The state’s Board of Elementary & Secondary Education (BESE) has chosen Lafayette area educator Dr. Holly Boffy (pronounced BOE-fee) as its new president. Boffy is principal at W.D. and Mary Baker Smith career Center in Lafayette and has represented BESE District 7 since 2012. Boffy says she wants to lead BESE toward overhauling how the state evaluates school performance…
“We’re going to have to make some changes, to be able to recognize growth in the accountability system…and that’s something the Board is committed to studying.”
Another area Boffy wants to see improve is school attendance and truancy, which is among the highest in the country. She says a great many students drop out or fail to attend because they feel they won’t be misses, or they have no relationship with their teacher. She says the teacher shortage has just made that worse. Boffy says school systems are hiring, and they hope to outreach people who may want to become a teacher…
“We want to make sure that we are communicating to people our needs. And also the opportunities that exist.”
Dr. Boffy says her years of experience in the classroom make her very qualified to be BESE’s president. She says she’ll continue to work with the Board to get more teachers in classrooms and keep more students in school…
“I think continuing to shine a light on it, as you have seen our board do, is one of the steps to making that happen.”
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