001You were not this final pass is if you keep it student allocated. Now if you want to keep the HVAC and the and the uh what was the other one I said the roofing you want to keep it as a parish and then when we don't use it then you reallocate the money then or if it's all used up. Well it's all used up. felt we need a baseball field cuz we in the city park and when we had it checked out it was way above what we could afford. Can I comment on that? Can I comment on that? On the baseball field bro was first in 20 I still remember it was about 2003 that group of parents got together and listen they built that field. There was that was probably the start of
002it. Cecilia, same thing. Parents, the alumni tournaments, a lot of different fundraisers went into that. And it wasn't the parish that built those foot the baseball. It was parents that went out and hustled money. And I get it that you might not have anybody as proactive with that. That's right. you know, and it's a shame, but there has to be at least have one person in that community that's going to step up and start doing some fundraising, you know, but that that's how again I I compliment and I still remember some of those parents like, you know, Dirty Ray Hall, you know, coach Durio's and them were also involved in that with he was basically 77 classmates, you know. Right. Right. And you know, they they all put that effort into there. Yeah, a lot
003of the parents been participating in that field. If I have approximately 25 years ago, we gave some additional money to the San Mville area to from RC to see to build that Virginia Street and that was a gentleman agreement. Uh the next bond we want to build school 15 years ago we did the same thing to see took some money out to build city school basically almost just have one building and beginning discussing money. The last bond issue, we also got short changes when the judge ordered us to take $4 million and that $4 million were repaid. But approximately 25 years ago, that additional money we sent to St. one bill wasn't repaid back to corporation RC you know so I'm looking at maybe that bridge get little chunk of the money being that we
004didn't have no school built at the last bish was what I'm trying to get across is the buildings on that end the parish are a lot older a lot in worse shape than they are on this end of the parish I mean with you that we had you been to high old you know at the time people from St. Martville came to school in Brobridge and and our buildings are you know especially bro which all our bridge but it's still better than a lot of other district maybe we need to look at square footage that's that's what I'm think you know look at square footage of the schools and a lot so much money square footage school I'm gonna be honest if we don't do the student ratio no I'm talking about how allocated the
005allocated Yeah. Not the student. Yeah. Put it toward the square footage of the schools. And you can put a lot more money into parish. And listen, I'm not not trying to be negative, but I'mma call it like it is. Y'all spend too much money on architectural fees and crap like that. Like, no, I'm just saying. Listen, but they all decided, hold up. They all decided to keep now. You don't have to have an architect for everything. Not for 250,000 or nothing. No. Anything to do with code and and permits, you have to have an architect involved. But like the last bond, we had three architects on the job. You had your project manager. You had architect. And then you had the company who had architect. All you got to do is hire the company and
006they usually have an in-house architect. That's how we say. You wonder why CIA has a lot of money? It's because we've been doing it that way. And I said in the last fin when we give I said the board did it themselves and you had said you had three architecture to rip the law. I see and nobody and everybody knows how to vote. Richards was the only one that voted not to have a project manager. I'll be and look I was and look after I did it. Wow. What did I do? And if you if listen if you get listen we talk about a project manager years ago Eric Cassie was the one who's in charge of the bond. Ronald law was temporarily charged until that that last bond and that's when they involve pushing
007but usually it's an individual in our school system and all you need to do is organize and set projects up or we had we had someone doing that right and there's people out there you know if that's that's a lot cheaper you can pay a person $100,000 a year and come out way ahead of what we did the last month what the judge did to us with the magnet how much money we had to spend in St. Martin. But what I'm saying, Steve, y'all, what if she don't stop? But but y'all had the money to utilize. That's your judgment. And we we go on your advice being that you're from the St. Martinville area. You didn't have to put it on an air conditioned baseball facility, you know, and things like that. You know, there's
008things that And look, we all did things that probably shouldn't have gotten done as far as projects go, but at the same time, we shouldn't had turkey. Y'all know how I feel about turf. I'm not a turf fan. And it was it got beat six to four because St. Mart wanted it. That that was back at the time that was over $1.2 million for that. Yeah. But what's the city on theirs? Oh, we their fears that say have the best field. Yeah. Because the city is constantly having problems. the best problem is the difference between Cecilia St. and broker and we all have now security say Marville we need fences at the junior high is why but I think that's going to be a parish wide thing I think that's what the top that's off
009the top see that's underneath the parish that's going to be and another 5% addition is people complain about air condition on the bus so What's going to happen? We need to do something with air conditioning. You can't use bond funds for that because the cost of it and the um life cycle of this. You cannot use bond funds for that. I did check with our bond attorney. And listen, if they would, again, if you would start school at a proper time, you're looking at probably the last week of August to the next three weeks. Do you think they need a And look, and I'm not being I'm being I guess devil's advocate, but you think they need an air condition right now. It's nice outside and for how long do they rely on that? And
