School chief wants flexibility in spending district’s sales tax

Terrebonne Parish’s new school superintendent had a message for the business community at the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber Morning Call meeting last week.

“What’s good for the education system is good for you,” Philip Martin told the crowd. “The better job we do, the better product you guys get.”

Martin gave business leaders an outline of changes he wants to make over the next four years.

Improving curriculum, staffing and money for school construction were his main topics at the quarterly meeting.

“I think it’s good that he wants to have an open dialogue with the business community,” said Drake Pothier, chamber president and CEO. “He’s interested in seeking our support and he’s willing to work with us.”

Martin said that the dropout rate in the parish’s public schools, like the rest of Louisiana, is “tremendous.”

Instead of waiting until students reach high school to fix the problem, he wants to attack the issue in the third grade where students take their first standardized test, the iLEAP.

“The number one reason a kid drops out of school is lack of educational success,” Martin said. “If a kid leaves third grade unable to read, he or she is going to drop out of high school. The data proves it.”

Martin wants to start focus classes where youngsters who do not read at their level are paired with the best, most talented teachers in the school system.

Instructors would have to apply for the focus class jobs. Those selected would get higher pay for teaching the most difficult students.

“These focus teachers are going to be the fighter pilots, the Green Berets of the district,” Martin said. “We’re no longer just going to pay the teachers the most who live the longest.”

He also wants to give a “substantial stipend” to certified teachers to work in schools that have been traditionally hard to staff.

To address the issue of new school facilities, Martin wants to redirect some of the one-cent sales tax dedicated to schools toward construction.

Currently, eight-and-a-half percent of that tax goes solely toward fixing roofs and buying equipment. Another eight-and-a-half percent is used for technology upgrades.

Martin wants some of the $4 million generated by those sections of the penny tax for new construction.

The average age of schools in Terrebonne Parish is 49 years, according to Martin.

He asked the Morning Call audience for its support and to convey to the public that he is not seeking a tax increase.

“We don’t need more money. We need more flexibility with what we have,” Martin said. “I, as superintendent, will never go to the school board or the public and ask for an increase in taxes – ever. I have an employer (school board). They may (ask). I’m not going to recommend that.”

Martin said a bond attorney is researching how much money could be generated by redirecting the tax.

Last week’s meeting was the first time the chamber has invited a parish school superintendent to be Morning Call guest speaker.

While the attendees seemed enthused by Martin’s ideas, several chamber members said they would like to hear more details before backing his proposals.

“We’ll invite him to talk to an Education Committee meeting to flesh out that concept,” Pothier said. “We do our research before we take a position.”