New Central School Year

By Woody Jenkins, Editor — CENTRAL — The Central Community School System is back to normal after two years of turmoil and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus and Gov. John Bel Edwards’ orders to close schools and require masks after they reopened.

Now Central, one of the top school systems in Louisiana, has reopened with a bang, attracting 4,850 students, the highest number since the school system began in mid-2007.  Central schools Supt. Jason Fountain said the exact number of students will fluctuate  over the next few weeks.  Oct. 1 is the date when school attendance is finally calcuated, and the final number of students affects state funding under the MFP program.

As of August 16, attendance at Central’s five schools was:

• Bellingrath Hills Elementary School (440 students) pre-kindergarten and kindergarten

•Tanglewood Elementary School (705 students) 1st and 2nd grades

•Central Intermediate School (1,018 students) 3rd to 5th grades

•Central Middle School (1,126 students) 6th to 8th grades

•Central High School (1,556 students) 9th to 12th grades

As the 2022-2023 school year begins, the Central School System has more than 500 teachers and other employees as follows:

•320 teachers

•221 other personnel

School letter grades have become controversial in recent years and State Supt. Cade Brumley has proposed making them more strigent.  However, so far, Central schools have done well under every formula proposed.  Under the current rules, Central schools rank as follows:

•Bellingrath Hills – A

•Tanglewood – A

•CIS – A

•Central Middle – B

•Central High – A

The Central Community School System is one of the higher taxed school districts in the state. It levies both a sales tax and a property tax.  The current millage rate is 60.06 mils.