LEONARD GRAY

LULING – Tonight’s meeting of the St. Charles Parish School Board could see subdivision developers asked to ante up more than $1,100 per new lot to help fund capital improvements at schools directly affected by the new residents. “The concept is a correct one, there’s no doubt about that,” commented board president Steve Crovetto. The school board quickly voiced enthusiasm for the proposal at their May 9 meeting. However, enthusiasm is flagging in the face of rising opposition and, Crovetto said, the board may ask the school district administration to send it back to South Central Planning “to make it more palatable.” Kevin Belanger, executive director of South Central Planning and Development in Houma, proposed the implementation of a residential development fee to assist parish public schools. The amount decided upon, $1,145.26 per lot paid on the front end, was developed based on census data and used the average cost of space per students times the average number of students per household, ages 5 to 17, according to Belanger. The money, collected by the parish government, would be forwarded to the school system, minus a small collection fee of not more than 3 percent. The money then would be placed in escrow accounts established for each school, from which the schools can draw for capital improvements. Board member Ronald St. Pierre voiced his own enthusiasm for the idea has not flagged. “I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “People moving here never paid for the schools already here.” St. Pierre continued the main reason people move to St. Charles Parish is the school system, but the board has to work to maintain the standard they have achieved. Area developers, such as Dr. Ray Matherne of Bayou Gauche and Greg Lier of Ashton Plantation, are vehemently opposed to the fee. A retired educator with 30 years in the system, Matherne said the school district “has ample funds to run the school district” with their existing millages and tax revenue. The development fee, Matherne described as “an additional tax” and warned that such a fee could chase away first-time home buyers, who are the very people most likely to have school-age children. “They need to operate more fiscally responsible,” Matherne said. Lier added a joint meeting was held June 13 with the Economic Development Committee, the St. Charles Business Association, South Central Planning, the school board and the parish administration. “It was pretty productive,” Lier said. He added the developers need to get comfortable with the notion the school district will grow as predicted, and then determining how much will be assessed and how it will be collected. “They might make it more palatable, but I haven’t seen the justification yet,” Lier concluded.