010again, I'm a proponent of taking care of our kids in the heat because I work in the heat just like you, but at the same time, but they can't. Yeah. Well, we Hey, listen. I've got grandkids. We swallow them too much. You know, it is. But at the same time, I know other parishes have AC, but like she said is sometimes you just can't can't do because of the law, whatever she's All right, next item. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Okay. On the uh Steam Academy, um they had told me that it would be on this next bond like to fix the floors and windows uh in the gym and stuff. And I don't see it on here. Well, honestly, that is my error. I didn't change the names of the two schools on this funding
011shoot. It's changed in here. I just didn't change SNP and ELC to steam and early steam. But I'm talking about like the um like the floors. I don't see like floors on there and windows that was supposed when you get money. Well, I thought, aren't we going to propose to send this to the public and whatever they vote on? Yeah, but that's not what we're talking like. This is a separate item in the board students. Okay. For students and and the wish list, hey, I'm pretty sure somebody at that school at the back of school have a wish list. So, you might need to maybe meet with them and come up with something. Well, we did. Well, we did. And so let me just speak. This this item is in the board. This item right
012here is an item in the regular board agenda. Right now we're talking about this because Mark has it for discussion. This is some of the wish list items because I didn't have budgets on anything. I could not put the entire wish list because we may not be able to afford it. So the point of this was to take the top three what I thought were needed items or important items. Once those are done, then the school can take the rest of their funds and allocate it to the remainder of their wish list. But without budgets, I could not put every item on that list. They had told me that the floors and the windows would definitely be on there because we didn't do them cuz some of the things that was supposed to be done
013over there. I would like to see that on there because those floors, they really need to be done in the windows at the gym and to redo the stage. Strip the floors or they need to be remote like since like maybe 19 whatever just like all the other schools, right? I mean, but when we fix the school, they said, "Well, Miss Ball, let's just wait. We're going to get to it at phase two." And listen, that's that's the same orange every minute. I mean even well no this was through was supposed to be through general fund that we never finished. We put a half a billion dollars out there. But we didn't finish it though. That mean also looking for money off of your bond that we let y'all I don't have a problem with
014giving if you need the money. Look, we should all put it together. We all need stuff. We we we one parish. Okay. Let's look at every need and see what we need. But that's how you the way that somebody did this years ago. That was a very creative way of thinking. You the dollar follows the student and you you your bond passes that way. You don't do it that way. Your bond's not going to pass. Why not? Why wouldn't it pass? Thank you. You'll see people because they they're going to feel that their dollars aren't following their kids just like the kids from Cecilia that are going to the M. That dollar follows those kids. that that count is that I don't think so. That's the only way you can do it. Yeah. You can't
015count that. You can't count that kid in St. Martinville as the city. There's no way. But I still feel like we still need to fix it though. I mean like the old school board office. It's just whether or not I mean because the old school board office. Yes. Don't you decide on enough money to fix it. Well, no. Again, you don't hire an architect and get ripped off and you you get somebody that can control. So, you're saying that we're gonna have to hire a project manager? No, I No, I didn't say that. Now, if you want if your area wants like in the city, I think it's a good idea to have a project manager, but not a architect. You follow? But who's going to But that's what I'm saying. So, like they were
016saying Mr. Holand would normally do it. So, are we putting that on Mr. Shalier to do it because he already has a lot to do because he hasn't finished. First of all, we got to pass the bond on the bond pass and then we come back and we discuss that. I think what we can do, we can decide on our own. We can meet the board members. We are the project man. Yeah. But I don't they told us not to get involved in stuff like that. Yeah. But that was that was that was done by some people that I'm not going to discuss. But anyway, was done because somebody didn't know what they were doing. What we need to do is once once we pass the bomb, get together by the areas and decide on
017where we want those monies to go. We get a wish list. Well, we have but I mean what you got to do is what's needed, right? That first then you wish once you get all these needed things like you talking about done, then you go to your wish. But like okay, I see fencing in St. Markfield. He's in the process of doing this and he he's just waiting on another bid, he told me. So why is the fetching on here again? Because that was on a list that was given to me. It came directly from a list that was given to me by the principal. No one you want to be able to sit on and change some of them. you don't school and that's what I'm saying like let's just put the money together
018and let's just do all the fence instead of say oh Cecilia St. or you know let's just all the fencing okay city high school doesn't have any fencing in the front or back so they would need to they they're asking to enclose the camps but as bro at the city junior high we have fencing but it's all pretty bad so you know it just all but can you get away and keep it that you have at city junior high and prioritize something else that's up to the board members in that area but isn't Sicilian given some fencing through that grant with the single point injury. I think I just spoke to you. I know it's just a single point in entry. The single point injury. That's all for my knowledge. They have some fencing on
019there. Oh, we need that right now. Yeah, I know. I'll get out there. All right. Well, let's get on let's get on with the meeting. All right. Item B, discussion of budget kills. Mr. Thank you. Uh, over the last couple of years, we we've been operating at a negative. And the the one thing that I wanted to to bring up, but Miss Casey has been proactive with it because her and I spoke, is to have staff get together and see where they can have budget cuts to see if we can kind of offset our losses that's happening right now. And you know there's a lot of different ways but I figure we give them the chance first before we as a board and also with staff get together and start even if we have to
