Ellender teacher: Proposition results made me feel exiled

An English teacher at Ellender High said Terrebonne voters’ overwhelming rejection of a property tax that would have greatly increased the public school district’s funding has made her feel exiled from the community.

Beth Bajon, at Ellender for all 27 years she has spent as a Terrebonne resident, told a volunteer committee of members from the parish’s business and education sectors that seeks to aid the public school district that she was personally offended by the “vitriol” amid outspoken opposition to the proposal.

“The morale has been devastated,” Bajon said of her fellow teachers. “The teachers were demonized. We were told that we were spoiled, that we could have anything we wanted, and that we weren’t doing our jobs, (that) we’re glorified babysitters.

“I don’t want to spend any money in Terrebonne Parish because I don’t feel like I belong.”

Bajon said she and other educators were shocked that the community did not make a greater commitment to education. The school district’s leaders said the tax hike would have facilitated a $4,000 bump to all teacher pay grades, and Bajon said the public used that point to vilify educators.

Terrebonne ranks 45th in the state in average teacher pay, district officials have said.

The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce and the parish school board formed the task force Bajon addressed in the wake of the failed 31-mill tax proposal in May. The aim is to diagnose the district’s issues, propose solutions and help market any consensus to the parish’s voters.

The chamber staunchly opposed the millage increase, criticizing an adjoining plan put forth by the district as lacking specificity. The proposal failed with 76.2 percent of voters in opposition.

During the meeting, the task force heard from officials with the Sales and Use Tax Department and the Tax Assessor’s Office. Both reported that parish tax receipts are on the rise.

Gross sales tax collections through October totaled $102.8 million, a figure approaching the $107.5 million collected last year and already ahead of total collections in 2010 and 2011, said Christa Lagarde, director of the parish’s sales and use tax department. The banner year for sales tax collections was $111.6 million in 2008, before the nation’s economic recession contributed to lighter consumer spending.

Parishwide ad valorem taxes have increased annually since 2004, when total revenues derived from parishwide-levied taxes brought in $30.6 million, Tax Assessor Lonny Grabert said. Grabert anticipates roughly $59.5 million to be collected from those sources this year.

Of the roughly $107.5 million in sales taxes (through October) and $59.5 million in property taxes, about $34.7 million and $8 million, respectively, go toward the school district. That represents roughly 25.6 percent of Terrebonne’s combined tax intake levied throughout the parish, according to the figures provided.

The district’s 2013-14 operating fund budget is set at roughly $127 million.

At the midpoint of a slate of five meetings, the task force’s facilitator Harold Suire sought to refocus the group from fact-finding and criticism into proposing solutions. He also went over a draft list of “principles,” a soft word for suggestions that the task force ultimately hopes to offer to the school board.

“We’re beyond the point of your criticizing for the sake of blame or criticism,” Suire said. “We’ve heard enough. You have a right to criticize. Put it in writing, but to have it as a dialogue does no one good. … Think about it and give a solution.”

Suire distributed copies of the district’s tax-hike-related spending plan, which was approved by the school board, to renovate existing schools, build new schools, increase teacher pay, implement a universal pre-kindergarten program and expand arts curriculum in elementary schools.

The facilitator asked committee members to build on the plan and propose solutions to its wording, such as reducing the perceived flexibility to make it more rigid, as many have said they lack trust that the district would adhere to the guidelines.

“These plans are presented as a starting point of priority issues and are not intended to be all-inclusive,” the plan stated.

Terrebonne Superintendent Philip Martin attended the meeting. He answered a few questions asked of him but mostly stayed silent.

“I think everybody had some valuable things to contribute, and hopefully we’re moving to some solutions,” he said afterward.

The task force’s next meeting begins at 4 p.m., Nov. 18 at the Terrebonne Parish Library North Branch, 4130 W. Park Ave., Gray.