T’bonne considers school closures

In the wake of a failed millage vote and facing a $6 million budget shortfall, the Terrebonne Parish School Board is now considering consolidating four area schools.

“We are looking at several ways to refigure student populations, but nothing has been decided or presented to the board,” said Terrebonne Parish School System Superintendent Philip Martin. “Seventh-grade students from Greenwood Middle School and Lacache Middle School will go to school at Evergreen Middle School now that the ninth graders will be at H.L. Bourgeois.”

As the school year comes to a close, rumors had begun to circulate about the future of education in the parish, including teacher layoffs and cutting grade levels at local schools, and Martin addressed the issues as the board looks for ways to save money.

“We have never had layoffs, but we have been reducing positions for years by not replacing people who have retired from custodial, clerical, bus driver, teacher, administration and cafeteria jobs,” Martin said. “We will continue to reduce positions this way as revenues dwindle.”

“We will replace the place, not the person,” said school board president Roger “Dale” Dehart. “We will save more money that way, and no one is going to lose their job or take a cut in pay. We have lots of vacancies because of retirements, but that happens every year. This is not an exceptional year for retirements either. We lost 100 jobs last year and will lose 50 this year, but our staff works diligently to make it work.”

Plans to refigure student populations have been formed and will be discussed at committee meetings before being presented to the full board on May 21.

“We need to inform parents of these possible changes before then end of the school year,” Dehart said. “We have to make some tough decisions. We are here to educate. To balance the budget, we may have to make decisions that may not be popular. We want to affect the classroom as little as possible. The classroom is the last thing we want to affect.”

Under the proposed changes, Dularge Elementary School would close, and students from the school will move to Dularge Middle School. Seventh grade students from Dularge Middle would attend Houma Junior High. Greenwood Elementary School will also close. Older students from Greenwood will attend Evergreen Junior High School, and younger children will be divided up between Bayou Black Elementary and Gibson Elementary, whichever is closer to their homes. West Park Elementary will also close, with the majority of the student body being moved to Legion Park Elementary. West Park seventh graders will be moved to Houma Junior High. Boudreaux Canal Elementary would be the final school closed for next year, and students from that school would be transferred to Upper Little Caillou Elementary.

“We are taking suggestions from staff and principals into consideration,” Dehart said. “Parents also need to be concerned. We have little to no meeting attendance from the public or our employees.”

Dehart said the consolidation would be a positive change, helping with the budget shortfall and filling in current vacancies in positions.

“Vacancies not filled at certain sites will be filled with staff from schools that would be closed,” he said. “Workers who have been working half a week at one school and the rest at another will only have to work at one school.”

The four consolidations are a direct result of the failed millage and the $6 million budget shortfall that the board is facing for the upcoming school term, but Dehart is hopeful about the future of education in the parish.

“We will come back to the public with a revenue plan,” Dehart said. “We have flooded and overcrowded schools, and we are still on track to fix these issues. We have survived change before and we will survive this. No one will lose their job or take a cut in pay.”