020abolish positions you know you know have people take over other people's jobs to where we can start cutting salaries and like Mr. Mar said if we can do the right thing in cuts, maybe we can also give raises if we do like cuts, you know, and some of the things that that that I'm a stickler for is either we're going to outsource or not outsource. Either our people need to step up to the plate and and I'm just saying if if it's air conditioned, you know, can we can we bid somewhere it's cheap? And I know Mr. Java does in my opinion I trust him and everything but at the same time do is that areas that we can we can cut on. Uh the other thing is as far as the budget goes I
021would like our principles to have to from what it sounds like and I may be totally wrong but do our principles know what their maintenance budget is at each school and I that would be that's always maintenance is always handled. I mean, I give it to them that they and I don't think they do, but I and and I understand in years past why they did and this is the catch. If Cecilia High School has money left over in their account and you have an emergency at St. Martinville High for a chill they would just take money from one and bring to the other and that but I think it's unfair to the principles because and that's all over that they don't know their bud their own budget and well because I don't I'll just
022yeah that's what I want I want it was never so the intent of it wasn't that the principal had this money to spend it was maintenance is they we allocated but maintenance oversaw what needed to be done at that school and assessed and did it. Um it was not at the principal's discretion and they based off the square footage like what what Russell said earlier. Yeah. And but one thing I caught a couple of years ago is and we all know all three high schools are probably equivalent now. But Broidge High School is actually allocated more for their maintenance fund than the other two high schools because at one time they were the biggest school in the parish. Now that that budget is still that square footage is still being used and the other ones
023are still being used the same way. So it just we actually just got an updated list of square footages from our insurance company so that we can redo all of that because when I was done with the insurance company, no one on our side updated our records. So I got it from Brown and Brown so that I could update our records and get us where we need to be. But the conversation Miss Casey and I had, she is being proactive that she she did meet with some of the US staff to try to start getting cuts and and of course board members, please start brainstorming, you know, and see what what y'all think we can cut. You remember when we first got on the board reduction in force? Wow. A little rough on a lot
024of people. So, just be mindful that we will be coming up with things and we're gonna have to make some tough decisions and you're going to have to be on board for it because we absolutely cannot continue to keep on because it's not it's not eventually it's going to be zero dollars. Can you repeat that again? I said we if we when staff comes with recommendations or do you have recommendations we're going to have to come together in agreement and it's going to be some tough decisions that we are going to try to do it in a manner that a person does not lose their job. We'll do it through attrition, do it through publicly student teacher ratios, those types of things to not make it affect a person. But if we don't do those
025things now, eventually it will affect a person. Why would a firm to do that? There you go again. No, because you know, I'm just saying be fair. That's what I'm saying. It's not going to be a person programs that we have too. We're looking at all of that. But your main your main your main funds that you're going to recoup are through employment. That is 85% of our budget. Yeah. Right. 10 million is not even 10 million is all these other things that we do. And then you have 85 million of we may have to consolidate jobs which well be but it'll be through attrition. It's not going to be because I have a favorite employee I'm letting go of some I mean what about consolidating schools? I mean have we looked at that? Have
026you looked at the numbers for that too? Let's start here first before we Yeah. Okay. Any more discussion on Thank you. All right. Yeah, I have a motion to adjourn. Motion by second by all in favor. I need a few minutes. Are y'all ready to move? Okay, we're directing the board meeting of April 2nd. Mrs. will continue to pray and a pledge son. Dear Lord, guide us today and protect our students and staff. Let us work together for the betterment of our system and all involved in it. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. Holy Spirit stand. All right. an office acclamation. Uh, yes, Mr. President acclamation is I'd like to recognize and I don't think she's here. Miss Ally Al who's a fourth grade teacher at Tesla Elementary. She was recently recognized as
027the 2026 teacher of the year semi finalist by the Louisiana Department of Ed and she will be honored at the 19th annual JP educator excellence award gaya which can be held July 26 at the World War II. So congratulations to Miss Alli. This is a we have a teacher who's a semi-finalist there as well as a student who's a semi finalist for student of the year from me. All right. Okay. Any other scripts? Yes. Uh, I'd like Miss uh, Miss Erica Peak and Miss uh, Miss Davi and the uh, employee of the month, Miss Maddie Pierce, to come up. Miss Maddie is a good teacher at St. Martin Academy. I'll let you read. Good afternoon everyone. Um, just telling you a little bit about why we have Miss Maddie Pierce up here. She's our theater
028teacher at SMSA and I'm just thrilled to nominate Miss Maddie for the month at SMSA. She consistently goes above and beyond in her role, making a profound impact on both students and staff. Whether stepping in to lend a hand when needed or taking charge of school performances, Maddie ensures everything runs seamlessly and with precision. Her positive energy and uplifting presence create a welcoming environment that resonates throughout the school. Mattiey's like-heartedness and enthusiasm fosters a sense of community, making everyone feel valued and supported. Maddie truly embodies the values and vision of SMSA, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to excellence in all she does. Her passion passion for supporting students and encouraging their growth is inspiring and she continually finds ways to make a difference in their lives. We are incredibly fortunate to have Maddie as part of
