Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat — Vidalia Upper Elementary student Braydon Freeman sits in the front of the school bus as one of the eight school choice students, whose parents have opted to send their child to the Vidalia school instead of a school in Ferriday.

Archived Story

Long ride to school

Published 12:10am Friday, August 24, 2012

VIDALIA — Forty-five students from various Ferriday schools had two first day of school experiences this year after choosing to relocate to new schools as part of a federal program.

Through the School Choice program, which is part of the federal No Child Left Behind program, students who attend schools that score below 75 on school performance tests have the option to attend another school in the parish.

Of the 11 schools in the Concordia Parish School District, three Ferriday schools scored below 75 percent on the 2012 school performance tests and are considered “in need of improvement.”

The schools and their corresponding performance tests are as follows:

Ferriday Lower — 63.

Ferriday Upper — 66.3.

Ferriday Junior High — 73.8.

The 2011 District Performance score for Concordia Parish was 91.4.

The 2011 average state performance score was 93.9.

Superintendent Paul Nelson said 45 students from Ferriday Lower, Ferriday Upper and Ferriday Junior High were ultimately granted the option to attend a different school.

Students were granted enrollment in the schools based on space availability, transportation and educational need

“We had 91 that asked and applied, but by the time we went back through, called them and asked again, that number dropped to more than half,” Nelson said. “I don’t know if it’s a group of people that apply together and then they all drop out together or people just changed their minds.”

Those 45 students were given the option to attend Vidalia Upper, Vidalia Lower or Monterey High School, all schools with high performance scores.

“Vidalia Junior High School and Vidalia High School are both really stacked with students already, so we couldn’t move any students to those schools,” Nelson said. “It also made sense geographically for some of the assignments.”

Twenty-eight students accepted school choice assignments to Monterey High School and 17 accepted to either Vidalia Upper or Lower.

Apart from enrolling a student into a new school after the school year has already started, Nelson said transportation is the next biggest issue for the district.

“It’s going to take a couple of days to iron out the kinks in transportation, because we might have to add a whole separate bus route,” Nelson said. “We talked about all the different scenarios for each area and came up with different plans.”

A student living in Ridgecrest, Nelson gave as an example, would be picked up at their home and ride the bus through Ferriday and Jonesville before coming down to Monterey.

“Some of those busses will snake their way around the parish before getting to school, but they’ll get there,” Nelson said. “No matter what, we’ll get those kids back and forth.”

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  • Anonymous

    Granted!  I believe school choice has always been an option all along but never publicized.   And seems like there were always excuses before like the families would have to provide their own transportation, knowing that a lot of impoverished people would never come, or that low performing students would be too intimidated to come. Looks like the Parish decided to finally become American when they saw the threat of losing that federal/state money per child by their going to the charter school. And where did the Ridgecrest kids go?  Also, I wonder if they’ve been successful in cracking down on the Mississippi families giving fake addresses.  Maybe there’d be room without them.  I’m sure that would free up more TOPS money too!

  • Anonymous

    Concordia Parish operates under a Federal Desegregation Court Order, how can white students in Concordia transfer from a Ferrriday school to a majority white school in the parish? Wouldn’t this further Segregate the schools? How many of the 45 students that got to transfer are black? Why do we have a bus going to Jonesville to pick up students? 

  • vilou09

    Good point. Do Students living in Mississippi but going to school in Louisiana receive TOPS? I know it’s a lot harder to fake an “in state” address in college due to the FAFSA, so how would that work?

  • Anonymous

    the answer to that last question is NO!!! Way too many Adams county tags in the drop-off lines!!!

