Lafourche schools gear up for fight in Cut Off

Lingering issues over improper drainage at Cut Off Elementary School continue as the Lafourche Parish School Board has decided to file a lawsuit against the parish government.

“We’re vested by our constituents to help take care of the school district,” Superintendent Jo Ann Matthews said. “Cut Off Elementary School has suffered from continuous flooding. This year alone, faculty members have had to sandbag the building to keep water from seeping inside.”

“This has gone on long enough. We have to do something about it,” she added.

Matthews first approached the parish council with the problem at its July 8 meeting, when she urged members to assess the drainage issue at Cut Off Elementary.

“When it rains in Cut Off, the drainage ditches overflow and the streets are flooded. Parents, bus drivers and faculty find it very difficult to see where the roads end or begin when picking up or dropping their kids off at school, and that’s not safe,” she told board members.

In an effort to offer some relief to the school system, Councilmen Rodney Doucet and Daniel Lorraine said they would author a resolution to repair the drainage at the school. However, since that meeting, no resolution has been presented to the parish council.

During Wednesday’s school board meeting, Matthews said that the board’s attempts to ask the parish to intervene have gone unheard.

Councilman Doucet was present at the meeting. He addressed the board briefly by stating that he and several other councilmen are not against the school board filing a suit.

“The school board has to do what it has to do,” he said. “You are here to represent the children of Lafourche Parish and you have to do what’s best for them. I am not going to try and stand in your way.”

The school board voted unanimously to have its attorney, Pat Amadee, research the possible suit.

Matthews said that the school board is responsible for maintaining the school buildings, while the parish government is responsible for maintaining the drainage.

“As superintendent of schools, my duties are to educate the students, hire qualified faculty and maintain the school facilities, not deal with drainage issues,” she said.

“Drainage is a parish government problem. If there was a way for us to fix this without coming to the parish, then we would,” Matthews added.

Cut Off Elementary is one of the oldest schools in the parish. It serves grades pre-kindergartners through fifth graders. Last year, the school enrollment was 526 students, and school officials expect the number to increase slightly during the 2008-09 school year.

Matthews said the school board is looking to give Cut Off Elementary a $2.2 million facelift. The bulk of the funds will be used to purchase two new eight-classroom modular buildings, new playground equipment and to construct a new parking area.

Cut Off’s renovations will be paid with part of the $50 million that was generated from the 17-mill property tax parish voters approved in 2003.