029our team and her dedication and hard work are an invaluable asset to our school. We love you and appreciate you for all the hard work that you do. gonna stand. All right, there you go. Good. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Additions and deletions. I have one addition. Um, let's see. Okay. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Let me get let me get this in. Renewal of Elites Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. That'll be item on the consent agenda. And what was it? It's a a renewal of a lease to Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Where is that at the case? It's actually I was he has the exact wording of it, but it is actually a right of way of easement. They've had it since 2005 and they just want
030to extend another. It's in the basin. It's not property value. Okay, we need a vote on that. So, let's vote. Is it time back? We need a we need a vote on Yes. And I'm gonna have Mark review everything and make sure all of the everything is the same as the original. Well, I just don't like to add the agenda. But if it's kind this is least right on their Okay. All right. Delicious. We have a deletion. No. We go ahead. I'll take off item 6B. 6B. Yeah, Mr. Wilson. He took care of it. All right. And I'd like to delete item 68. Any other deletions or additions? All right. Any items to be removed from the consent agenda to be discussed? This I'll take a motion to accept consent agenda. So Mr. Fus. All
031right. No items from the agenda. Finance committee recommendations. Approval of head start policy items. Uh and general do I have a motion to accept the finance committee and Mr. tomorrow. All right. Both grass new business 580. Consider and take action with respect to adopting resolution approving capital improvement plan designating purposes for which proceeds of a proposed bond issue will be budgeted and otherwise provided with respect there to Miss Brussard. Um Mr. Flutter I think when he came about he suggested that we have some sort of plan adopted to give the public an idea of what we're going to do with these bond funds. So what I did like I stated in the finance meeting without having budgets on some of the wish list items and that were presented when we had the meetings. All of
032y'all were invited. Several of y'all came. We went through what the principles submitted. Board members gave input. I think we all had, you know, an idea of what we were doing. So, what I did is I went through because I didn't have budgets, I did not want to list every single item. So I went through and I picked out the what I thought were most pertinent or important items are top of the list with the intention that once those projects are complete the remaining funds at that school can be reallocated and revisited. My proposal is going to be that we adopt this capital improvement plan. we get someone working on coming up with budgets and then the board adopt a priority plan with the rest of the wish list so that it's not just a
033hanging out there um you know for years to come and then discuss what all the money you know it takes time to spend down this money so I think we need to adopt like a second plan with the priority once these projects are complete Mr. I just it's a question and a comment I guess at the same time. How do we and this is to kind of offset what we were talking about earlier that certain projects that don't get done but if certain areas have extra money how do we what this is not the turb because that was an item on two of the two of the schools and the reason why I'm against it is because as we see with the football fields it's we can't afford them and how do we prevent that
034money because a lot lot of us aren't going to be on this board in two years. So, a new board comes in and all of a sudden, let's say you have, let's say Cecilia has just enough money to put her on the baseball home. Now, all of a sudden, the girls saw ball field at each school and the other two high schools don't have there. There needs to be a way to where we can control that. And again, if they want turf, let them raise the money to put it on a b on a on an election and see if it passes because as Mr. stated when he ran for office, that was the one thing he got more complaints about was turkey than anything else. So, and again, I don't hold it against anybody
035who wants it, but that's just my opinion that our parish is too poor to partner. I I think if Michelle allowing I think what what needs to happen or what what needs to be spelled out and conveyed is that the primary purpose of this is for one safety security and to ensure that our facilities are in in in good condition for the students that we serve special. Yeah. So so those are the primary things. Safety and security is number one. uh parents who want their kids in schools and want their kids attending schools that they feel that they're safe. So, we have I think maybe only one school that doesn't have the secure entry point. So, getting those done the things like that are what parents want to see because they want their babies going
036to school, but they want to be sure that their their babies are safe. 25 30 years ago, you probably didn't need any of the things that we're talking about right now. But in this day and age, that's what's most important to parents. They want their kids in a safe and secure school as well as a school that has as comfortable the the AC the heating is working and things of that nature. So I think that that needs to be the the message that's put out there and what needs to be uh what we we what we convey when we're talking about this bond and not necessarily about athletics or things of that nature. I get that that's something that's important because it does build um it's a one not a Yeah. and it builds it
037builds the school uh spirit and things of that nature. But I don't know if that's if that should be the the big ticket item. should be that security because that's if we can get state-of-the-art security that would be I think everybody needs to be proud. The only thing I'm thinking of is we went through this detail case and we were told we need a magnet school. Have two schools that are magnet. What if the population of these schools increases and we need to expand? How would we in St. Martin building expand? How would we get the money to expand? That's what I was trying to get across earlier because the way I'm hearing that the primary school is going to have to add on. I got a solution. Mr. Well, there's the truth. Hey, I
