letter from principal

ST. AMANT HIGH SCHOOL

STEVE WESTBROOK – PRINCIPAL                                         ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL
             12035 HWY. 431                                                                       Maurice Swinney
             ST. AMANT, LOUISIANA 70774-3499                                        ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS
             (225) 621-2565                                                                          Mia Edwards
                                                                                                            Frances Grayson
                                                                                                            Edith Walker

St. Amant High School has always distinguished itself by its intense focus on increasing the academic achievement of its students. As a school community of teachers, coaches, administrators, counselors, parents, students, extracurricular support groups, business leaders, et al., we have all worked well together to ensure that our students are best prepared for their next level of educational participation. This focus, this commitment made by our school community, is what has fueled the successes on our campus.

As we begin a new school year, re-commit ourselves to our goals, and ponder the world in which our young people must be equipped to compete, we must decide that failure is not an option. The highest expectation is that each student will complete everything that is expected of him at high quality levels, and experience and research shows us that when we have high expectations, students live up to them. When we expect little of them, we get little from them. We must not allow a student to feel comfortable when he does not turn something in. We must let him know that we care enough to perturb him enough to cause him to do his best work, thus mastering what he is supposed to know and be able to do. When students do not master material, we are obligated to diagnose this fact through some type of formative or summative assessment and then provide them with the tools needed to succeed. For when we know this information, how can we not act upon it?

In this vein, our teachers have participated in the creation of quarterly benchmark exams that are designed to arm us with the data we need to discern how well our students are actually doing. Additionally this year, we are prepared to create Professional Learning Communities, which provide extra time for professional discourse and action concerning those things that will have the most direct, positive impact on student academic achievement. With this plan of action set to take effect in the fall of 2008, this looks to be another very good year for St. Amant High School. The teachers new to our faculty will quickly come to the realization that they have arrived at an academic institution that constantly strives to do what is best for our kids.