Enrollment is down by 17,000 at Louisiana Public Schools half of those are pre-K and Kindergarten students. Brooke Thorington has more on why school officials are worried.
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Just over half of all Ochsner system staff have not taken the vaccine yet. Matt Doyle has the story.
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A report from the Legislative Auditor finds the state’s air quality has improved since 2008 but the Department of Environmental Quality has problems cracking down on air quality violators in a timely manner. Matt Doyle has the story.
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LSU is surveying students and staff to gauge interest in a potential campus COVID-19 vaccination program.
LSU spokesperson Ernie Ballard says they’ve emailed all 32,000 students and 5,500 employees…
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Part of the questionnaire asks staff if they have already received the vaccine due.
Ballard says they’ve got a good start on it but need the rest of the campus population to answer their email.
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There’s an early sign that vaccine compliance rates might be pretty good at LSU: Ballard says the sentinel mandatory and random COVID testing program is seeing high levels of compliance.
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Enrollment at Louisiana Public Schools is down two percent. State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley says the decline in enrollment is on par with other states.
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The two-percent decline equates to 17-thousand students and at least half of those students are pre-kindergarten and kindergarten ages. Brumley says he’s worried having those students in particular out of the classroom is going to hurt literacy rates.
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Brumley says many fail to understand the importance of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten to prepare students for elementary education, he’s worried the decline in enrollment will put them further behind.
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Brumley says he’s confident that more families will have their children return to the classroom when all systems can safely resume face-to-face instruction.
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Only 49 percent of Ochsner system staff have been vaccinated despite being eligible to be vaccinated for several weeks.
Ochsner CEO Warner Thomas says that’s problematic because the vaccine was more readily available for workers several weeks ago than it is today now that members of the public are eligible.
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Ochsner Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Hart says one of the most common concerns they’re hearing is coming from younger workers who are concerned the vaccine will impact their fertility.
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There’s also indecision from some staff about which vaccine to take. Ochsner Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Sandra Kemmerly says the best vaccine to take is the one you are offered.
Hart says some staff are also concerned about how quickly the vaccine was developed. He says they’re trying to teach the staff the speed was in part due to how easy it was to find test subjects.
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A Legislative Auditors report on the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality shows the state making progress in the fight against pollution, but raises concerns about regulatory enforcement.
Since 2008 the report notes we’ve seen a 75 percent decline in poor air quality days a year, down to 3.6. DEQ spokesperson Greg Langley says we’ve also met other benchmarks.
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Since 2008 we’ve seen a 21 percent increase in good quality air days.
The report raises concerns with how long it takes DEQ to process self-monitoring reports from state polluters and staying on top of industries to submit those reports. Langley says…
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Another complaint in the report: the amount of time it takes to issue enforcement actions against air quality violators has more than doubled since 2008, and DEQ doesn’t keep up with whether pollution fines are being paid once issued. Langley says disagreed with many of those conclusions…
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The report concludes that a large part of the department’s problem is due to low staffing, including a 15 percent decline in air quality monitoring positions since 2008, high workloads, and frequent staff turnover.
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The LSU men’s basketball team will look to stop a two-game losing streak tonight when they visit Texas A-and-M. The Tigers topped the Aggies earlier this season 77-54, but Coach Will Wade still looks at A-and-M has a tough matchup because of their height and physical play…
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The Tigers are coming off an 82-69 loss to Kentucky on Saturday. Before that game, the Bayou Bengals were bounced by Alabama 105-75. Wade on what the Tigers need to improve on…
Cut 17 (12) “..same old story”
Javonte Smart and Cam Thomas are two guys who didn’t shoot the ball well in losses to Alabama and Kentucky. Wade expects they will bounce back soon…
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Smart was held to six points versus Kentucky.