Richard Hartley Quotations

We have to have a plan in place to know what we're going to do in 2006-2007.

What we're finding out is (restructuring) will have very little impact on those numbers.

Money for schools is given through tax money. Every year there is a plan of what revenue is expected. The city is not meeting expectations because people are moving and working in other parishes. Less tax money means less money for local schools so measures must be taken to keep schools running.

One of the most important things we can do for the students is get them back into their routine. Working the remainder of this week and the first two days of next week will give us the time we need to get everything in order and allow them to return to class.

Previously, I wouldn't have given us a good grade at all. But since we have (business manager Renee Hinton) in place, we're doing a much better job. I don't know if I'd give us a letter grade.

That absolutely floored me. I'm from New Jersey, and that would've never happened there.

I would love to keep every school open, but the reality is you can't keep entire schools open for a few students. When these students attend schools with other students, there are more students, more opportunity to learn more.

We had obviously hoped the judge would accept our agreement with the government. Dr. Fisk is disappointed the judge didn't adopt that recommendation. On the other hand, he appreciates the fact that the court said a sentence within the guideline range was inappropriate.

When I retired, I figured I might get a part-time job some place, but there aren't any in Caroline.

When the paper mill closes, the parish will lose more money because people will move or work in other parishes, and less tax money will stay in the parish--which means the schools will lose money coming to them. Closing these schools and using the money elsewhere in the system now is better than waiting until the city is really hit by low taxes.

We've got to develop a plan on what we'll do when the mill closes. We can't bury our head in the sand and pretend like it's not going to happen.

There is not a trend of population growth in these areas. In order for a school to stay open, there must be an adequate amount of students there, and an indication that the population will grow to have children attend in the future. The sales tax projection is not meeting expectations. Every city has an expected amount of money expected to be taken in from local tax, and the two areas aren't meeting tax expectations.

It was a productive meeting. The group agreed to submit suggestions regarding the closing/consolidation of schools, but they know it's pretty much done.

Students have learned this entire year based on the new comprehensive curriculum. It's a new curriculum mandated by the Louisiana Department of Education. We teach all of our classes based on this new curriculum. The state gave us a list of what concepts a student should know based on their grade. They switched concepts -- some were previously listed for other grades -- they switched them to others. Also this new curriculum adds more hands-on activity.

All the students will be with the same classmates and teachers they had before the Easter holiday began.