Board members retire with 40-plus years of education service

The St. Mary School Board bid its farewells to Ed Payton and Murphy Pontiff who served their last meeting as board members Thursday.
They each are retiring with more than 40 years of service to education in St. Mary Parish.
Superintendent Donald Aguillard said Payton began his employment in the 1959-60 school year at Foster Elementary. He was appointed principal of Baldwin Elementary in 1964 and served in that position through the 1968-69 school year.
In 1969, he became principal of E.A. Crowell School and served there until he was appointed as an instructional supervisor in 1972.
Payton was named assistant superintendent in 1987 and became superintendent in 1990. He served in that capacity three years before his retirement.
He then returned to service as the District 3 School Board member from 2003-14.
“It seems like a long time, but it goes by,” Payton said of his service.
He joked that he knew it was time to retire when the board started using tablets to access the meeting agenda several months ago.
Pontiff began his employment as an agriculture teacher at Franklin High School in 1971.
He was appointed principal of Glencoe Elementary in 1986 and served in that position through the 1990-91 school year.
He began work in 1991 as Supervisor of Environmental Systems and one year later was named Supervisor of Maintenance and Vocational Programs. In the 1997-98 school year, Pontiff became Supervisor of Maintenance where he served until his retirement in January 2003.
He served as the District 4 School Board member from 2007-14.
Pontiff introduced all of his family members and thanked them for coming.
“It’s been an interesting and wonderful journey. … I had a wonderful time and met a lot of wonderful people,” Pontiff said.
In other action during Thursday’s meeting, the School Board:
—Received “a very clean audit” meriting an unmodified opinion, the highest possible, from auditor Chris Miller of Darnall, Sikes, Gardes and Frederick. The general fund accounts for 80 percent of both revenues and expenditures, Miller said. Of the $105.5 million the board expended in the fiscal year ending June 30, 88 percent was dedicated to instructional and support services.
—Agreed to redistribute a total of $126,800 from the sale of property to the City of Franklin to purchase LearnPads for all District 1 elementary schools. There will be 305 of the tablet-like devices purchased, bringing the district up to 710 total after the purchase. In November, the board agreed to use $91,000 in funds to purchase LearnPads only for the three Franklin elementary schools. That money, along with the additional funds, was redistributed this month.
—Approved the expenditure of $366,000 in maintenance funds to replace four air conditioners each on the roofs of Berwick and Patterson high schools. The replacements are planned for the summer.
—Approved plans to go forward with a partial reroofing of Wyandotte Elementary at an estimated cost of just over $500,000. The anticipated completion of the project is set for July 2015.
—Approved a $3,332 change order to close out the books on the Morgan City High School renovation project.
—Passed a resolution receiving $25,000 from the St. Mary Parish Council to fund improvements to dugouts and drainage issues at the Patterson High School baseball field. The school board will be performing the work.