The mood was festive as the St. Landry Parish School held its final regular meeting of the year Thursday.
For Eunice Board member Mary Ellen Donatto it was an opportunity to reflect on her year as School Board president.
Donatto retired as an award-winning principal at East Elementary.
“I retired six years ago and that wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t done yet with the St. Landry Parish public school system, so, I had to look for one last angle,” she said.
“It has been a delight,” she said of her year as president and serving on the School Board.
“I enjoyed every minute of it. I want to thank Mr. Jenkins (Superintendent Patrick Jenkins) for his patience. He always ... apologizes for being a perfectionist, but I have the same bad habit,” she said.
“I always need to know that it is precise, that it is exact, that it is well-understood and I think it has something to do with having taught primary school all of my life,” she said.
“But who I really want to thank are my fellow board members ...” she said.
During Donatto’s tenure as president, the Board launched a restructuring of the Opelousas schools and adopted strategic goals.
The school system with about 13,000 students was coming off the March 2018 failure of two tax proposals. More than 70% of the voters opposed the taxes.
“There are two things you need to know,” she said about being a School Board member. “If you like really, really rapid progress, this is not what you want to do. The other thing, if you want to single-handedly call the shots like I used to be able to do sometimes as an administrator ... you really can’t do it,” she said.
Donatto said times were not always easy on the Board, “but one thing we do is we end up laughing ... and that’s what matters.”
“We make very tough decisions and sometimes we are tough on each other as we make decisions,” she said.
Albert Hayes Jr., also a Eunice School Board member, said, “Ms Donatto, you have set a very high bar for participation by your thirst for knowledge and your tenacity and reaching out to all of the members.”
In a meeting followed by a Christmas party, the retirement of Pat Mason-Guillory, Title I Parent & Family Engagement coordinator, was announced. She has served in the school system more than 46 years.
