BESE's Roemer says panel in need of makeover
by WILL SENTELL - Advocate (excerpt)

Louisiana’s top school board needs to revamp its operations to improve the panel’s image with taxpayers and state lawmakers, a member of the board said Tuesday.

Chas Roemer, of Baton Rouge, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, made the comment during a day-long BESE retreat. BESE sets policies for about 660,000 public school students statewide. The panel has 11 members and generally meets monthly for parts of three days.

“There are some people in the state that don’t care what BESE says,” Roemer said. Part of the problem, he said, is that the board spends too much time on too many topics. “We have to look at the totality of the issues we cover,” Roemer said. “We make big decisions with too little thought,” he said. “I would encourage us to significantly change what we do and how we do it,” said Roemer, who has made similar comments in other settings.