Board asking voters to pass general obligation bonds of up to $30M
– The St. Martin Parish School Board passed a resolution approving a capital improvement plan and designating purposes for the proceeds of proposed $30 million general obligation bonds the school system would like to see voters approve.
School system Chief Financial Officer Casey Broussard said that the capital improvement plan was based on input from principals at each school and school board members.
Meetings were held where the principals submitted “wish lists” of capital improvements at their schools, with board members also having input.
Because there is no budget yet for those items, Broussard said she picked the most important items on the list for each school “with the intention that once those projects are complete, those remaining funds at that school can be reallocated and revisited.”
Broussard said her suggestion was that the board adopt the plan, then work on budgets with the board adopting a priority plan for the remaining items on the wish list so the public, and the board, know where money is planned to be spent from the bonds, if those bonds are approved by voters.
“I think we need to adopt a second plan with priority once these projects (in the current capital improvement plan) are complete,” she said.
District 10 School Board representative Mark Hebert asked if there was a way to make sure that funds raised by the bonds are not used for turf fields for athletics but for actual capital improvements needed at the schools.
Many of the board members won’t be on the board in a couple of years, he said, and new members may decide to use the funds for a turf baseball or softball field at a school, rather than on what it was originally intended for, Hebert said.
“There needs to be a way to where we can control that,” Hebert said. “Again, if they want turf, let them raise the money to put that (via) an election and see if that passes.”
Superintendent Frederick Wiltz said that the board needs to stress to the public that the bond issue is primarily to be used for safety and security of students, and making sure the facilities are in good condition.
Plan
“Those are the primary things,” Wiltz said. “Safety and security is No. 1. Parents want their kids in schools and want their kids attending schools that are safe. I think we only have one school that doesn’t have a secure entry point. Getting those things done are things that parents want to see.
“They want their babies going to school but they want to be sure that their babies are safe. I think that needs to be the message that’s put out there and what we convey when we talk about these bonds.”
The discussion also brought up the STEAM academies in St. Martinville, which are seeing increases in student population. The schools should have enough free classrooms to expand next year, the board was told.
The board approved the resolution, so that the bond issue can be proposed to parish residents to vote upon.
School calendar
The board voted to approve its originally proposed school calendar for the 2025-26 school year after deferring the matter at its March meeting.
During the interim, three different calendars were submitted to school employees, including teachers, to vote for which they favored.
The first was the original calendar submitted in March, which would put the first day for students at Aug. 12 and the last day at May 21.
Option 2 would have Aug. 18 as the first day and May 21 as the last day.
Option 3 would see an Aug. 18 first day and May 28 as the last day, starting and ending one week later than the original plan.
Hebert had asked for the polling as he proposed a later start date to avoid some of the worst heat of the summer.
Employees voted in favor of the first option with 64.8 percent of the votes cast among 512 responses (332 votes for Option 1). The third option was favored by 30 percent (158 votes). Just over 5 percent (22 votes) favored the second option.
The board passed Option 1 with only Hebert voting against.
In Other Business
The board also discussed pressure washing schools and other maintenance to keep school appearances clean, suggesting an assistant principal at each school might be assigned to oversee those duties to ease the workload on principals.
In other business, St. Martin STEAM Academy theater teacher Maddie Pierce was honored as the Southern Scripts Employee of the Month for the school system.
Under its consent agenda, the board approved appointing Casey Broussard to serve as the School Board representative on the local ITEP committee.
The board also approved designating April 28-May 2 as Violence Prevention Week and May 5-9 as Teacher Appreciation Week.
And the board approved renewing a lease of property in the basin to the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
