Lafourche voters set to choose whether teachers get pay increase

Super Cooper raises $10K for TGMC
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Super Cooper raises $10K for TGMC
April 13, 2017
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This week and next, Lafourche Parish voters will decide if they want to put their money where their teachers’ wallets are.


The Lafourche Parish School District has placed two ballot measures related to raising revenue on the ballot for next week’s April 29 special election. Early voting began on Saturday and runs until April 22 this weekend.

One of the measures is asking for voter approval for the school district to raise $80 million in bonds to pay for facility improvements such as renovations and entire new buildings for schools. That measure would not raise the tax rate for Lafourche residents, with the debt paid from the existing 11.2 mills the LPSD collects per year to service debt.

The more contentious measure on the ballot, based on public meetings and online dialogue, has been the proposed one-cent sales tax increase. If approved, the LPSD would increase its sales tax rate from 2 to 3 percent, which it would use to close a deficit in the upcoming 2017-18 budget and also provide pay raises to the school district’s teachers.


LPSD Superintendent JoAnn Matthews made her case to the local business community last Monday at this month’s Bayou Industrial Group monthly luncheon. Matthews said she knows it is never a good time to raise taxes, but has to do it now to support the school district.

“Taxes are not a fun topic to talk about. But they are going to have an impact on students and student achievement, and that’s something we absolutely have to do,” Matthews said.

According to Matthews, the tax increase would raise about $14 million for the school district, with about $5 million of that covering a deficit in the upcoming budget and the rest going toward raises. Matthews said she would plan on raising teachers’ starting pay from $40,000 to $43,000 while also adding $2,000 raises to teachers with mid-level experience.


Matthews said the sales tax would help Lafourche maintain its high performance by keeping more of its talented teachers within parish borders. The school district’s performance grade from the Louisiana Department of Education was 102.2, classifying the LPSD as an “A” school district and ranking it the 13th highest out of 73 districts in the state.

However, the teacher pay in Lafourche is lagging behind the parishes that border it. According to data provided by the LPSD, Lafourche’s starting pay of $40,000 is tied for the lowest among itself, Terrebonne, Assumption, St. Charles and St. James. With lower raises as teachers progress in their careers, the disparity between Lafourche and parishes in pay widens. A teacher in his or her 15th year would currently make $44,500, lowest among those five parishes. The next closest at that experience level is Ascension at $46,300, while just one parish over from Lafourche a teacher in St. Charles could make $55,815. A year-25 teacher makes $47,500 in Lafourche, while one in Terrebonne makes $51,468 and one in St. Charles earns $63,315, about one-third more than a teacher in Lafourche. Matthews said the LPSD has lost about 170 educators to other school districts since 2012.

“We need those certified teachers here. We need those highly qualified teachers here,” Matthews said.


The sales tax would also save a number of jobs and programs, according to Matthews and LPSD documents. She said if the tax is not approved, some LPSD faculty, staff and programs would also be gone along with the raises. According to a list of recommendations from the school board’s Finance Committee’s April 12 meeting, among the jobs cut would be 24 general education teachers, four special education teachers and 11 special education para professionals. The school district would also replace its 11 elementary librarians with para professionals, as well as cut two music teachers and eight music assistants from its budget. These cuts, along with others, would save the LPSD more than $5,700,000, according to projections.

Debate has raged on social media regarding the proposed tax, with concerned parents and taxpayers considering the merits of the raise. The sales tax increase has met resistance from some residents and those in the business community who call for better fiscal management. They say the LPSD could cut waste in its current budget to make up the deficit and give teachers raises without coming to the taxpayers for help. During a December Lafourche Parish School Board meeting, Lafourche Chamber of Commerce President Lin Kiger said his organization was opposed to the tax. He said over 11,000 residents in Lafourche and Terrebonne have lost their jobs in the current oil and gas downturn, and the local economy could not withstand a tax burden in this depressed market.

Kelsey Benoit is a Lafourche voter also opposed to the tax increase. He said the school district’s talks of major cuts have been “scare tactics” to make concerned parents vote for the increase. According to Benoit, the LPSD should not be in such a budget crunch, as Lafourche’s taxable property value, which the district earns millage dollars from, has more than doubled since 2004. He pointed to the Terrebonne Parish School District, which he said has three more total schools and 4,000 more students but operates on a smaller budget. Benoit said the LPSD would be able to avoid making cuts to jobs and pay for the raise itself if it were to root out wasteful spending.


“The people aren’t against the teachers getting the raise. If you read the proposition, it doesn’t just basically say they’re going to give the raise to these teachers. They’re telling us it allows them to use it in other places as well, to fund other operations of the school,” Benoit said. “If you’re going to do all this, if you just said, ‘Hey, we’re going to pay these employee raises, and that’s it,’ it would pass with flying colors. But they’re making it look like an attack on teachers when it’s not. It’s an attack on the way the board’s spending the money.”

During her appeal at the BIG luncheon, Matthews highlighted the shift in school funding from state-driven to parish-driven for Lafourche. According to her presentation, in 2008, the state contributed about 51 percent of revenue to the LPSD while local money paid for 38 percent, with federal dollars making up the rest. In 2016, that number flipped, with local tax money paying for more than 52 percent of the LPSD budget and state money accounting for almost 38 percent, and federal contributions taking up a slightly smaller share. Matthews said the rapid decline in state money, along with larger local contributions to teachers’ retirement program and ballooning insurance costs have put the LPSD in its current situation.

At the December school board meeting, many teachers and principals spoke in support of the tax, saying they loved working in Lafourche and wanted to continue to afford to live there. Matthews said the teachers across the parish have been watching the issue closely, particularly with some of their jobs on the line right around the corner. Matthews said the finance committee plans on meeting once the results come in to highlight what the LPSD’s plan is going forward.


“The teachers understand what’s going on with accountability and what our needs are, and they’re pushing to hopefully maintain what we have here in Lafourche,” Matthews said. ∙

Jo Ann MathewsKARL GOMMEL | THE TIMES