BY DAVID VITRANO
L’Observateur

RESERVE—After months of debate on the matter, the St. John School Board finally agreed to accept a renegotiated contract with ACI, St. John, LLC for sales tax collection.

The matter had been the subject of some controversy lately, as the it first came up a few school board meeting ago but kept getting pushed back because an acceptable agreement had not yet been settled upon.

Then, at the first school board meeting in April, Russ Wise moved that alternate proposals be sought. That motion failed, and the matter was put off until the next meeting.

At that meeting, held April 16, a renegotiated proposal, which was first presented to the finance committee, was brought before the board.

Board Member James Madere again moved that the board seek outside proposals.

At that point, Patrick Sanders said, “The system seems to be doing pretty well as it is.” He questioned whether entering into a transitional period at this point would be wise.

It was also suggested the motion was out of order because a similar motion had been offered at the previous meeting. After consulting with Board Attorney Lloyd LeBlanc, however, it was determined the motion was not the same as the one that had been offered at the previous meeting.

Nonetheless, the motion failed with a vote of 5-6.

The original motion to accept the renegotiated contract was again put before the board, passing with a vote of 8-3. Madere, Wise and Phillip Johnson cast the dissenting votes.

Earlier in the meeting, Executive Director of Business and Finance Felix Boughton brought up the matter of sales taxes in the parish.

He said the sales tax revenue in the parish was so high, the district would finish the school year with a surplus. He added, however, “Next year, we’re going to need that surplus.”

According to Boughton, the parish will be losing some of its MFP money next year because of strong growth and revenue this year.