LPSB consolidation talks open to public

Lafourche citizens will be given the opportunity to voice their opinion on consolidating the public school system’s representative districts from 15 to nine at the next reapportionment committee meeting April 25.

In a nearly unanimous decision, the school board minus President Rhoda Caldwell, who was absent, directed the committee to “study” reconfiguring the board’s makeup to nine districts. Richmond Boyd was the lone dissent.

“I’m completely against it,” Boyd said after the meeting. He declined two chances to elaborate on why he felt the measure should not be discussed in a public setting.

Supporters first brought up the idea at the March committee meeting. Ronald Pere proposed a motion that would have ordered the committee to craft a nine-district plan. The committee, made up of five other board members, offered no support and the measure failed without a second.

Proponents of the change say it would reduce some of the system’s expenses, mostly in the form of eliminated salaries and educational workshop costs.

It would also streamline communication between board members and the superintendent and reduce the cost on the parish clerk of court’s office and state Secretary of State for holding elections, Greg Stall, one of the supporting board members, said.

Opponents said less districts mean larger districts, which would likely be more taxing on the board members, some of whom hold full-time jobs in addition to the public service position.

A smaller board would allow a rogue group to hold operations hostage, similar to the time shortly after the council’s reduction, when 5-to-4 voting tallies prevented the parish president from having a budget approved for three years, Boyd has said.

“When you get the parish council to do better than us, then I’ll consider it,” Lawrence Mounic, another consolidation opponent, said last month.

Eliminating districts would also force some incumbents to run against one another for re-election.

Reducing the board by six members would save the system $72,000 in salaries each year, according to figures provided by board member Marian Fertitta, who supports the change.

Voting districts are redrawn every 10 years to account for changes in the population, per the U.S. Census Bureau. The Department of Justice approved the parish council’s changes last year, but the school board – because its next election isn’t until 2014 – has until 2013 to draft proposals and select a layout that will geographically govern its next two elections.

Superintendent Jo Ann Matthews backed the board’s decision to delegate the task to the committee, saying she felt like the idea should be discussed in a public forum.

“Everybody should be able to give their opinions,” Matthews said.