School Board gives employees $1,000 COVID stipend; kindergarten becomes mandatory next year

CENTERVILLE — The St. Mary Parish School Board heard Thursday that a new state law effectively makes kindergarten attendance mandatory for most Louisiana 5-year-olds.
Also, the board approved a one-time $1,000 payment for their extra effort during the COVID pandemic.
The new state law says that beginning with the 2022-23 school year, young people who turn 5 by Sept. 30 through age 18 must be enrolled in a public or private school.
A child who is unable to attend kindergarten because of illness or other circumstances must undergo an academic screening before entering first grade.
Students 16-18 can be excused from public school if they’re enrolled in adult education programs. Seventeen-year-olds are exempt from the attendance requirement if they have received a high school equivalency diploma.
The $1,000 stipend will come from federal money received through the Elementary and Secondary School Emer-gency Relief Fund, known as ESSER. The fund is part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed by Congress soon after pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020.
Two ESSER authorizations and the program’s inclusion in the American Rescue Plan Act have directed more than $3 billion to local school boards in Louisiana, according to a National Education Association analysis.
The board took steps related to another key program: Title I.
Title I, which dates back to the Johnson administration, directs federal money to schools serving large populations of students from low-income homes.
To qualify for Title I funding, schools must have a student body in which at least 40% of the school’s students come from low-income families. During the next school year, 18 of St. Mary’s 21 public schools will qualify for Title I.
The board changed the job description of an existing position to create a compliance officer position for Title I programs.
In other action, School Board President Kenny Alfred said that despite misinformation on social media, the new map of School Board electoral districts approved by the board last month does not affect school attendance zones.
The map determines the areas from which board members are elected, not the schools to which students are assigned. Local governments in which members are elected from geographic districts must generally redraw their electoral maps after each U.S. census.
Scott Babin, a prospective School Board candidate in the Berwick-area district now represented by Michael Taylor, objected to the new district map at a recent public hearing.
Before the remapping, District III, represented by Alfred, ran along the Teche from Baldwin to Bayou Vista. The new map makes District III more compact and centered on Bayou Vista.
To make the change, about 300 residents of a mobile home park on Burchfield in Berwick were moved from Tay-lor’s District VIII and placed in Alfred’s dis-trict.
Babin said the residents have been in a Berwick district for years and should remain in a Berwick district when their children go to Berwick schools.
On Thursday, Alfred said the residents are free to come to either member with questions or concerns.