Linda Hammons Byrd Comments to Caddo Parish School Board

Faye Hammons Bailey asked that the following comments be posted. Her sister Linda will present these comments to the Caddo Parish School Board on 10/26/2006.
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Thank you for allowing me to speak on this important matter. My name is Linda Hammons Byrd, class of 72, and my siblings, my sister, Faye Hammons Bailey class of 61 and my late brother Lester Hammons class of 60; we are all PROUD graduates of Fair Park!

I have been actively involved in the Fair Park Reunion Committee’s since our first reunion in 1982 and during these reunion events, we asked Fair Park’s principals to open the doors of our school so that former graduates could take a step back in time to remember the good ole days. Good ole days meaning great football games, wonderful caring teachers, a great student body and above all “School Spirit.” I know that the current principal, Bruce Daigle is doing what is needed to get “school spirit” and the enthusiasm of students, teachers, faculty and parents back on track at Fair Park. Mr. Daigle is working with teachers and students to improve school grades improve on standardized tests and to retain students for graduation. In his short tenure as principal at Fair Park, many changes have taken place. Fair Park’s current enrollment is 815 students, an increase of almost 20% from previous years and since the inception of the “Jump Program” at the freshmen level, preliminary indications show that nearly 90% of the students enrolled have earned enough credits to become a sophomore, as opposed to 47% or less in previous years. Reading scores have also shown improvement from pre-test, mid-test and post-test data. Beginning in January of 2007, Mr. Daigle and the teachers of Fair Park are implementing the “Test Prep Class” that will help ALL students receive extra help in Math, Science, English, what-ever subject they need help in, so you can see he is doing a great job at Fair Park with new and exciting ideas.

The goals for each school in Caddo Parish is to be accountable to achieve the results that would make students want to come to school and stay in school. Results show that Mr. Daigle has made tremendous progress at Fair Park and closing this school and sending students to Booker T. Washington would be an injustice to Mr. Daigle and to the students at Fair Park. Mr. Daigle deserves the respect and time to carry on his dedicated work at Fair Park and to improve his school’s performance. Let’s give him and the students at Fair Park a fair chance to change.

Achievements on the athletic field have come a long way also at Fair Park. This school has a STRONG history of athletic abilities, and sports also give students a reason to come to school and stay in school. This past year Fair Park won the State Championship in basketball for the first time since 1963, and in today’s paper it listed that the football team is making great and fast strides in rebuilding its program to the glory days of past and for the first time in 20 years the football team could make the playoffs. The coaches are doing a great job in reviving these programs. Sports along with good test scores keep students focused and in school.

Fair Park’s 3-story level is not conducive for elementary children. The 3rd floor annex at Fair Park would pose a safety issue for younger children, there is only 1 set of stairs leading up to the annex and not to mention how far it is from the cafeteria, I remember we had to run from the annex to the cafeteria with the small amount of time we had to eat. What is the cost estimate to renovate Fair Park to become a K-8 school? I understand that recently air conditioning costs at Fair Park were done at a cost of 2.8 million dollars. How much more money do the TAXPAYERS have to pay to renovate the school to accommodate a new K-8 facility?

I am here today representing the Class of 72 and all the Fair Park Alumni and we are asking for your support and some time for Mr. Daigle to get Fair Park refocused and back on track like it was when I was an Indian.

ONCE AN INDIAN, ALWAYS AN INDIAN.
LINDA HAMMONS BYRD
FPHS Class of 1972

Jackie Johnny Jones

To all of my classmates, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It is my prayer that after I have my other knee replaced that I will be able to walk. If you were at the reunion I was the guy in the wheelchair.

Comments Capability Disabled

Recently I read a technical article noting that individuals will be the next major “target” of those who create viruses, spyware, and use other sophisticated hacking techniques. The article noted that businesses have plugged many of their internet security holes and that has made it harder for the hackers to compromise the security measures business now uses.

Individual users, however, have not approached internet security with the same zeal as have businesses. The article mentioned that one potential target for attacks on individuals was via interactive websites. For example, our Blog site is an interactive website because it allows anyone to post comments to an article. Presumably, a hacker could post a comment containing programming instructions that could allow access to the computers of those who opened the article containing the comments.

I’m not a computer expert and don’t know if such an attack is possible, much less probable. However, it doesn't make sense to me to take the chance. Accordingly, I have disabled the comments capability in our Blog. This seemed to be the best solution since not many folks have used the comments feature. If a more practical solution to this issue is found I will turn the comments feature back on. Till then, send me an email if you want to pass along any comments you may have.

Lets Have a Pow Wow in the Chat Room

On October 2, 2006, Jerry and Carrol Cook and I got together on the Fair Park Alumni Website Chat Room and gave it a test drive. The Fair Park Alumni Chat Room was set up by Glenn Hardaway – Fair Park Class of 1977.

Jerry and Carrol were in Shreveport and I was in Fort Worth. We “talked” back and forth about 10 to 15 minutes, then declared our experiment a success, and left the Chat Room. The consensus was this is another resource that we can use to stay in touch. While it obviously isn’t the only way to stay in touch it seems well suited for those occasions when two, three, or more need to be in touch with each other in a more timely way than a typical email exchange provides. Everyone in the group can access the Chat Room at the same time and both send and receive input from others immediately.

Want to give it a try? Click HERE to go directly to the Chat Room. Or, you can click on the Chat Room link on the left side of this blog page.

I do recommend you arrange for someone to “meet” you at the Chat Room. That’s because this Chat Room is not heavily used, which is actually a plus for us. If a multitude of others were using it at the same time it might get confusing as to who is sending what message. That’s because the program automatically assigns everyone the name Anonymous and adds a number. I recommend you change your assigned name by backspacing across the name and typing your own name and perhaps your last initial.

If you use this resource drop me a note and let me know how it worked for you.