The St. Landry Parish School Board began discussion on how to use federal revenue sources to enhance employee salaries and improve facilities.
This meeting comes after the parish voted down three property tax propositions by nearly 80%.
The committee decided to move forward with a thousand-dollar stipend for all employees to the full board for approval.
Superintendent Patrick Jenkins hopes this will provide a temporary solution for the propositions being voted down.
"What we did tonight was to be able to use some of our ESSER dollars that we've previously budgeted to be able to give $1000 raises for our full-time active employees,” said Jenkins.
Last year the St.Landry Parish School System received $101 million dollars in federal money.
So far about a third of those revenues have been used for covid-19 relief.
Meanwhile, another $22 million is being dedicated to improving school buildings throughout the parish.
"All of these dollars came about because of Covid and that's really what the intention was how we can utilize that within your school system do you have a safer better environment mainly for our students,” school board administrator, Claudia Blanchard.
"We want to be able to do those things however that's a one-time stipend that we'll be doing in June. We do not have the dollars to do reoccurring permanent pay raises and That's why we went to the public to be able to help us to get those reoccurring pay raises,” Jenkins added.
As for modified propositions, that'll be left up to board members.
"We're gonna have to go back to the drawing board to find out what their needs and what their wants are to determine what's the best course of action next. We have some significant needs in our community. We want to be competitive in terms of teacher pay and we have to be able to address our facilities,” said Jenkins.
Jenkins also added three separate propositions were proposed based on community input after another proposition failed in 2018.
As for the stipend and facility funding, they will go to the full board next month.
------------------------------------------------------------
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
To reach the newsroom or report a typo/correction, click HERE.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox. Select from these options: Breaking News, Evening News Headlines, Latest COVID-19 Headlines, Morning News Headlines, Special Offers
