|
Livingston Parish
Literacy and Technology Center
Center Goals:
• Increasing the percentage of students graduating from high school
• Increasing an understanding of the environment by residents of the parish
The Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center is a joint project between
Southeastern Louisiana University and the Livingston Parish School Board. The
39,000 square foot center, located on a 24-acre School Board site between U.S.
190 and Burgess Avenue, will offer family literacy programs and math, science,
technology and environmental education for students. It should be completed
April 20, 2005.
The center will feature a distance learning center; conference room; lecture
hall; eight general use classrooms, two with compressed video capability; two
computer lab-classrooms; biology, mathematics and chemistry laboratories; and
offices for Southeastern and Livingston Parish faculty and administrators.
Funding for the cooperative project came as a result of the settlement of a
class action environmental law suit filed on behalf of more than 10,000
Livingston Parish residents. In the settlement of the suit (generally referred
to as the "Combustion, Inc." case), more than $131 million were distributed to
plaintiffs. In making his decisions regarding distribution of the settlement
United States District Judge Richard T. Haik, Sr. of Lafayette-Opelousas
Division of the Western District of Louisiana, searched for a way that the case
could benefit the parish as a whole in addition to individual plaintiffs. He
solicited proposals, and Southeastern- after consultation with the Livingston
Parish School Board- came forward with the plan for the Literacy and Technology
Center. Southeastern was awarded $4.5 million to help build and operate the
center. The Livingston Parish School Board has allocated another $1 million for
the project.
|
|
