St. Landry Parish School Board to discuss budget concerns in upcoming public meetings

The St. Landry Parish School Board members were introduced Monday night to an operating budget whose expenditures by June 30, 2023 will possibly exceed revenues by at least $1 million.

Director of Finance Tressa Miller told board members that continued district-wide student population losses which affect state funding and proposed employee pay raises and benefits associated with the increase are two of the primary reasons why she foresees a possible deficit.

Board members took no action during any of the items discussed at the meeting that lasted nearly three hours.

A public hearing on the proposed operating budget will be held July 7 before board members consider adopting the annual budget at the same meeting.

The district has until Sept. 30 to submit the adopted budget to state officials.

Board members have also scheduled additional budget public meetings June 20 and June 28 to obtain a better understanding of predicted revenues and expenditures for the District beginning July 1.

Finance director’s concerns

In her annual budget message, Miller wrote that she expects the District to lose an estimated $2.5 million next year in state revenues due to anticipated enrollment decreases.

Miller’s budget statement indicated that two charter schools – Ecole St. Landry and St. Landry Charter which began operating in 2021, are taking away students which might otherwise attend District schools.

The District receives state Minimum Foundation Program funding for each student that attends classes in the District.

Superintendent Patrick Jenkins said the District ended 2021-22 with 12,902 students.

Several years ago, demographer Mike Hefner told board members that he expected the District to lose about 200 students every year.

Jenkins said he is proposing a parish-wide employee pay raise that Miller estimates will cost the District about $1 million annually.

If the Board passes the funding -- $500 for teachers and another $250 for support workers, it will cost $1 million annually, an expenditure that will be extracted from the operating budget.

Parish voters have rejected two ballot referendums since 2018 that if passed would have increased school employees’ pay.

More: St. Landry school board considers ways to improve facilities after voters say no to taxes.

The Monday night budget message indicated that if board members agree to the proposed raise, it would elevate starting teacher pay in St. Landry to $42,000 annually.

Jenkins said he feels the pay raises are needed, since they could enable the District to retain employees who might seek employment elsewhere due to higher pay.

“With this raise, we want to stay competitive with the other districts around (St. Landry). Some of the districts are giving several stipends each year in addition to raises,” Jenkins added.

Jenkins noted that state officials have passed a bill that implements raises of $1,500 for teachers and $750 for support workers effective this year.

In addition board members in May decided to use federal Elementary and Secondary School Relief funding (ESSER) to give District employees an additional $1,000.

District employees are also expected to receive an annual stipend due in November that last year cost $3.4 million. However the stipends presented to school workers have normally originated from a designated parish-wide sales tax.

Board member Raymond Cassimere said he is not opposed to any of the employees’ pay raise options, but he has reservations about the overall effect the increases will have on the budget.

More: St. Landry school board members unanimously approve new district boundaries

“I would like to know what amount of cushion we are going to have and where the money (for the raises) is going to be derived from,” Cassimere said.

Cassimere said he is concerned that adding another $1 million for the raises would continue to strain the projected 2022-23 budget that Miller is presenting.

What lies ahead

Miller told the Board she expects the District to experience what she described as a “break even” budget by the end of the 2021-22 fiscal operating year June 30.

In past budget and finance meetings Miller has estimated that it costs the District about $1 million each month to operate the school system.

Miller said she is hopeful that parish sales tax revenues will continue to increase as they have during 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Board member Hazel Sias said she is skeptical about using sales tax revenue as a projected source of income.

“Sales taxes are no guarantee. I think we need to take a look at all our revenues sources. I don’t see these increases in sales taxes continuing long term,” said Sias.

Miller said she expects to see sales taxes continuing to remain strong over the next several months and then possibly diminish.

“We should see some more months of (sales tax) increases. At some point I do expect (sales taxes) to get back to their normal levels,” Miller added.

This article originally appeared on Opelousas Daily World: St. Landry Parish School Board to discuss budget concerns in upcoming public meetings