The St. Landry Parish School Board decided to reconfigure Opelousas elementary schools to follow a grade configuration established in Eunice more than three decades ago.
The plan for the next school year is to change three schools from pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade to pre-kindergarten to fourth-grade schools.
One school will become a fifth- and sixth-grade school.
Two schools are to be closed under the plan and those are to be selected at a special meeting at 5 p.m. Monday at the Supplementary Resource Center, 1013 Creswell Lane, Opelousas.
The selection of a grade configuration plan for the schools at a special meeting Wednesday ends weeks of public forums in Opelousas. The action also is about a year after voters rejected a tax proposal that would have allowed building new schools and closing other others.
Voting for the pre-K to fourth-grade configuration were Board members Hazel Sias, Mary Ellen Donatto, Albert Hayes Jr., Anthony Standberry Raymond Cassiere, Denise Rose, Joyce Haynes, Myron Guillory and Milton Ambres.
Voting to keep the Opelousas schools in a pre-K to sixth-grade format were Donnie Perron, Randy Wagley, Kyle Boss and Josh Boudreaux.
Haynes, a retired educator of Opelousas, cited her experience in St. Landry Parish and on the state and national level as she called for the Eunice model.
“All of my days in the system I heard Eunice is doing right because no matter what program the state came up or whomever was telling us what every five years, we did that and we’ve always watched, we’ve always seen Eunice faring out better in the parish than some of the others,” she said.
“I used to say ‘what makes the difference’ and they would say to me, ‘well they do what’s best for the children,’” she said.
Eunice principals would explain it is “about pulling yourselves by the bootstraps and doing what you know we can do.”
Hayes said, “I’ve always heard that you can look right here at what’s going on in this parish. You don’t have to look at Tennessee, in Washington, D.C.”
No matter what the Board would decide, someone is not going to happy, Haynes said.
“We don’t have the money, but we’ve got to do better,” she said.
“If Eunice is getting it right, why not try pre-K to fourth-grade? Why not try? It is about our children,” she said
“There is something all of us can do beside just criticize,” she said in a call to action. “I beg of you, let’s give ourselves a chance. Let’s give our children a chance.”
Eunice Board member Hayes said he pledged to support the plan backed by the majority of Opelousas Board members.
However, he added, “I’m from Eunice, but I don’t subscribe to that thinking Eunice is doing anything better. In the future, Eunice may have to change its grade configuration based on the number of schools we have to close. So, I must say that change maybe is in the air all around the parish ... and I’m not afraid to embrace it when it comes to Eunice.”
Donatto, who is serving as School Board president, said in a telephone interview after the meeting, that Eunice elementary schools have been pre-K through fourth-grade for at least 33 years.
Eunice fifth- and sixth-graders attend Central Middle School.
The Eunice schools have fared much better in the state scoring ranking from A to C compared to Opelousas schools ranked C to F.
The School Board also is seeing a need to reduce costs. This fiscal year the budget projects a $2 million deficit. The Board looks to save money by closing under-utilized schools across the parish.
