Last Modified: Saturday, October 22, 2011 6:57 PM

BY TODD C. ELLIOTT / AMERICAN PRESS

CARLYSS — The first “Report Card Day” of the 2011 school year brought chatter among students to the hallways of Cypress Cove Elementary.
Hopeful and excited students spoke openly with their classmates about things like what new Nintendo DS game they were going to get from their parents as a reward for their good grades.
For the administrative staff in the front office, the first report card day of the year is a waiting game.
Cypress Cove staffers said they expected to get the report cards emailed from the main Calcasieu Parish School Board office at 10:30 a.m. But school system officials sent word that the school would not receive their report cards until after 2 p.m.
Cypress Cove office staff began printing the more than 400 report cards at about 2:30 p.m.
For the teachers, report card day is much like any school day, with a slight increase in responsibility. Teachers at Cypress Cove prepared the cafeteria for 187 students, who either made
roll or banner roll, to enjoy a treat of juice and cookies.
Anna White, counselor at Cypress Cove, said the “honor roll-banner roll party” is a tradition.
“We’ve always had it to reward the students for trying really hard on their grades,” White said. “This is the biggest that we’ve ever had.”
The kids who didn’t make it to the cafeteria, White said, continue their “learning time” with educational games.
“Maybe next time they’ll get to go and participate in the honor roll-banner roll party,” she said.
Incentives, White said, motivate the students.
Karlee Skeldon, 10, a fifth-grader, said she made honor roll and was looking forward to the party. Report card day also found Skeldon looking forward to a cash reward from her parents.
“I get $20 for straight-‘A’s’; if I get a ‘B’ or banner roll, then I get $15,” she said.
Deanna Melton, a grandmother of a pre-K student, said she was excited to see her granddaughter receive her first report card. She said the pre-K grading scale is a little different.
“In her class, they get awarded ‘faces.’ A white face is excellent, a green face is good, a yellow face is not so good, and a red face is bad,” she said.
Charlotte Flores, assistant principal at Cypress Cove, said the biggest change for elementary students this year is the introduction of the “F” on report cards. She said the “F” has replaced the “U” on report cards.
“No one in Calcasieu Parish did ‘F’s’; it was ‘U’s’ for every school. The state ... decided that they wanted everybody on the same page, so that’s why we went to ‘F’s’ this year,” Flores said.
“I think a long time ago they went to ‘U’s’ because it meant ‘unsatisfactory’ as opposed to ‘F’s,’ which meant ‘failure.’ The students associated ‘F’ with failure. They went with the ‘U’s’ to kind of make the students not feel so down because they made a ‘U.’ ”
Flores said the “F” is more intimidating.
Other grades that apply: “O’s” for “outstanding”; “S’s” for “satisfactory”; and “N’s” for “needs improvement.” According to Flores, these grades apply to handwriting and conduct.
According to Flores, Calcasieu Parish schools reached their nine-week mark on Oct. 12. She said schools in the parish have between three and five school days after the nine-week mark to issue report cards to students.
This is the first school year that Calcasieu schools have gone from a six-week grading period to a nine-week period.
Cypress Cove recently received its School Performance Score from the state, earning a C.
But Flores said the grade was based on student scores from the former D.S. Perkins Elementary — which Cypress Cove replaced in the district. She said Cypress Cove students have yet to be graded for their first full year of academic performance.
“We have no idea where we are going to land at the end of the year,” Flores said. “There were some schools that did better than us, but we did well.”