Those issues include:

• The displacement of students zoned for N.P. Moss Middle School, which the board voted to close to house the new Thibodaux Career and Technical High School.
• The implementation of the school system's master facilities plan.
• The selection of a new superintendent. Current Superintendent Burnell Lemoine has said he plans to retire after this school year.

Board members will be sworn in by Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court Louis Perret at the beginning of Wednesday's 5:30 p.m. meeting in the board room, 113 Chaplin Drive.

Community leaders said Monday they hope the board creates priorities centered around improving graduation rates and closing the district's achievement gap among black and poor students.

Teachers have their own wishes for the board — with revisions to the current discipline policy at the top of the list, said Karen Martin, president of the Lafayette Parish Association of Educators.

She said the policy currently offers additional chances for disruptive students to stay in the classroom — and that has become a disadvantage to other students.

"It keeps those bad kids in your class longer, and sometimes it doesn't change their behavior,” Martin said. "The good kids are suffering.”

The restoration of lower teacher-student ratios, which were increased by two students this year to offset a budget deficit, and a pay raise for support personnel are two other priorities the association would like to see addressed in the coming year, she said.

Two community groups — 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette and the Lafayette Public Education Stakeholders Council — have tagged two similar priorities for the board: improved graduation rates and elimination of the achievement gap.

The 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette identified three priorities for the board, according to an e-mail response from Chip Jackson, the group's education committee chairman: hiring a new superintendent who will develop a comprehensive reform plan for education in the parish; adequate funding and resources for educational reform; and greater transparency of the workings of the board and willingness to accept community input.

The stakeholders council organized School Board candidate forums in the fall and will continue "community conversations” with residents, community leaders and school leaders focused on "what people think is important for educational improvement in Lafayette Parish,” council chairman Eddie Palmer said.

"We recognize that a lot of progress has been made in the Lafayette Parish School System, but we also know that we also need to be striving for something better,” Palmer said.

The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce plans to assist the council with its efforts and to improve its engagement with the school system and board, said Rob Guidry, chamber president.

Guidry said he'd like to see the chamber involved in the superintendent search and discussions about funding for the master plan's implementation.

The school system's graduation rate for 2009-10 was 70.4 — a 2.4-point increase from the prior year. The system's district performance score was 96.5 — only a 0.4-point increase from the prior year, according to state data.

Only one school in the parish is listed as an academically unacceptable school: N.P. Moss Middle, with a school performance score of 55.2. The state's minimum accountability standard is 60. The school faced a possible state takeover next year based on its past performance, school officials have said.

Minimum accountability standards change this year to 65 and next year to 75.

The state placed three Lafayette Parish schools on an academic watch list for scores that currently don't meet the 2012 requirement. Those schools: Alice Boucher (65.5), J.W. Faulk Elementary (66.6) and Northside High (67.9) serve high-poverty neighborhoods and have majority black student enrollments.