School board reapplies for $10M federal bond

The Terrebonne Parish School District was recently awarded $10 million in interest-free federal bonds to fund school construction projects.

However, because the district applied to the State Bond Commission for $30 million, the school board had to approve a resolution submitting a $10 million application to the commission at last Tuesday’s meeting.

“Once you get approval for $30 million, I’m sure we will get approved for $10 million,” said Superintendent Philip Martin. “We’re not anticipating any problem. It’s just the process we have to go through.”

The Qualified School Construction Bonds, authorized through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and awarded through the state, provide federal tax credits in lieu of interest to reduce an issuer’s cost of borrowing for public school construction projects.

On the original grant application, there was no cap on the amount school districts could request, Martin explained. So the system applied for $30 million. Later, the state imposed a $10 million limit.

Terrebonne was only one of three parish school systems to receive $10 million, along with Caddo and Lafayette.

Martin said there were no specific plans for what projects to spend the $10 million grant on, but areas to address first have been identified – overcrowding, removing portable buildings, making high schools ninth through 12th grade and replacing flood-prone schools.

The state will distribute two more rounds of Qualified School Construction Bond grants. One is scheduled for later this year and is intended to reallocate monies given to districts that cannot utilize them in a timely manner, Martin said. The second will be allocated next year.

“We will throw our hat back in that ring again,” he assured.

To pay back the bonds, the board is asking voters to pass an Oct. 17 ballot initiative to rededicate a portion of the 1-cent sales tax.

Currently, 83 percent of the tax goes toward teacher salaries and benefits.

Seventeen percent is evenly split between technology upgrades and school maintenance. The school district would use some or the entire 17 percent portion to repay the bonds.

Also at the meeting, the school board rejected two motions involving its graduation and senior classification requirements.

Sixteen-year old South Terrebonne junior Jasmine Smith sought relief from a board policy holding that English IV or an equivalent English course can only be offered during the fourth year of high school.

Smith has earned enough Carnegie credits to be classified as a senior and English IV is the only required course she needs to complete to graduate, according to her grandmother Isabella.

Smith was sent to Houston during the 2008-09 school year after suffering from some personal issues in Chauvin. While in Houston, she attended school and earned eight Carnegie credits. She returned to Chauvin this summer.

Board member Roosevelt Thomas offered a motion to waive the policy. He said the board should have taken Smith’s special circumstances into account.

“Where’s our sensitivity to someone who has been traumatized?” Thomas asked. “For special situations, I support this move.”

The board rejected the motion 6-3. Voting against were Richard Jackson, Rickie Pitre, L.P. Bordelon, Roger Dale DeHart, Donald Duplantis and Hayes Badeaux. Pitre offered a substitute motion to refer the matter to the Education and Policy Committee for further consideration.

“You have a lot of advanced students that would benefit from being able to take the required courses prior to getting into a fourth-year of high school,” he said.

The board rejected the motion 5-4. Voting against were Thomas, Harding, DeHart, Duplantis and Badeaux. Voting for were Pitre, Jackson, Bordelon and Bonvillain.