The Bossier Parish School District, that powerhouse of public relations, splashes its motto “Win the Day” around, while it really needs to pursue students showing up that day, before being in a position to win it.
The BPSD regularly pumps out whatever good news the district can scrounge during Board meetings and through web videos as part of its “On the Record” series in addition to news releases, such as its deserved seventh best improvement in early grade reading proficiency among the state’s 69 districts. But noticeably absent from any publicity, not even issuing a measly media release for perhaps understandable reasons, were a couple of items celebrated across the rest of the state, if not next door.
One was the annual disappointment in National Merit Scholar semifinalists, announced earlier this month, which at least had the consolation of the district doubling up on the one honoree from last year, which also doubled up on how many that the parish’s only private school produced. That sterling scholar from a student body of about five percent in size of the 1,452 BPSD high school seniors was part of a class that averaged 28 on the ACT standardized exam, compared to the 19 scored by BPSD seniors, below the national average of 19.4 but above the state average of 18.2.
Contrast this to Caddo Parish, which has about 50 percent more seniors who collectively averaged just 18.1 on the ACT. Yet Caddo produced 13 semifinalists, all from Caddo Magnet, and wasn’t shy at all about telling the world. If Caddo can do this from what appears to be a lesser pool of students, why can’t Bossier?
Perhaps it has something to do with the increasing truancy problem in Bossier schools. Traditionally, Louisiana as a state has struggled with absenteeism, and just about every state had problems during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic as some schools, if not across entire states, pivoted to weeks, months, and even a year or more of online learning that made it easier for students to tune out.
Fortunately, this year the tide has begun to turn nationally. After years of generally increasing chronic absenteeism (defined as missing at least ten days of the school year) most states began to see a reversal, Louisiana included. In academic year 2019, the last full one before the pandemic, the state ranked 35th at 18.8 percent. And while the AY 2024 number of 24.6 percent peaked, the state advanced nine places to rank 26th (“OK, Brumley was right”). That figure fell 2.1 percent more for AY 2025 (only about a dozen states have reported so far).
The state plans on boosting that progress further. This summer, the Department of Education announced its “Power of Presence” plan to reduce chronic absenteeism even further. As Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley noted, it’s much easier to increase student achievement when one actually is attending class.
That differs from the approach that taken by the BPSD under the direction of Superintendent Jason Rowland, and it shows. In AY 2019, Bossier’s rate of 18.5 exceeded the state’s by less than a point, putting it 38th among districts. By AY 2024, it had ballooned to 28.9, all the way down to 53rd and now over 4 points worse than the state average. The good news for the recently-released AY 2025 data was Bossier’s number went down to 27.9 and it improved a spot in rankings, but the bad news is the state average dropped more and so the gap now is well over five percent.
Bossier was supposed to be making greater strides because of Rowland’s signature initiative, school-based health clinics, which began operating last school year at four locations. Supposedly, these were to keep ailing students in school, even as they used tax dollars to intrude upon parental authority in health matters. Apparently, they didn’t work or at least to the necessary extent as other more cost-effective strategies could have as Bossier continues to make small absolute progress but lose even more relative ground with truancy.
The state’s new strategy means Bossier administrators will have more up close and personal time with state officials trying to straighten things out. Putting resources into that would be a wiser strategy than spending on clinics, but concentrating on the mundane instead of what makes for good publicity hasn’t been the BPSD’s strong suit lately.
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