Qualified teachers lacking by Sunny Meriwether - posted Thursday, October 25th, 2012 @ 12:00 pm  E-mail Story |  Print Story  While the Ouachita Parish School Board has been considering a reduction-in-force policy to govern potential layoffs, personnel director Don Coker has a different concern. At a recent School Board meeting, Coker said Ouachita Parish Schools was plagued by a shrinking pool of qualified job applicants. Coker believes schools are losing good teachers because of newly imposed evaluation procedures and state-mandated changes in curriculum. Five teachers are planning to leave the parish school system at mid-year, according to Coker. "I think our teachers are highly stressed right now," he said. "They're working hard and doing a very good job. But there's a lot of uncertainty about the outcome of teacher scores." ..... For the full story, subscribe to the The Ouachita Citizen's NEW E-Edition!