  • Anonymous

    When you are one of the parents of a child who lives in Ridgecrest and you are told that while any black child may attend a school that receives an excellent scores and your child must attend a school that is terrible on scores and their ability to to manage the children who attend that school, simply because they are white, it would be a much different story. My daughter attended pre k in Ferriday lower and in THREE months, they lost her on the bus where the police had to be called in to find her, she came home covered in diarrhea that had completely dried to her and we were never contacted, many many more issues that happened, along with the only thing that my daughter learnt in the time she was there was how to curse and that stealing was a means of getting something she wanted if she didn’t have the money for it. All of this and she was in PRE -K. Black children have always had the option to transfer to Vidalia, just because they finally evened it up to look at a child as a whole person and not a color, is no reason to bitch. Any parent who doesn’t want their child attending such a poor rated school has the option to do something about it now, those who don’t, its their own fault and should have no one to complain to but their selves. I am sick and tired of people bitching about so much because of a persons race. Get over it and welcome to 2012 and get over the race card. it is so over used and damaged to this point no one gives a damn. 

  • Anonymous

    I am terribly sorry your daughter had to go through such a ordeal. Black or white, the Concordia Parish School System has failed to give our youth a good education in a SAFE learning enoviroment. The only thing they are worried about is keeping their high paying jobs and keeping their family members a job. This Parish needs more people like you to stand up to them and hold them accountable. 

    The only hope I see for you is when the Charter School opens, parents will then have the option of getting out of these failing schools. 

    Im guessing Concordia Parish has operated under the Deseg court order for 45 years. Why hasn’t it attempted to get out from under the Desegregation Court Order? Other Parishes have complied with the Justice Dept and have gotten the court order removed. Why hasn’t Concordia parish attempted to get out from under it? 

    I agree with you, its your tax dollars paying for your childs education. Its the students money, the money follows the student, its not the School systems money. A student should be able to attend whatever school he/she wants but they cannot because of the court order. It sounds to me like the Superintendent made some false promises to people at Ridgecrest in order to get the Magnet school approved. 

  • Anonymous

    My daughter has been denied enrollment at ALL passing schools in this parish. I am a ridgecrest mother and was told because we were white and due to the desegregation order, we had to register at Ferriday Lower and then submit an application to be transferred to a passing school. I am irate! 

    Thought there was a school choice option?! We have been denied that even.  

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/CNEGJEREYHUI5BRK2QOT4GXCNI Big

    as lomg as they graduated from a la school with the tops criteria meet they will get the tops.  4 years in high school with the tops criteria from what i gather.    Also living in Vidalia is not cheap!  Those people pay way to much for housing there. 

  • Anonymous

    The LA State Dept. says that yes they do have do reside in LA but unfortunately when they see that they child graduated from a LA school they don’t investigate any further.  Only for example if they went to a private school but lived in Vidalia.  They still get TOPS but their residence is checked. I can’t believe that the State Dept. does this.  Think of the thousands of dollars given to non-residents just because they’ve no better system for checking!

  • Anonymous

    Furthermore, according to this article above, “91 applications … that number dropped to more than half = those 45 students were ALL given the option to transfer to a passing school (28 to Monterey and 17 to Vidalia = 45)”. 

    So am I to assume now seeing these numbers that my daughter was THE ONLY one {remember there were 91 was mine the ’1′) that did not get to transfer?! When we did just as we were told to do and registered at Ferriday lower kindergarten and filed the school choice application to have her moved to a passing school the same week?! I have fully stated to the school board I do not want my 5yo riding a bus period. I will drive her everyday -transportation is not an issue. I have been in contact with the LDOE over this matter and I will continue to be. Given that my older children went to Ridgecrest school and I always expected my youngest would as well, even after having to file an application to get in this year, I followed the directions of the local school board the day our denial came for acceptance at Ridgecrest and this is where it got me: With having to keep my daughter in K in Ferriday this year (because I was told when finding out about Ridgecrest closing … that if you were white you must register at Ferriday and file application for school choice, if you are black you have the option of registering at Vidalia right away) or pull her out and wait and do Kindergarten next year (according to LA law you can wait as late as age 7 to put a child in K) because of the school board waiting so long to contact me and let me know that there was no room available for my child at any of their passing schools, the enrollment period was over for the virtual school my older attends.Very inexcusable. Either the numbers in the above article are incorrect or someone has dropped the ball somewhere and I would sure like to know where?!

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