By Stephen Hemelt
L’Observateur

LUTCHER — The United States Department of Justice and Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP are expected to conduct walkthroughs at several St. James Parish schools in advance of potential federal approval of the St. James Parish School Board’s building capital outlay program.

The capital outlay would be funded through a May 2 bond election in which voters are being asked to extend for two decades an existing 10-mill property tax, creating more than $50 million for the School Board to enact expansive plans.

“The main thing we have to do is get the bond election passed on May 2 to make all these things happen,” Superintendent Dr. Lonnie Luce told Board members this week. “I talked to the Department of Justice on the phone (Tuesday). It appears most things are going very well in that process for them to approve the Board’s building capital outlay program.”

Luce said the Justice Department would probably do a walkthrough of local schools this month after he told federal officials the parish needed approval by April 1.

At that point, Luce said, the School Board would prepare a public relations program to let the voters know the specifics of what will be done with tax-generated revenue.

“It is not fair for the voters to go vote on something May 2 without knowing specifically what it is,” Luce said.

In February, School Board members voted to make upgrades at Fifth Ward, Sixth Ward and Vacherie Elementary Schools on the West Bank and Lutcher, Gramercy and Paulina Elementary Schools on the East Bank.

The school district would reconfigure some 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 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. 

On March 1, School board members accepted $10.1 million from Yuhuang Chemical Inc. to sell St. James High School. The sale of the school is part of a larger plan by school leaders to move St. James High School to a new location near the football stadium along Louisiana 20 and 3127 in Vacherie, where the upgraded offerings would be made available.

School leaders said the district has invested more than $7 million in that property, including infrastructure work, parking lots and road access.

“Once the Department of Justice says, yes, then we will move forward with it,” Luce said. “It will be very easy to go to the polls and say now we can’t even change this — what the Board decided to do is what the Board will do.

“We should be able to move quickly forward with where we are with that and prep for the election and get prepared to do that.”