T’bonne board tackles schools’ accumulated leave policy

The Terrebonne Parish School Board Education and Policy Committee recommended last week to limit the number of unused accumulated annual leave days to 30.

The motion offered by committee vice-chairman Clark Bonvillain asks superintendent Ed Richard Jr. and his staff to develop a plan and report back to the committee in a month.

“This has nothing to do with teachers or principals,” Bonvillain said. “It’s central office people and 12-month employees.”

Upon retirement or termination, an employee may choose to be paid for any unused annual leave days or convert those days toward service for retirement purposes.

Bonvillain claimed the district would face an unbudgeted liability of almost $1.2 million if employees choose a payout, but that figure applies only if all 600-plus employees were to retire simultaneously.

“I looked at the budget last year and saw that one employee had a $67,000 payout,” said Rickie Pitre, a non-committee member in attendance. “It’s extraordinary that that person can accomplish this. We have as many as 600 employees that can cash out at any time.”

Committee chairman Roosevelt Thomas voted with Bonvillain, while Donald Duplantis, the other committee member, abstained.

The committee also voted 2-1 to have Richard’s staff develop a plan to remove newly hired non-certified, non-tenured teachers’ rights to choose which school they are assigned.

Under the motion offered by Thomas, the personnel director would place new hires at the school where the need is greatest.

“We’re a month away from opening and we still have various schools within the parish that don’t have teachers to fill the classrooms,” Thomas said.

According to Richard, the problem is not a new one to the district. “When I first went to Personnel in 1994, we had the same problem. I was hiring teachers the weekend before school started,” he said.

Currently, a prospective teacher interviews with the principal at the school where a position is available. If a principal wants to hire that teacher and the teacher concurs, he is assigned there. Teachers can transfer to a different school after one year of employment.

Thomas wants a model similar to Lafourche Parish School Board’s policy, which requires new teachers to stay longer at the initial school before seeking a move.

“That would help us. When we get a new teacher at a school certified, then that means hopefully they will have to stay at that school for three years before they transfer to another school,” he said.

Duplantis, who is against the measure, argued teachers would not want to work in Terrebonne Parish schools. He offered a sarcastic alternative: eliminating seniority.

“You take away that choice and they are going to go to another parish,” he said. “We could solve that problem real easy – do away with seniority in the parish. Move them as we please. Our employees all have rights and, believe me, they know their rights and they will defend their rights.”

Tom Soudelier, Houma Junior High principal for 14 years, suggested the measure is not practical because the newly-hired teacher may not fit well in the school chosen for them.

“I’m not really certain that we as a parish should sit down with teachers and say, ‘It’s either you go to this school or you don’t work in Terrebonne Parish,'” he said. “I’m not really comfortable necessarily with that part.”

The committee also voted 2-1 to have Richard’s staff develop a plan realigning the grade configurations and school district boundaries where population growth has overcrowded schools.

Thomas, who offered the motion, claimed schools such as Mulberry Elementary, Houma and Evergreen junior high schools are overcrowded, while schools such Southdown Elementary and Dularge Middle schools have available space.

Bonvillain offered moving school district boundaries as an alternative.

For example, students living near the Prospect Bridge would attend Oaklawn Junior High, Ellendale Memorial High School and South Terrebonne instead of Houma Junior High and Terrebonne High schools as they do now.

Soudelier warned that board members should be cautious on this matter.

“People in this community go about purchasing homes based upon where their children are going to school,” he said. “I think that’s something they have to tread with lightly.”