Board to determine fate of two elementaries

The fate of J.A. Hernandez and M.D. Shannon elementary schools will be in the hands of St. Mary Parish School Board during a special session meeting Monday at the Central Office Complex in Centerville.

It begins at 5 p.m.

Among the items on the agenda are:

—Consider and/or vote on school consolidation plan in District 1.

The plan is to close Hernandez and send its students to W.P. Foster and LaGrange elementary schools.

—Consider and/or vote on school consolidation plan in District 3.

The plan is to close Shannon and send its students to M.E. Norman and Wyandotte elementary schools.

—Consider authorizing the superintendent to negotiate with Michael Hefner of Geographic Planning & Demographic Services for the purpose of redrawing attendance zones in any possible impacted area.

This second special session meeting came about after the board voted to delay a decision for three weeks.

The three-week period was to allow board members and the community time to provide additional solutions for reducing the district’s $4 million-plus deficit next school year besides closing schools on the agenda.

For some board members, the delay has been a strenuous time period .

“I’m still weighing all of the details,” board member Anthony Streva, District 10 representative , said. “I’m trying to do what’s best for the kids and give them the best learning environment that we can give.

“For me it’s a difficult choice. I was a principal at M.E. Norman and M.D. Shannon.”

Shannon is located in District 10.

The three weeks also have been hectic for board member Bill McCarty, District 9 representative.

“To be perfectly honest with you, this is probably the most stressful three weeks of the entire time I’ve been on the board,” McCarty said.

McCarty is serving a third four-year term on the board.

“We’ve had numerous meetings with various people in the community,” McCarty said. “It boils down to nobody wants their school closed and nobody wants a pay cut.”

But "change happens, whether it’s Norman or Shannon that closes."

In the mid-1980s Norman closed in order to balance the district’s budget. Norman’s closing still left the district with a financial deficit the following school year so employees’ salaries were cut by 10 percent.

Norman was eventually reopened .

Sumpter Williams Elementary School was also closed during that time. It remains closed.

The former Williams school is now a Morgan City substation for the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“As much as we hate to see the school Shannon close, being at the foot of the bridge, we hate to see our neighborhood school close also, which is Norman,” Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said.

“However, we do know that consolidation has to be made because the numbers do not present itself to keep both of them open. …

“At this point, our position is we’ll wait for the school board decision,” Grizzaffi said. “And then we will move forward as a city to figure out what’s going to happen to the property that stays vacant.”

On the west side of the parish, consolidation plans involving Hernandez have been viewed as unfair by Franklin stakeholders, according to board member Pearl Rack, District 4 representative.

Hernandez is located in District 4.

Over the past three weeks, “my eyes have been opened to things that I never imagined could have happen or would happen, that there would be closed minds (except) to one consideration,” Rack said.

Rack said the three minutes offered for each public comment at the last special meeting wasn’t for community stakeholders and parents to offer solutions.

Rack also mentioned no one on the school board questioned the delinquent loan payments of District 2 that C.E. Bourg brought up at the most recent board meeting.

Additionally, a consolidation plan meeting was held March 8 without the presence of school board members. At least there were no board members on the attendance list, Rack said.

She was unaware of the meeting until she received an email from the district’s superintendent, Leonard Armato, after it was over.

Nineteen names appeared on the sign-in list, Rack said. The majority of the people listed were Central Office employees and school principals.

Rack received a phone call about recommending stakeholders for a community meeting. She recommended that all parish mayors should also be in attendance .

Franklin Mayor Raymond Harris never received a call to attend a consolidation meeting.

“I’ve been disappointed in this entire process,” Harris said. “This has been a very flawed process.”

Ten years ago, the former superintendent of schools, Donald Aguillard, reached out to the mayor and council members about passing a “huge” property tax for District 1 and 3. The tax passed in both districts.

Aguillard later spoke at great length at a council meeting about the tax.

“Ten years later, they want to close schools, and there has been no communication,” Harris said. “They didn’t come to us beforehand. They didn’t come to a council meeting. They didn’t come to meet with us privately.”

About a week ago, Armato and McCarty met with Harris to “explain their reasons for doing what they have to do.”

“I understand why you have to close schools or consolidate or even layoff people or cut salaries,” Harris said. “I understand the declining economy. I’ve already done those things.

“I understand where we are financially. I understand the economy we are in. What I don’t understand is the process they are using. I don’t agree with the process.”