Lafourche eyes phase three school upgrades

The Lafourche Parish School Board is considering selling bonds to pay for its final construction phase, which could begin by summers’ end.

The board launched the three-phase improvement plan to enhance its physical facilities in 1995, according to Floyd Benoit, schools spokesman. To fund the work, voters approved a one-cent sales tax that same year to support employees’ salaries, textbooks and technology upgrades.

To renovate and expand the parish’s three public high schools, Benoit said the public renewed the 17-mill property tax for the purpose of selling bonds in the amount of $44 million.

Phase one included moving ninth graders to the high school level and expanding South Lafourche High School, Central Lafourche High School and Thibodaux High School.

Benoit said six years after the expansion, the school district proposed another bond issue using the same 17 mills to expand all the middle and elementary schools in the parish.

In 2003, the school district asked the voters to approve the issuance of $50 million of bonds to acquire and improve lands for building sites and playgrounds. The expansion also included construction of necessary sidewalks and streets adjacent to schools, and the purchase, construction and improvements of school buildings and other school-related facilities within and for the school district.

“These improvements to the elementary school are still ongoing and the school district still has $13.4 million left to complete phase two,” Benoit said.

Nearly a decade later, the school district is planning for its final construction stage. Benoit said phase three would include additional renovations to all schools.

Benoit explained the work will be completed without raising any additional property taxes. Instead, the school district will use the existing 17-mill property tax to sell bonds in the amount of $50 million.

Superintendent Jo Ann Matthews said, “We are in the final phase of this unprecedented period in the history of the Lafourche Parish School system. To imagine 12 years ago, we would have the facilities in the parish that we have now demonstrates how fortunate we are as a parish. Especially when you compare our neighboring parishes who are struggling with their physical plants.”

Earlier this year, the Lafourche Parish School system recently dedicated its first new school in over 30 years. Bayou Middle School, an $8.1 million facility, houses nearly 350 students, faculty and staff. It is the eighth middle school in the district and was funded through the second phase of the parish’s construction plan.

For phase three, Matthews said the parish has received a needs assessment from a local architectural firm that outlines the priorities for school renovations. Now, it will conduct a public forum in three areas of the parish to receive input from employees, students, parents and citizens in the coming months.