Four new members elected to TPSB, LPSB

Both the Terrebonne Parish and Lafourche Parish school boards will greet two new faces following Saturday’s election.

Four incumbents and two newcomers won Lafourche Parish School Board elections Saturday. Richmond Boyd, Stella Lasseigne, Dennis Chiasson and Al Archer maintained their positions while Ann Sanamo and Marian Fertitta joined the school board.

Sanamo knocked off two-term District 12 incumbent Jon Callais with 53 percent (356) of the vote. Voter turnout in the district was 21.8 percent.

“What a wonderful feeling,” Sanamo said. “I was very excited. It’s just been a wonderful experience. I set a game plan from the beginning. I stuck with it. I don’t think there is anything I would do any different in another election.”

Fertitta won District 4 with 55 percent (675) of the vote, defeating Gregory Torres. Voter turnout was 30.3 percent. Incumbent Robert Naquin withdrew from the race.

Boyd defeated Eva Shanklin and held on to the District 3 seat with 71 percent (864) of the vote. Voter turnout was 34.8 percent.

Lasseigne narrowly held on to the District 5 seat with 51 percent (894) of the vote. Challenger Charlotte Gaubert finished with 853 votes, and voter turnout was 37.6 percent.

Chiasson maintained the District 10 seat when he defeated Claude Richardel with 58 percent (344) of the vote. Voter turnout was 17.6 percent.

Archer defeated Mary Curole with 58 percent (495) of the District 13 vote. Turnout was 23.6 percent.

Lafourche Parish voters also voted in favor of extending the property tax financing for both the Juvenile Justice Center and Fire District 1. The Juvenile Justice Center passed with 66 percent (7,911) of the vote, and Fire District 1 passed with 75 percent (954) of the vote.

Meanwhile, Terrebonne Parish voters opted to elect two new school members during this weekend’s elections, unseating two long time veterans to the board in the process.

Newcomers Debi Benoit and Brenda Babin will join the board Jan. 1.

Benoit defeated longtime board member Rickie Pitre in District 4 by collecting 76 percent of the vote.

Babin earned her seat in District 5 after defeating 30-year board member Clark Bonvillain by a 61 percent to 39 percent margin.

The moves come in a trying time for the school board, as they’ve struggled to stay afloat despite a shrinking budget.

Several teachers have been slashed in the past year to compensate for the cuts.

Babin said her and Benoit’s appointment shows that Terrebonne Parish voters are looking to signal a fresh start in how the school board is being run.

“Basically the biggest thing I’ve heard is just that people want change,” she said. “They want change at any direction, and I think the vote speaks for itself in that this is what people wanted.”

Benoit agreed and said the results are apart of a nationwide push for something more in politics in all levels.

“I think that’s one of the sentiments all across the country,” Benoit said. “People right now want a different direction, and I think I was able to offer that to them. I have the education credentials that prove it. I’ve been involved in education for more than 23 years now, and I can bring a lot of fresh ideas to the table.”

One of those ideas Benoit is floating around is a new way to evaluate teachers if another round of cuts is made.

Instead of the “last-in, first-out,” system the school board uses now, Benoit said she is keener to using an evaluation system to score teachers, and thus cutting those with the poorest grades.

“The budget cuts are likely to continue statewide, so we need to look at how we relieve teachers because of budget cuts,” she said. “The policy we have in place right now needs to be revised, so we can keep our best and our brightest teachers on board.”

The soon-to-be newcomer also said she hopes to help write a strategic plan for the district during her four-year term as a school board member.

“There’s no plan right now for what direction the school district wants to go to,” Benoit said. “If there was a plan decided upon by the board members with input from the superintendent and teachers, I think we’d have a better indication of where we want to go.”

The fellow newcomer, Babin, agreed with Benoit’s notion that a plan is needed for prolonged success.

“We have to stop and look where we want to be five years from now,” she suggested.

Babin said that as a new board member, she would also try to leave a positive footprint, most notably raising standards within the children, teacher’s and administrators in the parish’s schools.

“We have to find a way to raise standards for everything,” she said. “Not only just for test scores, but for staff performance, student performance, budget, just everything.”

In addition to the two newcomers, seven current board members will retain their positions.

Incumbents Roosevelt Thomas, Gregory Harding, L.P. Bordelon III and Roger DeHart were all voted back into office in their respective races.

Richard Jackson, Don Duplantis and Hayes Badeaux went into election night already knowing they’d be back in office after they ran unopposed.

Each elected official will begin his or her four-year term Jan. 1.