Evangeline Parish Superintendent of Schools Darwan Lazard announced during Wednesday’s meeting of the Evangeline Parish School Board that Ville Platte High has a new acting principal, effective Tuesday, January 14. The new principal is Willie Goodley, who has been in education for over 40 years. She has over 20 years experience in administration, working at the Basile schools and Mamou schools. She has been working on distance learning with the schools in the parish.
Lazard then introduced Cherie Fontenot who will be acting elementary supervisor for Evangeline Parish. Fontenot has 27 years in education, with nine years experience in administration and has been the Principal of the Year in both Lafayette and Evangeline parishes.
According to Lazard, Tom Prudhomme, who has 38 years of experience and previously worked with Evangeline Parish schools, has rejoin the maintenance team.
Lazard also announced CFO Amy LaFleur is being inducted to the governing board for the Louisiana Association of School Business Officials where she will be their financial secretary. He commended her and the staff on their work with the school board.
Lazard reminded the public Monday is Martin Luther King Day. Offices and schools will be closed, and Tuesday will not be a student day because of professional development throughout the parish.
Earlier in the meeting, LaFleur said Basile Elementary and Basile High School will be pilot schools for the next few months by offering parents the option of paying fees online. The feature will be available to all schools in July. “It’s just an option. It’s not a requirement,” said LaFleur. “It’s going to help in the respect that it’ll take cash out of the schools. When you have less cash, you have less exposure, less potential audit problems.” A meeting is scheduled for February 3rd for training to begin implementation. LaFleur said it is at no cost to the district. The software can possibly be used for ticket sales to sporting events.
The board then heard from CPA Vic Slaven who gave the audit report. The total assets for the end of the fiscal year, June 30th, 2019 was $20,441,397 for General, School Food Service, Parish wide Maintenance, and Other Governmental funds. Total revenue in the General Fund is $47,514,727. Total expenditures $46,103,603. They ended up the year with a positive cash flow of $410,042. Added to the beginning fund balance of $8,270,944, the ending fund balance was $8,680,986. “All in all, I think everything went well, and I think the staff did a really good job,” said Slaven.
After Slaven gave his report, one citizen asked the board if they were informed about a $6,000 pay increase to employees at the school board, compared to a $1,000 teacher pay increase. He had papers comparing salaries from the last two years. “Some of these employees were given a $6,000 pay increase.” He took issue with teachers only being given a $1,000 pay increase. School Board president Wayne Dardeau asked the citizen if his question was related to the budget. Dardeau said the citizen’s question was not related to the audit. Board member Nancy Hamlin clarified that the raise was for some employees in the school board office, not the school board members. The citizen said he did not mean the raise was for school board members. It was clarified the question the citizen asked was concerning the budget, not the audit. The board could not proceed with discussion, although Dardeau said he would not mind discussing it in the future.