Armato: School district’s projected deficit requires tough cuts

The St. Mary Parish School District’s projected $4 million to $8 million budget deficit led school system officials to have to consider making tough budget cuts, including school consolidation, said Parish Schools Superintendent Leonard Armato.
Armato was the guest speaker during Tuesday’s Atchafalaya Chapter of the American Petroleum Institute meeting at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City.
The anticipated deficit is for the school district’s fiscal year beginning July 1. The district’s annual budget is about $100 million.
Declining school system revenues due to the economic downturn have put the school district in a tough financial spot, Armato said.
Armato was appointed St. Mary Parish schools superintendent in June 2015, and, at that time, no one thought the system’s financial situation “would be this bad,” he said.
“When you are hurting, we are hurting,” Armato told attendees.
School district leaders want to protect employees’ jobs and their salaries “as much as we can,” Armato said. “Our No. 1 focus is going to be to provide a quality education for all of our kids.”
Financial troubles have forced the school board to consider consolidating schools in the parish, he said.
Closing two schools and re-distributing students at those schools to other parish schools would save the school board $2.5 million per year, Armato said.
Armato is examining what’s best for the long-term financial well-being of the school district, up to 20 years in the future.
On Feb. 25, the school board tabled action on proposals to close M.D. Shannon Elementary in Morgan City and re-distribute students to M.E. Norman and Wyandotte elementary schools, and to close J.A. Hernandez Elementary in Franklin and re-distribute students to W.P. Foster and LaGrange elementary schools.
The schools’ enrollments are Shannon, 156 students; Norman, 250 students; Wyandotte, 285 students; Hernandez, 214 students; Foster, 230 students; and LaGrange, 198 students.
The school board will vote in a couple of weeks on the consolidation proposals. The board hasn’t set a meeting date yet, but will do so at its regular meeting Thursday.
Consolidation proposals are just the first phase of cuts the school district may have to make, he said.
Parish schools have 263 fewer students this school year compared to the 2014-15 school year, which translates to almost $1 million less in minimum foundation program funding the school district gets from the state, Armato said. Armato expects more students to leave the parish by next school year.
Armato is considering every possible way available for the school system to save money. Eighty-six percent of the school system’s total budget is employee salaries, Armato said. School leaders have cut 150 staff in the past four years, mostly through attrition.
Additionally, some parish schools only have 30 percent of the students the facilities could accommodate, he said.
The school district also has 23 “aging buildings,” most of them over 50 years old, which have expensive upkeep costs. So the district needs to look at ways to save money with building costs, too, he said.
School district staff met with parents and principals and are “listening to what the community has to say,” he said.