School board wrestles with state privacy laws

Members of the St. Mary Parish School Board adopted student records policy Thursday as mandated by state legislation.
The legislation intended to provide student privacy protection prohibits release of any “personally identifiable information regarding a particular student” without written parental consent.
“We’ve determined that this is going to affect out local newspapers quite a bit because we have sports that go in there identifying individuals, we have valedictorians’ information that goes in, we put class pictures in the newspapers, the board itself has students of the month that usually goes in the newspapers, this is really far-reaching,” said board member Kenny Alfred.
Legal advisor Eric Duplantis said that according to federal law, such identifying information may be disclosed unless the parent expressly forbids it.
“But the Louisiana legislature, for some reason, turned that on its head,” requiring prior parental approval on each incidence, Duplantis said. “Without that approval … we would potentially be in violation of the law by publishing names and photographs in yearbooks, in football programs, students of the month, the honor rolls, etcetera.”
He added that school board legal counsel across the state is working to come up with a suitable consent form.
“In the interim if there’s a lack of information coming out about our students it’s because of this state legislation,” he said.
“If there’s no resolution to this, people right now that are formulating football programs and things like that … they are just going to have to eat that money that they spent,” Alfred said.
In other business the board:
—Heard from Armato that Thursday, Aug. 6 is the first day of school and students should report in full uniform. Bus routes will be posted on the school board’s website, http://www.stmaryk12.net, by July 22 and also will be published in local newspapers prior to the start of school.
—Awarded the construction bid on the new Patterson Junior High School to Thompson Construction Co.
—Heard from Superintendent Leonard Armato the following new appointments: J. Ina, Franklin Junior High School principal; Angela Steward, Franklin Junior High assistant principal; Debra McClarity, supervisor of Special Services; Barbara Lancelin, coordinator of Special and Related Services/Discipline; Bridget Guillot, Title1/Special Services liaison; Mike Ortiz, acting hearing officer; Joseph Stadalis, acting compliance officer; and Andrea Barras, J.S. Aucoin Elementary acting principal.
—Approved the refinancing of general obligation bonds in Consolidated School District 1 and Special School District 4 with lower interest rates or a total savings of $1.4 million over the remaining 18-year life of the bonds.
—Heard from Chief Financial Officer Alton Perry that the school board “took a big hit in June” on sales tax collections. He said collections in that month, the final month of the fiscal year, were at $1.2 million as compared to budget projections at $1.6 million. Year-to-date, he said, collections are $2.5 million under budget.
—Agreed to accept the settlement offer in regard to BP oil spill following a brief executive session. Legal counsel Eric Duplantis said the amount will not be disclosed at this time due to federal gag order.