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The Lafourche Parish School Board will remain a 15-member board after narrowly voting down a measure to reduce its member size.
At last Wednesday’s board meeting, a resolution to request legislation for the reduction from 15 to nine members failed, with eight members voting against the measure and six voting in favor. Council member Ray Toups was absent from the meeting.
The proposed resolution was a cost-saving measure for the cash-strapped Lafourche Parish School District, dealing with lower tax revenues due to a struggling local economy and less money from the state. In April, the district asked voters to approve a one-cent sales tax to raise $14 million per year, with $6 million going toward filling a deficit for this school year and the rest going toward a raise for parish teachers. The measure failed by a 19-vote margin, with many residents asking the district to instead find savings in its own budget before asking for additional taxes. In the aftermath of the failed tax, the LPSD cut 11 teacher positions as well as a number of counselor and librarian positions at the elementary level, among other force reductions.
Had the board approved the reduction in size, it could have saved an estimated $105,000 per year, according to Board Member Mary Breaud, who voted in favor of the resolution. Breaud said the nine school districts would have been the same as the parish’s nine current council districts, meaning the LPSD would not have had to spend money on re-mapping districts. The reduction to nine would have started with the 2019 school board term, with 12 current board members running against a colleague if they all chose to run again.
Breaud said she felt the reduction would be a show of good faith from the board to Lafourche taxpayers as well as a common sense solution. She pointed to other nearby districts that have considerably less members and still run efficiently. Indeed, the LPSD has the highest number of members in the Bayou Region. The St. Mary Parish board has 11 members, Terrebonne and Assumption parishes each have nine members, St. Charles Parish has eight and St. James Parish has seven. Breaud pointed to the position cuts this school year, as well as the low pay of Lafourche teachers in comparison to other nearby districts, as reasons to make the reduction.
“Teachers are having to take money out of their own pockets to pay for supplies like copy paper. I just think it would be in the best interests of the students to save that money to put it back into the classrooms,” Breaud said.
Lafourche Board Member Ann Sanamo voted against reducing the board size, saying she did not want any communities to lose their voice with less representation. She said she understands the board’s need to save costs and is offering a solution at the board’s next Finance Committee meeting. Sanamo is proposing reducing compensation for each board member by 40 percent to match the compensation a nine-member board would receive. Under the measure, board members would receive about $8,700 in pay and travel and material reimbursement instead of the nearly $15,500 they currently receive. That reduction would save the school district almost $87,000 annually. Sanamo hopes the finance committee approves sending the measure to the full board for approval.
“There are motions at this time, as I presented, to keep a 15-member board at a nine-member compensation, making all parties have good relations in this time when it’s so difficult, people not losing their voice, and showing the public that this board can work together to bring about good change through cuts working in good faith,” Sanamo said.
Breaud expressed pessimism with any proposed cost-saving measures receiving full board approval, noting past measures have failed. At a July 6, 2016, meeting, the board also voted 8-6 against asking the board attorney to look into reducing member size to nine. Another measure would have removed the eligibility of any new members or not enrolled in the school board’s health insurance program before the start of the 2019-2023 term from receiving health insurance. That measure would have provided long-term savings, as members are allowed to keep their insurance after they are no longer on the board. However, that resolution failed at the Sept. 21, 2016, Finance Committee meeting by a 2-4 margin. Breaud said the lack of approval on those past cost-saving measures has helped to put the LPSD in its current position.
“All of the talk about there’s so many options there, there’s been many other options put on the table,” Breaud said. “No one has come forward to make any of that happen. So this is where we are.” •
