributor to this situation is constant disruption in their education by the affects of school flooding. During the crisis, our students are bussed to surrounding area schools and subjected to class sizes that are doubled. In some cases, there are as many as 50 students in a classroom. These major disruptions come at the foundational time of our children’s education. No other students in our parish are subjected to such adverse educational conditions. The construction of a new school can remedy this situation and provide the same opportunity for a quality public education as all of the other children in our parish.

If you would like to volunteer to be part of the organizational committee for this community action group, contact us at

Board Meeting Results

Our meeting with the school board went very well. Our message was well received. While the board members were sympathetic to our cause, no resolution on their part was offered. We will continue to meet with the board to insure that our children’s educational needs are being met and to reassure them that we want to work in a cooperative spirit and that we are not going away.

Next Step

We will continue meeting with the board at committee meetings and board meetings. We will also begin contacting members of the business community to gain support for action in the near future. We will also contact local, state, and federal legislators to inform them of the plight of our children and gain support from our other elected officials. If you have any personal contact with any of these elected officials or local businessmen, please contact us so that we can arrange a personal meeting.

Thank You!!

The citizens of Grand Caillou want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Principal Arthur Joffrion and the faculty and staff, students and parents, of Acadian Elementary for volunteering to share their facility with our children and faculty. They will never know the depth of our gratitude for showing such compassion, support, and welcome that our children, faculty and staff have experienced during a very traumatic and stressful time in their lives. It is not the ideal educational experience for them as well as us. But, it is an exemplary example of an extended community pulling together to make the best of a bad situation.

Meetings

The holidays are coming up and some of the schedules for meeting will be changed. At this time, we do not have any confirmed meeting dates. Check back at this web page in the next couple of days and there will be meeting updates posted.