Learning opportunities around St. Tammany Parish begin with preschoolers and extend through continuing education for adults. The area is home to several church-sponsored Mothers’ Day Out programs, as well as exceptional academics-oriented preschool and kindergarten programs. The Head Start program (for children ages 3-5) and Early Head Start program (for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers) promote school readiness for children in low-income families by providing comprehensive educational, health, nutritional, and social services, has just opened a grand new facility in Pearl River.
The St. Tammany Parish Public School System consists of fifty-six schools. Each location provides a caring environment for learning, a challenging and relevant curriculum, innovative instruction and solid student achievement. Our administrative and teachers demonstrate a commitment to improvement and to high performance has made the St. Tammany Parish Public School System a leader in the State of Louisiana, by all major standards of educational excellence.
If you prefer learning through private and/or parochial schools, St. Tammany has nineteen available, including ten high schools with two of them in Slidell: Pope John Paul II (grades 9-12) and First Baptist School (PK-12).
Schools in the parish benefit from supportive parents, business and civic partners and the community at large. Business and civic organizations provide a variety of resources to schools, including internships for students and teachers, mentoring, participation in advisory committees, donations, promotion of school events and many more.
Superintendant Gayle Sloan is invited yearly to address the Chamber membership. Recently she expressed, “This is an exciting time for the St. Tammany Parish School System. We are in the midst of working with the St. Tammany business community to build the STAR Program. This is an employee reward program that will give businesses access to more than 5500 hundred School System employees while working to keep local sales taxes in the Parish. It was a busy start to the school year with the opening of two new schools, Lakeshore High School and Marigny Elementary School. We are also introducing a new communication tool for parents to use in times of any type of emergency. Parents can sign up to receive emergency alerts through text messaging, email, or voicemail by visiting our website, www.stpsb.org. Parents and community members can also sign up on the website for our new E-Newsletter. We encourage everyone to check it out for the latest updates on the happenings within the School System.”
The East St. Tammany Chamber has built a coalition with the local schools through its Education Committee. By honoring students and teachers for community efforts, and helping students learn more about workforce and trades, we have provided resources for students and brought members and public officials into schools to teach the Junior Achievement programs. Committee Member and School Board Member, Mary K. Bellisario, worked closely with the state legislatures and school boards around the state on recent school board reform proposals. Mary K commented, “The St. Tammany Parish Public School System is the premiere public education system in the state of Louisiana. We are fortunate to have the right combination of experienced and innovative administrators, excellent teachers and staff members, students prepared and eager to learn, active parents in our schools, and a supportive community which puts a high priority on public education. Over half of the PTA members in Louisiana come from one parish – St. Tammany. Parental input is critical to students’ success.”
Louisiana Technical College offers programs to work with high school students to prepare them for their careers upon graduation, as well as providing many classes for adults. St. Tammany Parish also offers many forms of higher education for graduates, parents or adults looking for advancement in their careers or for personal growth. St. Tammany makes learning gratifying and convenient for everyone.
The East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce, through its Education Committee, has the privilege of presenting scholarships to outstanding students who demonstrate academic excellence, are involved in extracurricular activities and give back to the community through service hours and community involvement. This year three scholarships were chosen from twenty-one applicants. The recipients for 2009 were Tyler Morrison, son of Jay and Taffy Morrison, a graduate of Northshore High School; Joshua Frick, son of Paul and Vicki Frick, a graduate of Salmen High School; and Kimberly Treese, daughter of Thomas and Kathy Treese, a graduate of Pearl River High School.
For more information on committees provided by the East St. Tammany Chamber, please visit our website at www.estchamber.com.