By Stephen Hemelt
L’Observateur

LUTCHER — Some schools and grades will be reconfigured in St. James Parish based on School Board-approval votes that earmark funding from a proposed May 2 bond election.

The plan first has to be submitted to Washington for Justice Department approval and then voted on by St. James Parish voters May 2 via bond election.

Should both those measures receive approval, all elementary schools on the West Bank would stay open, and upgrades would be made at Fifth Ward, Sixth Ward and Vacherie Elementary Schools.

All elementary schools on the East Bank would also stay open. Upgrades would be made at Lutcher Elementary, Gramercy Elementary and Paulina Elementary Schools. The school district would reconfigure grade levels with Lutcher Elementary becoming a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade facility, and Paulina and Gramercy Elementary Schools splitting the sixth graders from Lutcher Elementary.

Also approved at a special-called St. James Parish School Board meeting Thursday was the proposed merger of the Career and Technology Campus and the Science Math Academy at the present Career and Technology Campus to become an early college high school program with an upgraded facility.

A Performing Arts Academy and sixth grade would be added to a new St. James High School if voters approve the bond election. 

Two votes were taken Thursday to approve the changes. The West Bank elementary schools vote passed by a 6-1 margin, as District 6’s Tyler Jasmin voted against the proposal. Jasmin did not reference his vote during board member comments.

The move to reconfigure the other schools passed unanimously.

School Board President George Nassar Jr. said he received a lot of phone calls and emails over the past week as school board members contemplated multiple scenarios, some of which called for the closing of schools.

“Every time I went to the store, I was cornered and talked for maybe an hour or two,” he said.

“That’s what it is all about. That is the only way to get the public’s input. We still have to satisfy a 50-year-old federal court order. The hard part is doing what the pubic wants us to do at the community schools and still being able to meet the guidelines of the federal court order.” 

St. James Parish voters are going to decide in May whether to finance a $52 million funding plan for St. James Parish Schools that includes construction of a new St. James High School near the football stadium along Louisiana 20 and 3127 in Vacherie.

Superintendent Dr. Lonnie Luce is stressing voters can approve the measure in May and not see a tax increase, because the 10 mills paid already by St. James Parish property owners would be used to repay the bonds.

“The combination of assessment going up and (previous) debt being retired permits the parish now to add additional debt,” School Board bond attorney J. Hugh Martin has said.

Should voters not approve the proposition, Martin said, eventually, property owners within the St. James Parish School District — which has the same boundaries as St. James Parish — would see a reduction in the 10 mills they are paying.

If approved, money generated from May’s election would allow the new St. James High School construction and help improve school buildings and other school-related facilities across the district.