Letter: Millage will help maintain state’s 12th largest school system

Fellow Citizens of Terrebonne Parish,

On Saturday, May 4, you will have the opportunity to vote to increase the amount of monies collected to operate our forty public schools that include twenty elementary schools, nine middle schools, three junior high schools, four high schools, one alternative school, one School for Exceptional Children, one Career and Technical High School, and one Adult Education Center. The increase in monies would, if passed, come from an increase in the millage that would be assessed on homes that are not already property-tax exempt, as well as businesses that own property in Terrebonne Parish. The millage would increase from its current rate of 9.27 mills to 40 mills.

Why are we doing this?

Public education is the foundation of our society and our economy. There is no disagreement on this point, whether you ask business leaders, religious leaders, elected officials, parents, law enforcement or anyone else you may care to ask. Public education is in a word, essential to everything we hold as important and worth all the effort and support we as a community can offer.

Maintaining a school system that is one of the twelve largest school systems in our state is an immense task that requires enormous resources. Just think of your own home and what it costs to operate. Then multiply that by the thousands and thousands of square feet of our schools, plus equipment, buses, teachers and support staff, and supplies and you begin to understand the enormity of running your school system.

For years we have been doing just that, with the lowest rate of taxation for schools in Louisiana and perhaps the nation. That’s right. Terrebonne Parish collects the lowest rate of property tax among all parishes in Louisiana, and to no one’s surprise, Louisiana collects the lowest property tax rate of any state in the nation! Terrebonne Parish’s average per pupil spending is last among the 70 districts. That makes us last, dead last, in funding. It is a statistic that I am sure most citizens or businesses would be reluctant to share.

And yet, even at this level of support for our schools, Terrebonne Parish Schools outperform most school districts in Louisiana. Terrebonne’s most recent performance score was 104.7. The state average was 101.3. The state recently released graduation rates; of the twelve largest school districts in Louisiana, only two exceed Terrebonne Parish’s graduation rate. Again, Terrebonne’s graduation rate of 77.3 exceeds significantly the state average of 71.4.

We take seriously the responsibility to wisely use the hard-earned monies of our citizens and have cut and consolidated and done without over the past four years to the point that there is nothing left to cut or do without. We are now at a point where spiraling costs and even normal operations are placing us in a very precarious position, where any small event could have dire consequences to our schools. This is no exaggeration and something that we have dealt with internally long before ever considering coming to the voters for this millage.

Certainly, in this request for an increase, we could take an incremental, Band-Aid approach. We could ask for “just enough” to get us by. But is “just getting by” what the citizens of our parish really want us to do? If it is, then no one in our recollection has ever asked us to adhere to the “just getting by” standard before. On the contrary, everyone from business to industry, to parents, law enforcement, families, clergy, and everyone we can think of not only requests, but demands excellence in education. Accountability and improvements are required of us each and every year, and I can say with great pride that our system responds with the very improvements that are demanded. Incremental is not what is expected of us and we believe an incremental approach to this millage is not what the citizens, armed with full knowledge of the importance of this millage, would want us to do either.

To everyone who has voiced either concern or support, we thank you. Support shows us that we have been able to communicate the critical nature of this request and its importance to education. Concern shows us that in our business we have missed the opportunity to clearly share information to citizens whose concern comes from a genuine lack of information about this increase in tax or how these monies will be responsibly used.

For both supporters and those with concerns, we offer the following information:

 _At 9.27 mills, we collect on average 31.23 mills less than all the other Louisiana school districts. This is not a competition to see who can raise the most, but rather to show that Terrebonne, for a very long time, has been out of step with the financial requirements of running a school district of our size.

 _Our school district is large, very large, and ranks as one of the twelve largest school systems in our state. Even if we did zero dollars in improvement and construction, spiraling costs and inflation threaten to overtake what it requires to keep our schools operating.

 _We have some of the best teachers in the state, yet can only offer salaries that rank 45th out of the 70 school districts. Not only do we know this, but the teachers know this too, meaning that we are constantly struggling to keep top teachers and recruit new ones. Would you stay at your job if you knew that with a 30 minute drive, you could increase your salary another 30%?

 _Our schools are on average 60 years old. Older buildings require a tremendous amount of repair and maintenance, not to mention that a well-worn facility just isn’t as conducive to learning as a newer one. You name it and we’ve dealt with it including roof leaks, failing floor tiles, plumbing and electrical issues, failing heating and cooling, flooded schools, and on and on and on. We are proud to say that all of our schools are clean and safe but

keeping them this way comes at a tremendous cost. It may not be well known that we actually have several schools that are close to or more than 100 years old!

 _Some have expressed concern that there is no plan. The truth is there has always been a plan. The plan was approved at the Board meeting of 3/12/13, and consists of the following:

Construction – 11 Mills

Renovations/Remodeling

► _All schools – Renovate/Remodel, interior and exterior

► _All schools – Provide state-of-the-art security, both from a physical plant structural perspective as well as up-to-date technology security measures

► _Address overcrowding issues; Example: Mulberry Elementary School’s current enrollment is 957 students; the school was built for 450 students

► _Begin elimination of portable buildings through permanent structures

New Schools

► _Replace Bayou Black Elementary, Greenwood Middle, and Gibson Elementary Schools with one (1) new Bayou Black Elementary School K-6

► _Southdown Elementary School – build a new school at current site

School Consolidation

► _Combine Dularge Elementary and Dularge Middle Schools at renovated Dularge Middle School site

► _Combine three (3) Bayou Black schools into one (1) new school

► _Combine West Park Elementary and Legion Park Schools at renovated Legion Park site

Instructional Programs and Salary and Benefits – 20 Mills

Salary and Benefits

► _Address teacher/employee salary and benefits (currently 45th in average teacher pay)

o_ _Add $4,000 to teacher-based pay scales

o_ _Add $2,000 to all non-instructional pay scales

Instructional Programs

► _Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program

► _Expand the Arts in elementary schools

► _Begin implementation of new, innovative instructional program; “Success is Required” program would immediately assist struggling students

► _Provide additional ACT prep and Advanced Placement courses

► _Keep pupil/teacher ratio low across the district

On May 4th, please consider our 19,000 students’ future, generations of school children to come, and our community.

Sincerely,

Philip Martin

Superintendent of Schools