Terrebonne Parish School Board OKs budget

Full-time school workers – including 30 new hires – are getting pay raises courtesy of the Terrebonne Parish School Board.

The school board approved the 2008-09 operating budget, which includes pay hikes and building upgrades, last Tuesday.

The board’s budget increased nearly 11 percent over the previous year, in large part because of a $20 million increase in local, state and federal revenue.

Rising property values in Terrebonne Parish also lead to a $9 million increase from all local sources of revenue, totaling about $60 million for the fiscal year.

The nine-panel board unanimously OK’d the budget as presented by Superintendent Ed Richard with only a couple of exceptions.

In a favorable 5-4 vote, the board validated Richard’s recommendation to grant full supervisor status and $12,000-yearly pay increase to Assistant Supervisor Assessment and Staff Development Kathy Tamplain.

Board members Roosevelt Thomas, Rickie Pitre, Gregory Harding and Clark Bonvillain voted against the recommendation.

“She does the work of a supervisor,” Richard said, noting he pushed for the reclassification last year but the measure failed.

For nearly 20 years, Tamplain has overseen standardized student testing in the Terrebonne Parish. “When she started there were no standardized test except the Graduation Exit Examination; now her responsibilities have grown,” Richard said.

Board member L.P. Bordelon agreed, saying, “She deserves this promotion. She deserved it last year because this [standardized testing] is the very thing that makes the board look good.”

A recommendation to add a middle school supervisor, however, failed in a 5-4 vote.

Board members Pitre and Thomas opposed the measure, saying the board has other priorities this year.

The position would have given a new hire authority over the instructional programs in grades 5-8. The job would have paid $78,500 in salary and benefits.

A former educator, Richard said he believed the position was needed, but that the system would manage without it.

The board allocated $9 million in surplus cash to school building improvements. Of that figure, $3.4 million will be used on existing projects. The remaining $5.5 million has yet to be earmarked.

Other budget highlights include:

• An array of pay-scale earnings and salary increases, including an additional two percent salary increase for all full-time employees. The raise will cost about $2.4 million.

• Nine new master teacher jobs. The board OK’d $425,000 for the positions.

• Hiring computer lab teachers at various schools.