ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / October 7, 2000

RESERVE -The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board voted to give non-bargaining employees of the school system a 3 percent pay raise, but the motion receive a lot of criticism from some board members and the St. JohnParish Association of Educators.

Board member James Madere presented the motion that would extend the 3 percent raise to all the other employees not covered by the new SJPAE contract recently ratified. These employees include principals, assistant principals, central office personnel, coordinators, clerks, computer programmers, chief cooks and head janitors.

Annette Houston, president of the SJPAE, said she understood it is the board’s policy to give raises to everybody after the SJPAE gets a new contract, but she said she has “mixed feelings” about this raise.

“I’m not trying to stop the raise,” Houston told the board, “I’m just questioning the timing, the amount of the raise and the reasoning behind it.”Houston thought this would be giving the public the wrong message since the board is trying to get the public to vote in a 1/4 cent sales tax that would be dedicated only to teachers’ salaries.

Superintendent Chris Donaldson said, “We told everybody this increase would be for everybody. The board is trying to provide for all employees. As fortiming, we felt if we delayed the raise we would be playing games with the voters.”Felix LeBoeuf agreed, saying, “You got to be honest with the people. We aredoing the right thing.””I commend Mr. Donaldson for doing this before the election,” added JohnCrose. “It shows we are not pulling a fast one.”But board members Matthew Ory and C. J. Watkins were not ready to acceptthe proposed raise.

Ory told the board, “We have a much more critical need for teachers right now.”Ory made a substitute motion that non-bargaining employees get a dollar increase rather than a percentage raise that would not put them higher than the teachers’ salaries. However, the motion died due to a lack of a second.Watkins was not happy the proposal had not gone before the finance committee before being presented to the full board. He complained that hehad not heard of the issue until this meeting.

“I’m not against it,” said Watkins. “I just want to know what I’m doing here.We are widening the salary gap between employees. I feel that we areincreasing the salaries of the administration instead of the really critical employees like the teachers.”Madere countered, “We need all the employees for this system to survive; that’s why I put this on the agenda.”Board president Gerald Keller didn’t see what the fuss was all about.

“This has been historically done for the past 25 years,” said Keller. “I’m justgoing with the flow.”Ory and Watkins both said the raise would send a bad message to the public.

“We are making a hasty decision with no public input,” said Watkins. “Weought to discuss this like we did with the first 3 percent raise.”Executive Director of Business and Finance Felix Boughton told the board the revenue for the raise would come out of the general fund and would cost the board $126,294 annually.

Clarence Triche reminded fellow board members the raise would not just go to the employees on the high end of the salary schedule. Under questioning,Boughton told Triche the raise would affect about 100 employees. Of those,25 percent earn $50,000 or more a year.

“This raise is not just for the administration,” said Triche.

The motion passed with nine yeas, and Ory voting no. Howie Gendron wasabsent.

After the voting, Ory said, “Our critical need is to pay teachers more money.

I think we should freeze the salaries of the administration until we can pay the teachers. I just think this gives the wrong message to the public. It sayswe don’t have a critical need.”However, Donaldson reminded everybody the sales tax referendum is only for teachers’ salaries and nothing else, which is why he was for the 3 percent raise for other employees.

In other school board business:

It was announced that Joey Parks, a sixth-grade student at LaPlace Elementary, is the featured artist on the cover of the Young Audiences program for the 2000-2001 season.

The board hired Jennifer Ory as a new school nurse. She will be stationed atEast St. John High School because there are so many special need studentsin attendance there. Ory was hired to help out the other school nursesbecause of the increasing needs of special students who may need special medical attention or procedures. Ory’s salary is coming from Medicaid.

Assistant Superintendent Wilbert Ocmond announced the results of the survey to find a theme for the proposed magnet school on the west bank.

The magnet school committee has agreed to follow the recommendation of the survey and the theme of the school will be Robotics, Animation and Engineering Sciences. Ocmond said the grant writing can begin in ernest nowthat a theme has been chosen.

The board gave permission for the semi-pro football team, the Hurricanes, to use the Joe Keller Stadium at East St. John Elementary for two games.The Hurricanes have agreed to clean up the field and pay for all damages incurred during the games. Debra Schum, principal of East St. John HighSchool, said a coach will be there to operate the lights and the scoreboard.

Return To News Stories