On Wednesday, Aug. 3, you published a letter from James H. Easton, Ed.D., Superintendent of the Lafayette Parish School System ("IndBox: A One-Man Truth Squad," Aug. 3), in which Dr. Easton agreed to provide the facts about his plans and the School Board's plans for the Lafayette Parish School System. The Lafayette Parish Association of Educators wishes to congratulate Dr. Easton for this promise of open and fair reporting of the facts and issues facing the school system. Many times in the past the problems that arose were a result of the failure of the system to provide the facts and to be open and candid about its plans. We concur with Dr. Easton that we have a good school system, but that we also face some big challenges. Of course, money or the lack thereof is a tremendous challenge, but surely we can find various methods to address the issue rather than just reducing the teacher corps and canceling meaningful classes for students.
This new era of openness will help to solve challenges to the system by allowing crucial decisions to be made in a timely manner, and a repeat of problems such as the fall 2004 transportation plan can be avoided all together rather than take a year to solve. This approach will also bring all of the education community together to successfully complete our mission ' providing the proper level of education for all of the children of Lafayette Parish.
The Lafayette Parish Association of Educators will continue to speak out and voice the concerns of the Lafayette Parish School System employees and the public because these issues directly impact the young people of the school district. We will continue to do all we can to follow Dr. Easton's plan, but we must stress that we will continue to speak when issues are raised that concern our membership, the system's employees and the students of Lafayette Parish.