Terrebonne school board votes to close three elementary schools next year in merger plan

Bayou Black, Honduras, and Gibson Elementary schools will be closed effective next school year.

"That's the plan," Terrebonne Parish School Board Member Dane Voisin said just before the vote was cast. "I don't know how it's going to go tonight, but God, help us."

Shuttering the schools is the first phase of Terrebonne Parish Superintendent "Bubba" Orgeron's plan to overhaul the educational system. According to Orgeron, the move will place more certified teachers in front of students, increase teachers' pay and combat decline in student enrollment parish-wide that is squeezing the budget.

Each student grants the parish just over $4,000 in state money toward the district's budget. In the past five years the district has lost $8 million, and $15 million in the past 10 years. This is due to an overall loss in population in the parish.

The Terrebonne Parish School Board voted six to three to close the three elementary schools Tuesday, Dec. 5. The three votes against were board members Matthew Ford, Gregory Harding and Roger DeHart. The School Board Meeting room was packed with about 100 people, and the live stream of the meeting was watched by 747 people at its max.

The three schools will merge their students and staff with other schools in the parish on the first day of the 2024-2025 school year. Gibson students will pool with Schriever Elementary School, Honduras Elementary School with Village East and Acadian, and Bayou Black will send some students to Mulberry and some to Schriever Elementary School.

Parents pleaded with the school board to spare their schools, saying the smaller classrooms made the classes more personal and gave their children a better education. According to the Louisiana Department of Education figures, their children were making good marks, but Orgeron and board members in favor of the closure argued that this was about the parish as a whole.

Mother Katelyn Bourgeois attended Bayou Black as a child. She left the community and returned when she had her firstborn so he could attend the school. She collected a multipage petition to present to board members and told her story. She told how she drove back after Hurricane Ida to see the cafeteria destroyed.

"At that time, I could honestly say I was more concerned about that school than my own home," she said.

She and other parents argued that the problems of uncertified teachers and the teacher shortage facing the parish were not affecting their schools. They said by moving from a smaller, personal class setting to a larger school, their kids would just become another number. Some parents even argued that the plan already was reducing their children to numbers: $4,000.

Everyone argued that the loss of the school was tantamount to closing the community. Without a school, who would move into the area?

"All we asking for is some mercy," Father Ryan Bourgeois said. "We already don't have no grocery store."

Board members who voted for the closures said they had to look out for the parish as a whole. It was not a favorable decision, they said, but it had to be done.

"Guys, I'm sorry, but change is going to happen," Board Member Michael Lagarde said. "At the end of the day, we are a parish. If we going to be divided by communities, that's a set up for failure."

And while the crowd grumbled with displeasure, Lagarde managed to get a laugh.

"I got it the worst in here," he said. "I sit on this board, but my wife's school is on the chopping block. Like the kids these days say, 'I gotta sleep next to the op.'"

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Board Member Gregory Harding, who voted against the closures, said he agreed with Orgeron's plan. Harding said he had to represent his constituency, but the community couldn't say they wanted to pay teachers more and not close the schools. The money, he said, had to come from somewhere.

"What he's trying to do, but we all don't want to hear… is, you know, how you give teachers raises," he said. "Do you want to pay higher taxes? Where's the money going to come from?"

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Terrebonne school board votes to close three elementary schools next year