School board OK's budget for 2016-17

CENTERVILLE — After budget workshops, public input and modifications, the St. Mary Parish School Board adopted the district’s balanced budget at Thursday’s board meeting.

The consolidation of two schools saved the district around $2.5 million in the general fund, said board member Michael Taylor of District 8. With that, the budget was able to be balanced and pay raises were given.

“I know people follow the nomenclature of a step increase as it is, not a pay raise. Well, it is a pay raise,” Taylor said. “It’s similar to a cost of living pay raise that we’ve been able to give.

“I’ve been on this board for 27 years. We’ve given that pay raise for 27 straight years, sometimes more than just that pay raise, step increase.”

Roland Verret, of District 11, wanted to know if student enrollment numbers would affect the budget’s bottom line.

“From the state, as we stand right now, are we still going to be in the black or suddenly come in the red?” Verret said. “Looking for that guidance, because I don’t want to see red.”

St. Mary Schools Superintendent Leonard Armato explained that the 2016-17 fiscal year’s budget was based on Minimum Foundation Program numbers already set for the current school year.

MFP is a formula used annually to determine the cost to educate students in public schools. The funding amount is equitably allocated to school districts as a block grant.

“The numbers that we get this year will be for next year’s MFP budget,” Armato said. “We’ll have to adjust the budget as we go into the next year. But right now, the budget is balanced for this school year. We have MFP money for this budget.”

Chief Financial Officer Alton Perry added that while working on the budget, the staff factored in a reduction of MFP funding and a loss in student enrollment, which had not been done in the past.

It was a precautionary measure taken because, at the time, no one knew how state budget cuts would affect the funding.

The current MFP total is 8,230 students compared to last year’s total of 8,676, Armato said. Based on the MFP count, enrollment total is down this year by 446 students.

As of Thursday, 8,687 students are enrolled in pre-K through 12th grade. Last year’s number totaled 9,079.

“Based on the students enrolled now, are we going to have very little change in the next couple of weeks?” Verret asked. “Are we understaffed or overstaffed?”

“At this time, we are staffed where we need to be,” Armato said. “Even with consolidating, we’ve been monitoring classes. … We feel very confident that our teaching staff is very well put together.”

Also Thursday, the board:

— Approved a base-bid of $99,625 for a retractable theater platform, lighting and curtain system project at Hattie Watts Elementary.

—Approved the Community Eligibility Provision for one year.
It is a provision from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that allows schools and districts with high poverty rates to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. Fourteen of 21 St. Mary Parish schools qualified in the district.