LEONARD GRAY

LULING – Employees for the St. Charles Public School System will have a new insurance carrier in an effort by the school board to trim the amount of anticipated rate increases. According to Comptroller Jim Melohn of St. Charles schools, United Health Care has been the health insurance carrier for employees and retirees since 1991. When the company informed St. Charles schools of a planned 49 percent rate hike, or $3 million, proposals were sent to 12 other companies. Only two companies responded, and only one, The Oath, offered a proposal for a full takeover of the school district’s insurance program. The change of insurance carriers still involves a rate increase of approximately $800,000, but that is still considerably less than the $3 million otherwise. On Jan. 17, the school board’s insurance committee reviewed the proposal and forwarded it to the Employee Benefits Committee, who met on the following day and voted unanimously in its favor, as did the school board on Wednesday. In an unrelated matter, MetroVision presented Hahnville High principal Barbara Fuselier and Destrehan High principal “Chipper” Simon grant money from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance school-to-career programs. Hahnville High received $220,948, and Destrehan High received $230,448. Several schools regionally participated in the grant program, including East St. John, John Ehret, Bonnabel, John McDonough and Abramson. The checks were presented to the principals by Steven T. Brown and Sue Burge of MetroVision. Superintendent Dr. Rodney Lafon also led a discussion on plans by Gov. Foster to take money from the Minimum Foundation Program currently under the control of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to partially fund his promised teacher pay raises. Louisiana voters several years ago passed a constitutional amendment to move supervision of the MFP money from the Legislature to BESE. Now, Foster is attempting to take it back, Lafon noted. “They talk about making teachers more accountable; I sure wish they could make the governor and Legislature more accountable,” Lafon said. Malohn presented a slide show on teacher pay funding, which took note that while sales tax revenue has gone down and Minimum Foundation Program funds have slipped in the past several years, the state remains near the bottom of the southern regional average. In St. Charles Parish, 42 percent of the budget is directed toward instructional pay. Other priorities include rising costs to educate children living below the poverty line. Also, 44 percent of local students are on free or reduced-fee lunch programs. Louisiana schools have been under-funded for the past nine years, and a call was issued for voters to contact state legislators. “We’re not opposed to teacher pay raises,” insisted School Board President Steve Crovetto, adding he is opposed to an unfunded mandate, to order local school districts to pay teachers a $3,200 annual pay increase without increasing the means to pay for it.