038got a solution. Move it to Kahula. No, we move a magnet to Kahula. We make Kahula a magnet and draw kids from there. So, you can take the old floor from there. Bring them to Kula. Well, it's doing good where it's at right now. No. Y saying y saying you're going to need building, you're going to need this and that. Why not? Why not expand it? We have the facility. Have the facility. That's something to be discussed with this. Exactly. It's instead of looking at, oh, this building, new building here, we got building. We got building until we listen until we come across that problem. Yeah. And at least you're thinking ahead. But until it happens, guys, we losing students parish wide. So, we can shift according if we have we losing any students over
039there necessarily, but you get it. We probably are, but we are losing to the magnet school. Well, they coming to this magnet school. That's why we didn't grow. The dollar follows. Mrs. D. Yes, sir. What's What's your expectations for next year? Increase. We are going to increase uh a couple weeks ago, Miss Sandra uh and I and John Shiovalier did a facilities walk through of both schools. We do have some some rooms for next year, probably three or four classrooms at each school. We also have some areas that we can turn into offices and move, you know, and just kind of rearrange a few things. Um, we do have the charter school opening up uh and not this year coming year, but the next year. So, we need to prepare for maybe losing students with
040that. So, I I think we're probably good for next year, but uh and see how the charter schools affect us. Hope they won't that much, but we don't know that. And also the Gator program as well until it happens. Correct. But we are prepared for next year. We got a lot of stuff coming down the road that we'll have to face before we can decide on anything. Bottom line. All right. Next item is to consider. We do need we do need a vote and adopt that resolution. Okay. Okay. Where's the resolution? The resolution. Is this No, the resolution should have been in your board packet that Wendy sent out. This is just the attachment to it. The resolution is just stating that we're going to adopt a capital improvement plan before the we go to
041vote on all we're doing is adoption a resolution and get the resolution refer to that sheet right here. No, the resolution refers to this. This is the attachment that will go with the resolution. This is just to get the bond. We decide how go on that later. that it doesn't say inside it will be okay to accept a second by Mr. Durot pass. Item 5 C consider and approve proposed 2526 school calendar for St. Martin Paris schools. Mr. Bon Wendy, you can put it up. Uh you should all have in your packet the uh the survey results and the actual calendar that we'll put out. Um we at the last meeting the board access took some other calendars and survey staff. We go to the next. We created three options. Option one was the original
042one that we presented to the board starting school on with staff starting on the 5th students on the 12th ending before Memorial Day. We can switch. Option two. We pushed it back a week as Mr. Abear suggested starting on the 11th. We still finished early, but I think it was either Mr. Doerro or Mr. Clay that said back when they were in school, we took Easter was only two days. So, if you notice on that one, the Easter break was only two days, which allowed us to still finish early. And then option three, you can go to the last one. We pushed it back a week and we finished a week later. So, those were the three options of the calendar that we sent out to the staff. You can switch the voting. 64% of
043the staff voted for option one. 30% voted for option three and it was very minimal for option two. And the last slide went here's the actual numbers of who voted. We had 332 total for option one that was both professional and par professional. Option two had 22 and option three had 158. We had a total of 512 employees that total roughly 50% of our 10% of our discussion on that count. I'd like to add another Hey, I get a second day after Super Bowl. I don't have a second. I can't. All right. Any other discussion? All right, we need to vote on item one, two, or three. I'll make a motion for item one. You make a motion for item one. Have a second. Oh, second. Second by Mr. Ply. All right, let's vote on
044item one. All right. So, we accepting M. You missed it five. Okay, I guess I'll put check that. Okay, consider our approved head start policy recommendation and new high recommendations and all. We had our policy council meeting. We did have some new high recommendations as well as our enrollment and attendance reports and that's within your packets. Okay, we have a motion by Mr. Coch second. Second by Mr. during the vote. Item six C, discussion of the appearance of our campuses and a solution to our problem. Mr. D. Thanks, Mie. uh in years past Miss Wanda used to discuss a lot of times on how her schools in her area weren't up to par. Well, I'm seeing it in in my area also. And I keep on saying, why aren't we meeting? Why aren't we pressing
045these buildings? Because again, we're going to ask the public for for money for the bond, but we need to keep up these facilities because if you pass it primary and you look at those and again I would I would never put a I think it's called a stone color group where all that all of a sudden you see the roof is black and that could be and from what I understand if it gets too bad it voids the warranty. But we need to have something put in place. We even purchased a machine years ago that I don't think we ever used to utilize it. If we can't figure out how to use it, maybe call up the company that that had it and bring it in. But while I was not satisfied with the appearances,
046I said, "Okay, what's a solution?" And I found this out through another parish. What they do is they'll take that because it's hard to find good chances. They'll take that that stip or the uh the allocation for a janitor's statement and they'll utilize it either on somebody on staff, either their coaches, let's say the act person, whatever, and they'll let's say a janitor makes 20,000 a year. They'll take that 20,000 a year and they'll divide it up amongst their coaches. And that coach will keep the field up. They'll pressure wash during the summer times. They'll strip the floors in the gyms, everything. And that gives those employees extra money for that because if and and coach Dura knows this firsthand like at brokerage I I know for years when Paul Russo was there he kept
