The REAL Future of Bossier High School

Bossier Press Tribune reporter Hal Braswell needs an education.  I don’t mean a formal education – he received his formal education in Illinois and in Mississippi.  Mr. Braswell, who lives in Minden and has worked for the Bossier Press Tribune since 2007, needs to come to Bossier High School and see what we do every day. 

Mr. Braswell published an article in the Bossier Press that has ignited a firestorm on Facebook this weekend.  His article, “The Future of Bossier High,” reports on an upcoming demographic report about projected enrollment numbers for Bossier High School.

I’d link to the article, but as of this writing, the Bossier Tribune’s site is still down – it crashed sometime yesterday. Karma?

The article says:

“A demographer’s report being finalized for the Bossier Parish School Board will project student enrollment from 2014 to 2014 and could provide a glimpse into the future.”

Mr. Braswell goes on to report what we all know:  Bossier City is growing outward, north, south, and east.  New schools have been approved and built in those areas; Legacy and Parkway are both shiny, new schools that help accommodate those populations.  Mr. Braswell also reports that Bossier Parish’s two largest high schools, Airline and Parkway, are both scheduled for big money enhancements that the voters approved in 2012:

“Airline High School, already the largest in Bossier Parish, is scheduled for a $22.65 million enhancement that will bump its capacity to 2,000 students. Parkway High School, only a few years removed from locating to an entirely new campus in south Bossier, is slated for a 12-classroom addition in Phase Two of the $210 million bond issue approved by voters in April 2012.”

This is all true and I have no objection with what Mr. Braswell reported up to this point.  It is in the next paragraph of his article that things start to get fuzzy: 

“At a time that millions of dollars are earmarked for expansion and other improvements at Airline High School and Parkway High School, figures provided by the school district show Bossier High School is sitting half empty.”

Mr. Braswell reports that the school has the capacity for 1,361 students.  Now, let’s pause there for a moment.  The school might have been built with that many classrooms in 1938 (the date the current campus was designed), but today some of those classrooms have been turned into computer labs to accommodate modern day
technology requirements and instruction.  We have at least four wired computer labs in the two main buildings as well as several mobile laptop labs, and the library has two computer labs.  There is also a mini-lab in the counselor's office area.  In all, we have about ten computer labs on campus.

Note also that last summer Bossier High received a major electrical upgrade from bond money approved by voters.  The school also has a $150,000 auditorium upgrade coming.  The auditorium at Bossier High is used for many parish functions including the annual parish musical, Lions Club functions, Bossier Council on Aging functions, and parish wide food service training annually to name a few.

Mr. Braswell’s statement that “Bossier High School is sitting half empty” is very misleading.  Tell that Geometry teacher with thirty-three kids in her classroom that her class is “half-empty” and see what happens.  There are no empty classrooms in Bossier High School, and I invite Mr. Braswell to come see what goes on in those classrooms.  I also invite any alumni, especially those on Facebook who are suggesting we lock the doors in 2017 and have a huge alumni party, (imagine!) to come see what we do at Bossier High School every single day.  Come embrace and support our hard work rather than give up on us.

I wonder if Mr. Braswell was at the Senior Awards Assembly last week.  Bossier High School students received thousands of dollars in scholarships to schools all over the country.  We also recognized students who are planning to go into the military after graduation.  The Bossier High School Alumni Association, in fact, gave several very generous scholarships at that assembly.  Our students are achieving great things which should be supported and celebrated.

We just completed Senior Project last week; our seniors (both semesters) have done incredible work with their projects and achieved things they never thought they could.  And I don’t mean just the physical project that each student did; many of these kids did these projects under incredible hardships that I can’t even begin to share. 

Part of Mr. Braswell’s thesis is that Bossier High School’s population is an inner-city, declining, poverty ridden population.  That is demographically true but it doesn’t take into account the personal aspect of our population.  These kids aren’t numbers.  They’re people.  They’re students, and they’re kids with heart, drive and pride.

Some suggest that we just blend these kids into Parkway (already with a population of about 1,200) and Airline (population about 1,700).  One of the comments I saw this weekend in the discussion about closing Bossier High School is that it’s a numbers and demographics issue, not an emotional one.  Well of course it’s an emotional issue.  I’m here to tell you that as a teacher at Bossier High School since 2001, I have personally seen kids who have had that “grass is greener” mentality; they’ll transfer to one of the bigger schools and then come right back.  They get swallowed up at those big schools.  It should also be noted that when the kids at Barksdale were given permission to leave Bossier High and attend another school in the parish if they wanted, almost all of them chose to remain at Bossier.  We continue to have a large population of Barksdale kids.

Many of our neighborhood students come from homes where they receive very little academic support.  In that respect, if we have “under capacity” classrooms, what that means is that in an English class of 25 students, many of whom need one on one assistance, it is possible to mentor and help those kids.  

Our school has a population that is 72% free/reduced lunch.  (Airline is 38% and Parkway 32%).  Who picks up that slack for these kids and functions as a family or mentor?  The teachers and administrators at Bossier High do; we love and mentor our students on a scale that other schools can’t fathom.  I have known faculty members that will pick kids up and take them to church if they want to go.  When a student is stressing out and crying because she doesn’t have $1.00 to buy page protectors for her senior project portfolio who do you think reached into her pocket and helped her?  When a student is sleeping through class because he’s had to work at night to keep the electricity on at the house (because both parents have left), who helps that student?  I could go on and on.

What I’m telling you is that there are great things that go on at Bossier High School; it is so much more than demographic numbers and projections.  You might say that education is a business and best use of taxpayer dollars must be adhered to, and that may be true.  But our mission statement at Bossier High School says it best: 

“The mission of Bossier High School, in partnership with parents and community, is to foster the development of an environment that will facilitate learning for all students, promote self-esteem and respect for others, and launch learners on a quest for high standards, all of which will lead them to be self-sufficient adults.”

It’s that part about “self-sufficient adults” that you taxpayers that want to close the doors need to pay attention to. 

One last note as we wait for the demographer’s report.  Rusheon Middle School, the main feeder for Bossier High, has its largest eighth grade class in recent years, leaving in May.  The majority of those kids will come to Bossier High School which will certainly boost enrollment there.  The numbers at Rusheon are big in the seventh grade as well which should also predict a large ninth grade population for Bossier in the next year.  In addition, there will be a big news conference this week where great news for Bossier High will be announced.  Watch for it. 

Mr. Braswell seems to have written our obituary at Bossier High and paid the undertaker, but it’s not over at 777 Bearkat Drive.  Not even close.  The best is yet to come!  Come embrace and celebrate what we are doing rather than giving up on us.  Locking the doors in 2017?  Are you KIDDING?!