1-cent rededication could end T’bonne school woes

Of all the arguments Terrebonne Parish Schools Superintendent Philip Martin has made in support of Saturday’s 1-cent sales tax rededication ballot initiative, there is one he doesn’t think he has made strong enough to the public.

“We have a lot of old, outdated schools in this parish,” he claimed.

The average age of parish school buildings is close to 55 years, with the newest being Montegut Middle built in 1987 and the oldest Gibson Elementary constructed in 1906.

There are four other schools in use that are 90 years or older – Andrew Price Alternative and Dularge, Montegut and Bourg elementary schools.

“The older a building gets the more maintenance it requires,” Martin argued. “It’s less energy-efficient, it takes more to run it, keep the doors open, keep the lights on, to heat it, to cool it. It costs more for everything in an older building.”

Voters will be asked to add school construction to the areas covered by the 17 percent portion of the 1-cent sales tax dedicated to buying technology upgrades and fixing roofs.

The 1-cent sales tax generated just over $24.5 million last year. The portion going to technology and roofs was $4.25 million.

Martin said that part of the tax has far exceeded the school system’s expectations when the tax passed in 1996.

“We’ve replaced roofs and installed computers and we have money left over that I can’t use except for roofs and computers,” he said. “I have other needs that have to be addressed. That is the only source of funding not totally consumed by the needed hand of today.”

If passed, some of the money would be used as collateral for future bond sales to fund new school construction projects. The 83 percent of the 1-cent sales tax dedicated to teachers’ salaries will remain untouched.

Also on the ballot is a renewal for the 10-year school maintenance tax. The 5.41 millage would take effect from 2011 to 2020 and generate $3.6 million annually for school district operations.

The school system has five priorities to be addressed if voters pass the 1-cent rededication proposition – remove portable classrooms, replace and relocate flood-prone schools, make high schools ninth through 12th grade, ease overcrowding and acquire land as needed.

“As we attract more people to the area, the first question people have is, ‘What kind of schools are their kids going to go to?'” said school board member L.P. Bordelon. “Our schools are in good shape now, but when you have schools over 100 years old, sooner or later they are going give out and you start to experience problems.”

The school system drafted a proposal in 2003 to address aging facilities and construct new schools. However, damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Gustav and Ike in 2008 placed the plan on hold.

Board member Roger Dale DeHart said the district has taken a different approach this time to alleviate the problems.

“The new philosophy is to secure a source of funding and have them decide what we can do with it,” he said. “Those plans weren’t developed for nothing.”

While many schools, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the parish, have lost students, others in the northern and western ends are experiencing overcrowding, Martin and school officials said.

“Overall, we had fewer kids in the system, but also have schools like Mulberry, Broadmoor, Coteau Bayou Blue, and Evergreen that have seen an increase,” Martin said.

The school system has other options besides constructing more schools. When the student count at Little Caillou Elementary declined to 37, it was merged with Boudreaux Canal Elementary in 2007.

Some students could be moved from one school to another within the same district to make them more equitable. However, Martin said that would not address the real problem.

“Some people are not seeing the forest for the trees,” he said. “All the overcrowding, the flooding, the grade configuration, they are connected to brick and mortar issues. I can redistribute kids into old buildings but what is that going to do?”

There are 149 portable buildings on school campuses, according to the system’s plant maintenance department. Eighteen of them are on the Mulberry Elementary campus.

The pre-K through sixth grade school has seen its population swell by nearly 240 students in the past decade, from 614 in 1999 to 853 this year.

While ninth-year principal Mary Aucoin doesn’t think the abundance of modular buildings has affected the ability to teach and learn, she said having another permanent building would help create a better learning environment.

“We need additional restrooms and electrical capacity to be able to have the power needed to handle the technology that we use in our classrooms,” Aucoin said. “The portable buildings may have one or two outlets in them. We use document cameras and LCD projectors and have at least five computers per classroom. These old buildings aren’t built for that.

“We need new facilities that will enhance learning and allow our children to move forward with technology,” she added.

Martin said the era of modular buildings is over. Some schools had them on their campus since the 1960s, he said.

“There’s nothing more permanent than a portable building,” he joked. “We want to begin eliminating that.”

Repetitive school flooding in the lower end of the parish has been a decades-long battle for the system. Last year, storm surge from Hurricane Ike flooded Grand Caillou Middle and Grand Caillou, Boudreaux Canal and Pointe-aux-Chenes elementary schools and blocked the roads leading to Dularge elementary and middle.

Building a new school on a 15-acre site the school system owns adjacent to SAIA Motor Freight in east Houma has been a priority for DeHart.

“That new school is needed in the Grand Caillou area,” he said. “The modular buildings have mostly accomplished the task of alleviating overcrowding. The flooded schools have more prevalence right now because of the money we have spent for the last four storms.”

Martin would also consider consolidating smaller schools along bayous Terrebonne, Black, Dularge and Grand Caillou into a brand new building on each bayou.

The school system would also like to add ninth grade to H.L. Bourgeois and Terrebonne high schools, which would have a trickle-down effect.

“If you’re going to make them ninth through 12th, we have to build new wings to those schools,” Bordelon said. “That has the side effect of freeing classrooms at Evergreen and Houma Junior High. Then you can take a look at Schriever, Caldwell, Southdown and the other feeder schools and possibly make some adjustments there.”

If the measure passes, school improvements will be perpetual. Officials also said it would take a long time to address all the building issues in the school system, but at least they would have a solid foundation from which to begin.

Martin, Bordelon and DeHart said they have not heard anybody say they were against the rededication measure. While people may disagree about which schools to deal with first, they insist all the schools will benefit.

“The board is going to have some decisions about what comes first,” Martin said. “There seems to be an over-inflated sense of importance about what is first. What is significant in my mind is that there will be a first. And even more significant, if this doesn’t pass, nothing happens.

“It would be negligent on the part of our school system right now knowing that the average age of our schools is 55, and that we did nothing to address it,” he continued. “This is our only avenue other than going to the taxpayers and saying, ‘Give us more taxes.’ I don’t plan to exercise that option.”

On the ballot in Terrebonne:

• Fire Prot. Dist. No. 7, 16.15 Mills – BOC – 10 years

• PW Con. Sch. Dist. No. 1, 5.41 Mills – School Board – 10 years

• PW School Board, 1% S&U – School Board

• Rd. Lighting Dist. No. 3A, 6.50 Mills – Parish Council – 10 years

The Terrebonne Parish School Board, faced with aging buildings and overcrowding, is looking for voter approval of a 1-cent sales tax rededication ballot initiative. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF