Harlan Kirgan
The St. Landry Parish School Board is to meet at 5 p.m. today for its first regular session following an overwhelming defeat of two tax proposals it placed before voters on March 24.
(A meeting of the School Board as a committee is scheduled at 4 p.m. today)
Three out of four voters voted against a tax to raise school employee salaries and fund a 20-year, $99 million bond issue for capital improvements.
Derrick Comeaux, an Opelousas businessman, is among those challenging the School Board’s decision to hold the election by arguing the state’s Open Meetings Law was violated at a March 8 meeting.
An item on the March 8 agenda stated, “Discussion and/or action to approve St. Landry School Board’s Capital Improvement Project Plan — Lynn Kenley and Superintendent Jenkins.”
Comeaux said the vote under the agenda item went beyond capital improvements and included re-configuring grades and school zones.
“For you to have public comment on something you have to fill out one of those cards on an agenda item,” Comeaux said “Well, most people didn’t know that they were leading to a discussion and a vote on closing schools, re-configuring grade levels and all of those other stuff that was proposed under the guise of capital improvements.”
The wording of the agenda denied the public an opportunity to comment, he said.
Nearly 600 signatures were collected on petitions citing the meeting law violation and submitted to the state attorney general, he said.
A restraining order also will be sought to prevent the superintendent and School Board from reorganizing and closing schools, he said.
Comeaux said the petition and possible court action are focused on Opelousas schools.
If the school plan is executed, “You are going to have all F or failing schools if that happens,” he said.
Park Vista Elementary went from an A-graded school in the state accountability scores to a C after absorbing students from Creswell Elementary, he said.
If another D or F school population is sent to Park Vista it will sink to a D or F school, he said.
“They want to screw it up and destroy the only French immersion program there too,” Comeaux said.
“You’ve got so much disruption that these people didn’t think this out. They are just moving kids around like they are pawns,” he said.
Comeaux said, “I think overall it failed, not because people didn’t want to give the teachers raises, I just think people do not trust the political system with any more of their money.”
After a March 26 committee meeting, Superintendent Patrick Jenkins said he planned to proceed with a creating a city-wide pre-kindergarten in Opelousas.
Jenkins said he intended to reorganize Opelousas elementary schools into kindergarten through third grade schools, and fourth- to fifth-grade schools,
“We have to make some really tough decisions,” he said.
“Look at the dollars we currently have and look at how much it is going to cost us to get to where we need to be academically. See what we can sacrifice because we are going to have to sacrifice some things we didn’t want to...,” he said.
Jenkins did not respond for comment about the Open Meetings Law challenge.