$192 million school budget gets board’s OK

The Terrebonne Parish School Board approved a $192-million budget for the next school year.

School District Superintendent Ed Richard Jr. got most of what he wanted, but having master teachers in all elementary schools was not one of them during last Tuesday night’s vote.

The board accepted five of the eight schools proposed to get a master teacher: Southdown, Bayou Black, Broadmoor, Dularge and Pointe-aux-Chenes elementary schools.

Lisa Park, Oakshire and Schriever elementary schools were rejected in 6-3 votes.

“I’m disappointed with anything that doesn’t make it in the budget, but I was really disappointed in not having the master teachers at all the [elementary] schools,” said Richard.

Some board members felt teachers were needed in the classroom instructing students, not out of the classroom guiding other teachers.

“If you keep putting people on top, you have too many chiefs and not enough Indians,” insisted School Board President Hayes Badeaux. “I’m not saying people shouldn’t be promoted, but let’s put them where they’re needed. They’re having problems finding teachers as it is. Now we have a list as long as my arm of teachers who are not available at some schools.”

The 90-minute meeting produced a 50 cents per hour pay raise for all part-time workers, and a 10 percent increase for skilled maintenance personnel.

“With the economy booming the way it has been, they can find better-paying jobs,” said Richard. “We figured the way to keep the workforce we have is to increase those skilled positions.”

Meanwhile, the board denied adding seven new janitors for schools that added a modular classroom this summer and vetoed $1.1 million in holiday bonuses.

“What we really have in mind is to save as much money as we can,” Badeaux said. “If you’ve got extra money and you keep spending it, then you never have any extra money to pay your people with. My idea is to improve all the way down the line, buildings and people too.”

“When we do a budget, we take a lot of time with it and we work hard with it,” Richard assured the board. “We started this process in February and continued to revise and improve on it until a month ago.”

Richard said the board’s cuts from the budget will not hinder him from implementing his agenda this school year.

“We always do the best with what we have,” he noted.

While the budget battle occasionally got contentious, the most impassioned arguments were over Mulberry Elementary School assistant principal Gwen Ferguson.

In a 6-3 vote, the board approved Ferguson’s request to transfer from Mulberry to the assistant principal position at Coteau-Bayou Blue Elementary School.

Mulberry’s former assistant principal, Vanessa Adams, is returning after a one-year leave to teach at a charter school.

Board members Roger “Dale” DeHart, Donald Duplantis and L.P. Bordelon maintained that she serve out the final year of her two-year contract at Mulberry because the school is estimated to have 975 students enrolled this coming year.

Richard said he was not surprised by the emotion expressed by those who wanted her to stay.

“She’s an excellent assistant principal, so everybody wants her,” he said. “Mulberry’s got a tough population as far as the parental involvement. She’s worked hard to forge a positive relationship with those teachers and those parents.”

The board also decided to send two budget items back to committee for further consideration – adding video cameras to school buses and combining sales tax allotments, which are given twice annually to schools, into one payment.