The Hancock County Alliance for Good Government would like to offer our congratulations to those public officials who made possible a restructuring of our local Bay St. Louis-Waveland School Board.
We’ll start with former Mayor Les Fillingame, who last February, 2017, did not re-appoint Maurice Singleton, leaving that appointment to the new administration. Current Mayor, Mike Favre, and the new Bay St. Louis City Council replaced Singleton with Vicky Arnold, and most recently replaced Joan Thomas with Ann Latrop.
Those of us who regularly attend School Board meetings, review claim dockets and test scores could not be more pleased in the new Board. We will hold them accountable for their opportunity to make the long overdue improvements to the School District.
One has been accomplished, that being the resignation of Superintendent Vicky Landry, which ends the nepotism arrangement in the School District Business office between her and her brother, Business Administrator, John McCraw. The Director of the Miss. Ethics Commission and the Attorney General both advised against this arrangement last year, and it has finally been accomplished. Sadly they prevailed for 12 months in violation of state law to the tune of $217,000 in salaries for these two. We feel those funds could have been better spent on the students and their teachers.
Next, and actually, most important on our list of challenges for the new Board is to address the academic conditions of our two elementary schools. North Bay dropped from a”B”rated school to a”C” and Waveland from an”A”to a “D”as reported by the State Department of Education.
We will continue to attend the School Board meetings, and hopefully witness some long awaited leadership that will result in the most important goal for our community–putting the kids first, and developing a personnel roster that can make that happen.
Lana Noonan, Chairman
The Hancock County Alliance for Good Government