St. Mary schools await impact of state cuts

St. Mary Parish public schools should know by Wednesday how the district will be affected by the Legislature’s decision to make cuts totaling $24 million in funding for K-12 schools.

“At this point, I can’t tell you exactly how it will affect us,” Superintendent Leonard Armato said. “They haven’t given us the breakdown yet.

“It will probably be in the next day or two, a breakdown of those numbers usually in the state superintendent’s newsletter, which will be tomorrow evening.

“But right now, we just know its $24 million.”

The state Department of Education is in the process of figuring out the cuts for districts statewide.

“The finance department is still crunching out the numbers for the state,” department spokesperson Ken Pastorick said.

The Minimum Foundation Program is fully funded. It totals $3.7 billion for fiscal year 2017, which includes additional funding for an increased student count, state Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, said.

The MFP is a formula adopted annually to allocate funding equitably for school. It is provided to districts as a grant.

The cut is from that additional $44 million that they’ve gotten for the past two years, Amedee said.

“For fiscal year 2017, it will be $20 million instead of $44 million,” Amedee said. “The exact figure bounced around through the budget negotiations and $20 million is where it settled.”

The $20 million has to go for four specific things:

—High-cost special needs expenses.

—Supplement course allocations.

—Sustaining the certified classroom teacher pay raise that was granted in 2013-14.

—Other operational or educational expenses related to the education of children.

This additional supplement is really a temporary thing, Amedee said.

“This is one of those things that will be negotiated each year based on available funding,” Amedee said.

The $20 million comes from the state general fund and goes straight to the Department of Education. The money will be disbursed to all of the school districts around the state.

“I’m not sure what formula they use for that,” Amedee said. “Each school district will have the authority to determine where the funding goes based on what their local needs would be.”