Two Iberia Parish elementary schools may be closing

Published 8:00 am Friday, May 17, 2019

Two schools may be shut down after recommendations from the Iberia Parish school district administration, but whether that recommendation will be approved won’t be decided until next week.

Superintendent of Schools Carey Laviolette said Thursday the administration is recommending that North Street Elementary and Jeanerette Elementary both be shut down next school year. The proposal would rezone students at North Street to Daspit and Park elementary schools, while the Jeanerette Elementary students would go to St. Charles Street Elementary.

However, a few Park Elementary students will have to be rezoned to Johnston-Hopkins and Sugarland Elementary Schools, according to the proposal.

In addition, the Alternative Center for Education would be relocated to the North Street facility.

The school district’s finance committee will make the first vote on whether or not to approve the measure Monday. The agenda item will then head to the IPSB’s regular meeting on Wednesday.

Although the schools are in different municipalities, Laviolette said the reasoning behind the recommendations are largely the same.

Laviolette said sales taxes have declined $7.1 million from 2015 to 2018, and approximately 1,317 students in that same time period were lost.

The superintendent also said there was a $500,000 loss in ad valorem tax in that same time period. The budget deficits in the past three years were $863,000 for the 2015-16 school year, $2.4 million for the 16-17 school year and $1.8 million for the 17-18 school year.

Laviolette said that as a result of the loss of students for each school, the state Department of Education plans to cut Iberia Parish’s MFP, or Minimum Foundation Program, which operates on a per pupil rate. Recent student loss equates to a $2.2 million reduction in the MFP in fiscal 2018-19 and a projected reduction of 2.77 million in 2019-20.

According to a proposal of the closure, the resulting General Fund salary savings is estimated to be $466,535 for the North Street Elementary rezoning, $315,558 for the Jeanerette Elementary merge with St. Charles Elementary, and $65,000 for the Alternative Center for Education move. Additional savings for utilities and insurance when closing ACE and Jeanerette Elementary is estimated to be $310,000.

The total estimated savings for these two recommendations calculated from salaries, benefits, utilities, and insurance is $1,157,093.

North Street currently has about 260 students, while Jeanerette Elementary has 266. Laviolette added that Jeanerette Elementary and St. Charles are both operating with about half the capacity of the amount of students each could hold.

If approved, the two school closures will make for a total of three schools to be closed for the new school year. Late last year, the school board announced the closure of Dodson Elementary, whose students will be heading to North Street Elementary and the newly opened Belle Place Elementary in the fall.

The finance committee meeting is slated for 5 p.m. Monday.

“Change is never easy,” the proposal states. “However, four consecutive budget year deficits require challenging decisions. The recommendations to move ACE to North Street, North Street to other elementary schools, and Jeanerette Elementary to St. Charles Elementary were done with the utmost consideration.

“Student achievement is at the forefront of these recommendations. If the budget recommendations are approved, transitional meetings will ensure that all parent, student, teacher, administrator, and support staff concerns are addressed as quickly as possible.”