Assistant Superintendent Heath Hulin speaks about special needs services at the meeting.

The Iberia Parish School Board finance committee unanimously voted to close down Jeanerette Elementary and North Street Elementary Monday, despite some heated comments from faculty, staff and parents.

The committee had two separate resolutions to vote on. The first closed down Jeanerette Elementary and effectively moved students and faculty to St. Charles Elementary. The second resolution closed down North Street Elementary and moved the Alternative Center for Education into the North Street facility.

Superintendent of Schools Carey Laviolette cited several reasons for the proposal from the administration, including weak economic conditions in Iberia Parish that have hit the school district.

The Jeanerette move was largely met with positivity. The only two public comments for that decision were Jeanerette Elementary Principal Devon Willis-Jones and St. Charles Principal Lenette Hawk-Hill, who both supported the move.

“If Jeanerette Elementary is closed, then the administration, faculty and staff will use this consolidation as an opportunity to create an educational environment for student learning,” Willis-Jones said at the meeting.

The North Street closure was more contentious. Vice President for the Iberia Association of Educators Cammie Maturin addressed the board to express her disappointment with the lack of transparency and short notice for the move.

“If we have to close these schools because of budget issues, fine, but these talks should have been in January. I can assure (that) you knew since January we were in a deficit. Doing this is not transparency,” Maturin said.

Amanda Randozzo, who said that North Street had saved the lives of children, also was against the move and asked for a delay.

“I’m asking for a delay in the school closure,” she said. “I’m asking to think about our teachers and children, delay this for them, they deserve a chance to adjust to this. Parents, staff, everybody, help us find a way to make this work.”

“I need y’all to understand how pissed parents are,” she added. “This was shady, you have to understand this. Parents are so upset on how this came back, and y’all are supposed to be who shows our children right and wrong?”

North Street Principal Bryan Hudson said he wasn’t exactly happy with the move, but would do as he was asked.

“The gravity of this financial strain appears to be too much and I understand that,” Hudson said. “If it does pass, four days is not a lot of time to say goodbye. It will be with a heavy heart, and it will not be easy, but North Street has always done what they’ve been asked to do.”

Laviolette added that vacancies would be notified for teachers before they are posted during the summer, and there would be a deadline extension for applying for those teachers as well.

The finance committee voted unanimously to approve both resolutions.

“I really do feel for the teachers, I understand where they’re coming from,” committee member Brad Norris said. “On the flipside, the Iberia Parish School Board is a business and when you have three schools that are operating at 50 percent capacity you have to make cuts, and this cut is the right business move to make.”