By JEAN L. KAESS

What did I learn in the last week?

From Dr. Donald Aguillard during his interview Nov. 3 for the Lafayette Parish superintendent position:

—The average age of a school facility in St. Mary Parish is 50.

—If a child is held back two years, there’s better than an 80 percent chance you’ve created a future high school drop out.

—When an alternative school is labeled as a “program” instead of a school, the testing scores stay with the home school of the student.

This is a useful way to handle a “problem” school that will destroy all those wonderful statistics that say your school system is flourishing.

—Back in the early 2000s, Thomas Gibbs Elementary School in Four Corners had 39 fourth-graders who took the LEAP test. Only three of them passed. The school already was in academic warning, so the district did what it had to do to raise the scores. They taught the children only English- language arts and math.

“We barely taught science and social studies. We taught what those kids needed,” Aguillard told the Lafayette Parish School Board during his interview.

What he didn‘t say is that those also were the only two courses that were being counted toward School Performance Scores at the time.

I’ll just pause for a moment to let the implications of what he said sink in. We good? OK, moving on.

From Kim Kardashian, famous for being famous:

—Fish and relatives stink after three days, but spouses can last 24 times as long.

Actually, I borrowed that line from CNN writer Sara Benincasa. I thought it was one of the better spins on the marriage between Kim K. and her too-tall hubby Kris Humphries.

Sports fans are nuts:

—Was I the only one who was tired of seeing purple and gold by the time the LSU-Alabama game finally was played Saturday?

—Tebowing … Enough said.

Finally, a reminder:

The St. Mary Red Ribbon Committee’s annual Arts and Crafts Fall Bazaar will be held Saturday at the Patterson Area Civic Center from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Patrons of the event can expect to choose from a variety of items to purchase. Everything from homemade items and garage sale items (with the exception of clothing) to arts and crafts, antiques and baked goods will be sold by the 50 vendors available.

Since the date is close to Christmas, this is a great opportunity to begin gift shopping for the holiday season. And, you can make plans to attend the event no matter what the weatherman predicts because the event is held indoors.

There will be a $2 admission at the door for all adults, but children under age 10 will not be charged.

The Red Ribbon Committee will sell concessions of hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and drinks.

Proceeds benefit the annual Red Ribbon Week campaign, the Safe and Sober Prom campaign and other prevention activities in our parish schools.