047that field match. So he they're doing most of the work anyway. All your baseball coaches at each school is keeping up their fields. So, what's it for them to, you know, just let them encompass a little bit more and take the janitors that maybe move them on the inside and have the the the outside handled by the other people, including the pressure washer, which these coaches can also get their athletes out there for community service, you know, and because it goes a long way when you applying for scholarships as the one thing that is noticed is these community services for these children whenever they go to these scholar cost. So that's just some ideas. What I'd like staff to do is to research it more and come back with maybe something, you know, call up
048the different parishes that maybe do that and see how we can get where our campus can look a lot better and keep our outside looking better. And anybody else has any suggestions? I guess that's that's part of the makers. You know, we we not to hire an additional individual who go out throughout the parish cutting grass and doing exactly that that individual supposed to be doing jobs similar to that. You take that money and you allocate it to different schools because I think what they do in those other parishes, they they mainly focus on the junior high, the middle school, and the high school because apparently that's where they had the problems at, right? is what what I found out. I told Mr. Shiovali about it was Paris to check into and research it a
049little bit and come back with some type of solution because again it makes no sense of I pass I never forget Fred Mr. Stey called me one day. He said, "What's going on at this particular school? The grass is all tall and everything." It was beginning of the year. I take some pictures of that. You can go right now and you could swear that they they saving it for Easter egg hunting because that grass is so tall. But again, the people are talking. Then we have other areas where we hire somebody especially to do grass cutting and that's all. We need to do like they do at Bro Bridge High School. have one custodian that's all he does is maintain the outside of the the campus the grass cut one I have one that yeah
050he cut grass like really enjoys yeah the other guy helps but it's not I mean but Mr. Joe's the main one that he he pretty much cuts. You see, that's what's happening at our schools. All right. They're cleaning the inside the building. School goes on. They go on recess. They go high. They they don't recess, too. Yeah. You know, I mean, these people don't want to work like the older people used to, right? It's hard to find people that want to work. Good hard to find. I agree. you you know the own business too. All I'm asking is that staff check into it, come back with some type of report. Even if it means eliminating some positions to create these positions, it's it's a call. We almost need somebody to go around campus to campus
051and see what they do. But I and that brings up somebody needs some guidance. Who is responsible for the janitor? Is it the principal, their principal? I've always I've always said that we need to rely on our principles to get back to Mr. Wills if something's not getting done on that campus because they're responsible for that campus. I know you are princ and if anything is is not right on that campus, they need to discuss that with Mr. Wills and and he can handle it and it gets taken care of. And then if if not then we need to do something different then we get together and figure out what we need to do. But I'm going be honest looking at $1 grass. The lawn is going to break less. It's going to last long.
052I agree with you on that because we got a game over there. They were in the ditch plane mud pods b the lawn mower down the t rope on it and it bend half of the frame on the lawn. We can't have that. But don't we have supervisors that go around and check the campuses? That's that's not the responsibility. They don't do that anymore. Even even though they're doing it, that's not their responsibility. That's that's the principal that's a that's a M that's the principal's responsibility to convey that message to either M or Mr. John that there's an issue on their campus. And it shouldn't take board members to see Yeah. that a roof is is filthy and bring it to the our attention here. They're walking their campuses every day. They they should be
053able to see that. You're right. That's not their responsibility. CL Hold on, hold on, Mr. Blanch. I just want to say we I've been doing this for a little while and I do see things that need to be done, but there's also a lot of brand new principles. they they are trying to run their schools. So they may not see that stuff because they're focusing on the academics and they're focusing on on what's happening inside the building the kids the number one thing correct so and I mean I also have a dean I kind of distribute my workload and some of them that is their responsibility to make sure custodians are doing this that the other principles have other people to help them do that. So if I'm not saying they're all bashing the principles,
054no, I'm just saying some of them are so new they don't I mean they realize it but that's not their main priority. They're focusing on education academics. Yeah. Education. Okay. But it might need to be brought up to them that they need to monitor them but or put someone on the campusology. And like I forget which board member just said, we actually eliminated some positions to create four there was four people we had hired years ago to go around and help out these schools. I don't know. There's three three extra maintenance people. Three, three go around. Three to help to help our people complete the job. Painting it was everything. And we didn't eliminate that. We just added that. I'm just Well, they we didn't hire painters. They Oh, they Yeah, somebody had retired and
055stuff like, you know, that's how they just kind of miss. I'm sorry. I have one more thing. We needing uh we used to be able to spray poison, but we can't now because nobody's certified. Last I heard, nobody was certified to actually oversee that task. So, we can't poison right. Just saying. So all that round up that we bought in program rental wonder where that's at. Yeah. Check into that. All right. Yes, ma'am. So how many principal do you have at the high school? I mean assistant. You got you have one principal. Two assistants. Two assistant. So one of the assistant principal can help the principal go around and check every school because some of the schools said senior high I got to say it's not the building look awful and I went to the
