Bay Waveland School Superintendent Rebecca Ladner gets continued criticism for poor results and politicizing the local schools

LANA NOONAN and AMES KERGOSIEN: Don’t politicize Mississippi’s education funding ~ Sun Herald Letters to the Editor

What are we getting for the money we’re already giving the local school district?

In 2012-13, 37 percent of third-graders in the Bay St. Louis-Waveland School District could not read at grade level. That number grew to 42 percent in 2013-14. Knowing these dismal numbers, what did our superintendent and school board do with our local tax dollars? Did they hire a reading coach to help these at-risk students?

No.

For the past 18 months, $481,336.57 of our local taxes were used for classroom supplies, as compared with $1.5 million (and counting) for a football field and $2.26 million for a parking lot.

Its a simple question of priorities folks.

2 thoughts on “Bay Waveland School Superintendent Rebecca Ladner gets continued criticism for poor results and politicizing the local schools”

  1. Thanks, Doug. There’s more to come from the Alliance for the Bay-Waveland School Board to take into consideration when they begin their budget deliberations next month and through May and into June.
    We just felt like it is time to expose the irresponsible spending practices of Ladner and the majority of her Board while she takes pot shots at the state officials in such a partisan fashion.
    If and when the legislature does fully fund “education” I sincerely hope they tie strings to the funding to protect our tax dollars and make sure it is actually being used to provide an education for the children.

  2. At least one Bay St. Louis City Councilman has connected the loss of Tidelands Funds to the Bay this year to this video where the Superintendent so aggressively went after the Republicans in January. He may have a point since the city was relying on this to do work on their Harbor. I think the reaction went something like this:
    “This is the first swipe they’ve taken at us in reaction to her video, probably more to come in the next four years.”
    It’s a shame those, as she put it, “courageless, less than truthful” Republicans are in charge up there in Jackson. She and her video producers must have forgotten that.
    They also must have forgotten that the school district receives funds from the city coffers, and supposedly that Harbor was going to make all kinds of money for the city.
    What I don’t understand is why the city had to rely on Tideland Funds? Do they not even have $375,000 in the bank? All things considered, that is not a lot of money. There are quite a few homes in the Bay worth that and more. And, the Harbor has been up and running for 9 months now with a gift of upstart money of $250,000. Has it not generated even $40,000 a month.
    Looks like Delbert is going to have to step in and bail them out. But then it is his Harbor, so maybe he’d better step up to the bat.
    Gonna be an interesting election year.
    The silence from Baria is deafening.

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