St. Tammany board committee advances 17 pupil-progression recommendations, including new second-grade promotion rule and block-schedule alignments

The St. Tammany Parish Schools committee as a whole voted to accept a package of 17 recommended revisions to the district’s pupil-progression plan for the 2025–26 school year, presenting changes to second-grade promotion rules, high-school grading and testing aligned to a move to block scheduling, and updated district exam standards.

The recommendations were presented to the board by Dr. Langlois, who explained the review process and said, “we had 36 total suggestions that came in from our stakeholders… 20 of them received recommendations from our stakeholders in our schools and then those we presented to our advisory committee.”

The most substantive changes include: moving language arts into the required subjects for second-grade promotion (so students would need to pass reading, language arts and math, plus either science or social studies); removing a standing 10% interim-assessment weight that applied only to seventh and eighth grades; aligning the district-approved exam passing score with the state by changing a 67% threshold to 60%; replacing quarterly exams with a single final exam (while keeping LEAP 2025 courses as 20% of the final grade); requiring a minimum of 14 assessments per grading period for Carnegie credit; and basing GPA on final course grades rather than semester grades to fit a 4-by-4 block schedule.

Dr. Langlois told the committee that the recommendations emerged from a multi-step process: public input, principal and faculty discussion at the school level, and then advisory-committee review. She said the advisory committee met publicly and voted on the items; several recommendations reached unanimous advisory approval, and most had strong school-level support.

Board members probed specific items. Board member Miss Hurstis asked whether other subjects could be shifted away from LEAP testing; Dr. Langlois answered that district-approved assessments already cover world history, physical science and chemistry and that the update clarifies instruments already in use. Dr. Peterson questioned the change that would remove quarterly exams in favor of a single final; Dr. Langlois and others clarified that under block scheduling high-school courses will retain a final and that LEAP-counted courses would still carry a 20% weight. Several board members expressed concern about removing midterms that serve as additional opportunities for borderline students to improve their status; staff responded that the change is relative to the block schedule and that finals will still exist and count as specified.

The recommendations include updates to senior “short day” eligibility tied to existing criteria: an ACT composite of at least 18 or an equivalent WorkKeys score, no excessive unexcused absences, and satisfied LEAP testing requirements. Staff clarified students who meet the criteria may choose to take two or three courses per semester under block scheduling, but at least one of those courses must be on campus (the policy is intended to preserve on-campus contact while enabling internships and off-campus placements).

The committee moved the package for board approval. Miss Baker made the motion; Miss Hanson seconded it. The roll call vote was unanimous in favor.

Why it matters: The package changes how students will be evaluated and promoted across the parish and aligns local practice with the state’s assessment and scheduling shifts. Several recommendations will affect classroom assessment design, grading and senior schedules if the full state template and final implementation materials are delivered and adopted.

What’s next: Staff said the full state template for the 2025–26 pupil-progression plan is not yet available; the district will bring the completed template to the board once the State Department provides it. The board’s approval at the committee level moves the recommendations forward for formal adoption and implementation planning.