October 11, 2005
By Melody Brumble
mbrumble@gannett.com
Students who spend four years in a new biotech magnet at Southwood High School could earn up to 15 hours of college credit.
Caddo school officials are working out dual-enrollment agreements with LSU-Shreveport and Bossier Parish Community College.
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The magnet will open with up to 60 high school freshmen in the fall. Recruiting events at Caddo Parish middle schools start in November, with applications available Dec. 15.
Jeff Roberts, Caddo schools math-science-technology program director, said he's also discussed holding recruiting meetings at some private and parochial schools so everyone has a chance to apply.
And there's the possibility of need-based scholarships to help students pay for dual-enrollment classes, Roberts said.
"If all goes well, five of the courses would be dual enrollment," Roberts said.
School district officials are also working with LSU Health Sciences Center and Biomedical Research Foundation to create mentor and internship programs that would kickoff in three years as the first group of students become juniors.
Southwood Principal Ken Wood plans to use existing teachers the first year of the program, with an eye toward sending them to school for further certification as students enter upper-level science classes.
"We have three or four science teachers who worked in labs," Wood said. "I really can't tell you it was planned that way, but it's very good for us and what we're trying to do."
If the school picks up more students because of the magnet, it could receive one or two more teachers each year through the district's staffing formula, Roberts said.
The creation of the biotech program leaves Northwood High School as the only Caddo Parish high school without a magnet program to help recruit students.
That doesn't bother Principal Louis Cook. Northwood has a medical careers academy as well as honors, advanced placement and dual-enrollment classes. Cook said enrollment increased by more than 100 students this year before a handful of hurricane evacuees arrived.
"We have tried to put some programs in place to continue to recruit and retain the students that live in our district," Cook said. "The parents out here are starting to send their children back to our school. I have nothing against being called a neighborhood school."
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©The Shreveport Times
October 11, 2005