In an effort to bring a fresh approach, Kelly Wells, a native and resident of Ponchatoula, announced his candidacy and qualified to represent District H on the Tangipahoa Parish School Board.
“District H is one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in Tangipahoa Parish. As a member of your school board, I will work to find short and long term solutions to meet the needs of our students,” Wells said. “We need a fresh look at ways to improve our school system because ultimately we need to remember that we are working to improve our students who will be the next generation of Tangipahoa parish leaders.”
He is currently the manager of the Florida Parishes Arena in Amite and has been an employee of the Tangipahoa Parish for 18 years.
Among its goals are student safety, expanding professional training opportunities, and retaining and recruiting teachers.
“With the things going on in this world, we have to put precautions in place,” Wells said of student safety. “They do now, but there’s always more you can add.”
He has a similar view of vocational training: while the school system already provides these opportunities, Wells wants to push them further.
He has seen the tide turn on people who feel they must attend four-year college, and technical certificates, community colleges, and on-the-job training are critically important educational components for the community, he said.
“One of my goals would be to assist in any way I can as a board member in retaining and recruiting teachers,” he said.
While he sees teacher compensation as an important way to recruit and retain, he also believes teachers want to know there will be flexibility in how they can approach their curriculum and teaching methods. .
Not only concerned with keeping and finding teachers, Wells, who has family in the education field, wants teachers and staff at Tangipahoa Parish to know they have an ear when they go to council. .
“So many times they feel like their hands are tied and they need to be able to voice their concerns and ideas,” he said. “You talk to 10 different people, there are 10 different priorities. Everyone has a different passion; we just have to respond to everyone’s concerns.
Wells hopes to bring education recruiting experience to the school board. He is the former assistant director of enrollment management at Southeastern Louisiana University and the former director of freshman experience at the University of New Orleans.
Wells also served as assistant athletic director for SLU.
Recent school district challenges that Wells has his eyes set on include discipline policies, the shortage of bus drivers and resolving the desegregation case.
The problem he sees with disciplinary matters is that teachers are afraid if they don’t intervene in a fight they will be blamed for not stopping it, but if they get involved they will face repercussions. .
Wells sees the benefits of the recently instituted zero-tolerance policy, which states that any students caught fighting will be sent to the parish’s alternative school. However, he also thinks it’s too simple.
“There needs to be a process and an investigation,” Wells said. “The gut feeling would be 100% zero tolerance, but really that’s not really fair to whoever happens to be at the end of a bully. It wouldn’t be fair for them to get the same discipline as someone who caused these problems.
He also believes in implementing a more proactive rather than reactive approach.
“A proactive approach to managing student behavior can negate the need for discipline,” he said.
When it comes to bus drivers, Wells recognizes it as a national problem. His brother was superintendent of transportation in Florida where he saw the same bus driver shortage problem that Tangipahoa Parish had last year.
“We need to raise the salary,” Wells said. “With the cost of fuel and the rare times when bus drivers have to run, they avoid the possibility of outside employment unless they own their own business.”
He argues that there are few side jobs for bus drivers that fit their schedule – occupied during the first and last hours of a typical workday – so their pay for their job as bus driver bus must be higher.
As for the desegregation case, Wells thinks the parish is moving in the right direction.
“Tangipahoa Parish can be a shining example and model for other systems in terms of staffing and student distribution while maintaining proud community schools,” he said.
Wells said he wants to bring “a common sense approach to solutions” and sees Tangipahoa Parish as a diverse community where people are able to find common ground.
Wells graduated from Ponchatoula High School in 1984 and graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University with a certificate in law enforcement, a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in education.
Wells has been an active member of the community since a young age. He was a BSA Troop 100 Eagle Scout sponsored by the Ponchatoula Rotary Club. He has also been a member for 18 years of the League of Agricultural and Equine Centers and received the prestigious Silver Horseshoe Award 2021.
With a focus on helping 4-H and FFA students, Wells is now an active board member of the Tangipahoa Parish Fair. The fair has always been part of 4-H and the FAA, and Wells is ready to put more emphasis on those clubs through his affiliation with the fair.
He is a current and former board member of the SLU Alumni Association; current member and past president of the SLU Lions Athletic Association; former board member of Habitat for Humanity, now known as Fuller Center for Housing; current member of the Amite Kiwanis Club and former member of the Hammond Kiwanis Club; and former assistant games director for the Louisiana Special Olympics Summer Games.
He is a graduate of the Louisiana Tourism Leadership Academy and is currently a board member, past president, and graduate of Leadership Tangipahoa.
“My parents, Carl and Sandra Wells, always believed in community service and led by example. I’m following in their footsteps and I’m ready to lead by example,” Wells said. “All families, students, faculty, and staff in District H will know that I have their best interest in my decision-making, and I will do the same for all students, faculty, and staff in our parochial school system. of Tangipahoa.”
District H includes the areas of eastern Ponchatoula through Robert’s region, eastern Hammond, and southern Loranger.
With Wells planning to retire from his parochial and arena jobs in the next two years, it was a good time in his professional career to run for the school board, he said.
“I see some of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the next four to eight years, and I want to be part of it,” Wells said. “This is a particularly important election that will affect our students more than the next four years. We can implement plans to assign our students over the next decade.
The school board election will take place on Tuesday, November 8, with early voting from October 25 through November 1.