056school they told the parents complaint the inside of the school I went there and I think I spoke with the principal And you see Miss Johnson go look in this. When I went there it wasn't clean but when I went back it was clean. So I understand the principal have a lot of job but you have two assistant. one of the assistant can help go around checking the building and checking the campus because it's off and the parents complain and not just Cecilia Road the whole school high school they complaining to me and I I addressed that I went to the principal the principal Mr. Brad viewing with me and he assigned I'm looking at coach in the audience uh you know looked at that. So Fred told Mr. Mitchell and then but I don't
057think that's Mr. Mitchell's job. They have two assistant principal one of should check around the school. Now, now I see this to be and I'm this is this is just an analogy. We had a couple of a line of bad weather that passed last week, week before. I guarantee you everybody every adult that's in here after that storm passed, they walked around their house to determine if they had damage. These three principles are walking around their schools to determine what needs to be fixed and not fixed. But I'm going to tell you where the problem comes in at. The second they're going to start to write people up to terminate custodians, it's going to be a problem. ordinance. It's going to be a problem to get rid of them because some of them are s
058they if you go around to campuses they have little areas where they have seats set up to sit out and the second none of these people that's sitting right here is going to say you know what I want X Y and Z fired is going to be a problem. Well it's going to be a problem and let us let us know that a board member interfered and I will make it public. I guarantee it. All right, let's go on to the next. But I just had to, you know, I I have to see if she targeted one high. So I can hold up listen at least I can see they have academic wise they have improved a hell of a lot. So if academic wise they improve and build and the buildings are dirty, at
059least they're doing something. Well, at least y'all y'all brought it up. All right. Next item. Item D. Discussion and feedback from high school principal on block scheduling versus traditional schedule. Mr. St. Thank you. Couple of years ago we uh we switched over from block schedule to the traditional schedule and I would just like to know some feedback. Was it positive, negative? And at the time we were told well the research I was finding out that hardly anybody was on block schedule. Now I'm finding out that's not so accurate that a lot of schools are on block schedule and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we're losing the retention for our teachers aren't as good because some of them are leaving to go to the parish because of block. And I would like y'all
060to check into that. See if it's see if it's better for y'all to be on block. And I I have to give the high school teachers and the everybody on the high school level credit. When we switched over to tradition, I of course I never heard one complaint because they could have stayed. They could have said we wanted, you know, the 4x4 or whatever it was, but none of them complain. So, kudos to y'all, but trying to buy in. I just want to know which one's better for our system with uh grades, retention, and and what's better for the schools. So, we started a discussion um is it Monday? Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday, we started a discussion with the high school principal in reference to that. So, we haven't, you know, made a final, you know,
061decision about, but there's some discussion about the pros and cons and once, you know, we we come up to a final decision that we'll we'll make the board aware of, you know, just the pros and cons of of doing it. Again, it it was something that we had at one time, uh, and then we moved away from it. You know, I know that there there are a lot of schools that are districts that are moving back to, but again, that's ultimately going to be something that I'll let the administrators make decision because at the end of the day, they're the ones that are going to be right in the trenches dealing with it. So, but we did start a discussion in reference to this. Well, thank you. All right. Yeah. Steve, go ahead. Don't mess
062with my school. It went from a C to an A. Don't mess with my high school. All right. I need discussion of employees working five days and summer months to stay back. Okay. The reason why I put this on a lot of times we we hear how the employees are overworked. And again, until about a year ago, I did not realize that this included our maintenance staff was off every Friday during the summer. we probably need to revisit that because that's when you can get work done and even if okay either you eliminate the Fridays off or you tell the maintenance people listen we want you working during the summer this is where we can catch up and even staff because you know 12 month employees they they always saying they they're behind on their
063work whatever it is this is a good way to catch up this is also a good way to reduce staffing because then you have an extra day that you can maybe add more responsibility to somebody else. But in the end, if you do keep it like it is and you ask the maintenance people to come in and work on the the products, maybe give them a day off during the school year, you know, to to balance it out. Just a thought just to get things going and see if that has any friction to it. So that's discussion. I was going to say something on that particular remark on the same token. uh these individuals, you know, no I my thoughts I thought was a couple I agree with we finally getting rid of the five
064the five days I mean four days but I don't want to say but I I want to say something on that because in the summer time we had a lot of stuff that needed to be done at the schools and a lot of it didn't get done Because for the four day with the five day week, I think a lot more will get done than some of them. Now, we talking about just custodians. No, I'm talking about everybody. It's not fair to make the maintenance company and staff. What What did What didn't get done? Well, she was talking about projects that didn't get done. Didn't get completed. Well, that's that's their maintenance. That's not um that's the outside contractors. Yeah, that's the outside. I still I I just remember and that's why I'm bringing this
065up because I remember last year when we discussed that that on the days we needed somebody somewhere to get something done. Well, remember the discussion that I'm being about maintenance tacking on their vacation to those riders. Well, I was going to say saving up their vacation and take extended period of time and that was the issue. Not just having a Friday off, but having tacking on multiple tied into the Monday. So now 40 I remember getting we needed this project completed or done and these guys were on vacation. These guys were awful on Friday and I think we discussed creating a policy where they couldn't a lot of Fridays and Mondays that there were multiple of them all like it needs to be monitored that you don't have multiple there's doctor for that Friday you
