Board closes schools

CENTERVILLE — By a pair of 7-4 votes Monday, the St. Mary Parish School Board carried through on plans to close M.D. Shannon Elementary in Morgan City and J.A. Hernandez Elementary in Franklin to save money as district revenues slump.

Public comments from concerned citizens C.E. Bourg, Jean-Paul Bourg and Craig Matthews were not enough to sway the board members decisions to close both schools.

Even board member Pearl Rack, District 4 representative, pleaded to fellow board members about doing what is right because of the lack of solutions presented to them to resolve budget problems.

Rack moved to table the Hernandez vote but was unsuccessful.

Later, she made a subsidiary motion to close all three elementary schools in District 1 and bring those students to Franklin Junior High.

In addition, Rack proposed Franklin Junior High students would be moved to and housed in the unoccupied section of Franklin High School. But was told she could not do so by school board attorney Eric Duplantis.

Since the motion was not on the agenda it was in violation of the meeting law.

Rack also consulted and read a letter from a Harvard Law School student, suggesting that school zone changes might run counter to the settlement of the district’s desegregation lawsuit.

Finally, Kenneth Alfred, District 3 representative, moved to vote on the closure of Hernandez and redistribute students to W.P. Foster and LaGrange elementary schools.

Wayne Deslatte, District 7 representative, second the motion to move forward with the vote.

The board members that voted yes to close Hernandez are:

—Kenneth Alfred, District 3

—Marilyn LaSalle, District 6

—Wayne Deslatte, District 7

—Michael Taylor, District 8

—Anthony Streva, District 10

—Roland Verret, District 11

—Ginger Griffin, District 5

The board members voting no to close Hernandez are:

—Joseph Foulcard, District 1

—Mary Lockley, District 2

—Pearl Rack, District 4

—Bill McCarty, District 9

As for Shannon’s fate, Deslatte moved to vote on the closure of Shannon and redistribute students to M.E. Norman and Wyandotte elementary schools. Lockley second the motion to proceed with the board members to vote.

Board members that voted yes to close Shannon are:

—Lockley

—Alfred

—LaSalle

—Deslatte

—Taylor

—Verret

—Griffin

Board members who voted no to close Shannon are:

—Foulcard

—Rack

—McCarty

—Streva

The closures are billed by the administration as consolidations. Students who would have been in the Shannon zone will instead go to Norman or Wyandotte in Morgan City. Students who would otherwise have gone to Hernandez will instead go to either Foster or LaGrange in Franklin.

The new school zones have yet to be developed.

The plan is for the schools to close at the end of the school year, St. Mary Parish Schools Assistant Superintendent of Schools Teresa Bagwell said. A demographer will work to redesign attendance zones.

“Once the demographer rezones, it will be presented at a board meeting,” Bagwell said. “At that point, we’ll have detailed maps to share with the public.”

The second phase will be the bus routes. At the beginning of next school year, the school board will put out bus routes.

“We review them and make adjustments every year,” Bagwell said. “The bus routes aren’t that radically different because of the consolidations.”

Administrators said closing the two schools would save about $3.6 million annually, the biggest single step toward patching a potential revenue shortfall of at least $4 million in the next school year. Supporters of consolidation said declining enrollment has led to a reduction in state aid. The recent plunge in oil prices has also reduced sales tax revenue for local governments.

All the consolidation measures will be incorporated into the budget for the 2016-17 school year , Bagwell said.

There is a special budget meeting normally held in June. There’s a possibility that it may be held earlier this year because of budget problems.

Bagwell said the Legislature’s deliberations over Minimum Foundation Program funding is another factor in the budget picture.

If there is a decrease in funding or a decrease in student enrollment, the school district is going to have to take another look at the budget to make sure it is aligned to those decreases in state funding, Bagwell said.

“All the Legislature can do is vote it up or down,” Bagwell said. “I hate to sound like it’s so tentative, but it is. It can change. There’s a certain level of funding that we’re pretty assured of.

“We know that we have a deficit of $4 million but it’s that X factor in the state Legislature that we’re not sure of, and we really can’t project at this time with a level of certainty.”