066miss Monday without a doctor excuse then we hey you you know for Friday oh that's not like at UPS if if we okay if we have a holiday and we don't show up the day before and the day after we don't get paid for that holiday, but they're taking vacation. So, the the supervisor needs to monitor who is scheduling vacation and how many people are scheduling vacation and how often to make sure that there's adequate people to do the work. Before Mr. I always called in the beginning, oh, we we and that was before your time. So, I can't I can't complain about you getting so it's coming to the employees. It's just that every always those months they're taking off the boat's going to be watching that if too many are being taken off
067by two minutes individually then they go back to the five day work. I didn't want to even elaborate that because I can tell you more but it's similar to what we do during the the Easter holiday like we have we haven't said where like people or specify the days that they're going to work so that we have coverage on the days that we're open. So, so I guess if we could we can develop a schedule where we we ensure we have people are I think it's it's all a matter of communication. If we know there's a project that needs to be done, we make sure that we have somebody lined up to get that project done so that it doesn't sit for three or four or five days before it gets done. Can I share
068my um my 12 month custodians did not take Fridays off. One took Friday off and one took Monday off. That way someone was always on campus. And and the reason was because several summers parks primary had construction projects going on and that way there was always someone on campus. So I think that would also be a solution and maybe even if other than maintenance maybe within our departments whereas the offices maybe you know that's a solution where we can rotate that you don't if they want to take Monday off they work that Friday. All right. Next item of discussion is uh massage of schoolboard vehicles and monitoring the location. Mr. D. Thank you, sir. Uh my first my first when I put this item on was to have all maintenance vehicles parked. Then I came
069back and I reought. I said, "Why should we penalize all the good employees going back?" And on the day we brought this up on Saturday night at Silvers Casino, probably from 7 to 8:00, we had a St. Martin Parish schoolboard vehicle parked at Si's Casino. Now, I wanted I I would just like to know what what goes on schoolwise over there on a Saturday night. So, I I rethought the process and I said, "What we need to do is bring it up to the superintendent's attention and have that vehicle taken away from that individual, have him park it every night, come get it the next day just like some of like Mr. Bonome does it, I think, with with just like him because if not, we're pretty much telling this guy, he can do whatever
070he wants." So that would be something that I would like and if they get in an accident after hours, it's gonna be on us. So I I think that's the proper way to handle it. And and again uh I didn't have conversation with the superintendent yet. I apologize, Mr. Superintendent, but Mr. Chali and I had several conversations. So I wanted most big companies you you have to park the vehicle in the morning. What's the problem with doing that? I don't understand. We have and somebody inside. Why can't we have all our vehicles parked? You have a job to do. Go in your vehicle and get it and do what you have to do. It would saves It would save money. Save us a lot of money and liability. That's liability. You're saving gas every night.
071And listen, again, I don't want to penalize the good part because we do have Yeah, I understand. But at the same time, it's a thought that we again, we talking about cutting the cost. Yeah, there. There you go. Here we go again. Who got suspension in the area and put cameras? But that's Hey, listen. Cameras are a good thing. And it it it tells that parent or whoever. There you go. I And this is just my opinion because as a board, you're going to make the decision. I think you start with the issue. Yeah. Definitely. you starting to issue them because and and I'm embarrassed to say that if if that vehicle is out at 7 8:00 at night, that vehicle is being moved, that vehicle is using gas, it's costing the district some and
072and as Mr. uh Steve said, that vehicle gets into an accident at that time of the night, we are liable. It's going to be a bigger problem because that vehicle should not be on the road unless it's an emergency. That's all I can say. The school board this morning that the vehicles weren't included in our salaries. So if you take the vehicles away, what's going to happen? But but you're not at are you? No. some place. Again, like I said, you have the good employees and then you have the one that attracts the attention and it it gives and again why put us in that situation, you know, don't don't put somebody's got to see it. I understand, you know, so again, not talking like he said, let's address the issue, then we'll move on.
073And again, if we need cost cutting measures, it's something to look at. Yeah. Because he doesn't work at silver. All right, next item. Uh, I need a motion to adjourn the executive session. We have some things to do by Mr. Second by Mr. Let me just talk to the parent and Mr. Chief. All right. First item on the agenda is the vote on student aid. I like motion that student August year. May I have a motion by Mr. Poche? Do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Substitute motion. Substitute motion. Staff's recommendation. Substant motion to file staff recommendation. I have a second. Second second, Mr. Brio. If we must vote on the U staff recommendation uh first, the substitute motion. Any other substitutes? Okay, let's vote on the substitute motion first. Got someone I
074need to move. What? Okay. We still got two that didn't vote. Mr. Ste, he left. Okay, Mr. Sure. Yes or no? No. So, it's 53. No. No. So, we'll go to the original motion of uh Mr. Boche. Let's go on the original motion. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Motion passes. Student B have a recommendation. Follow staff's recommendation. Okay. By staff recommendation. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Pley. Any other recommendation? No. Okay, let's vote on that. Follow staff recommendation. Motion passes. Motion to journ by Mr. Abear and second by Mr. Pley.