School Board moves toward sale of M.D. Shannon building

CENTERVILLE -- The St. Mary Parish School Board on Thursday took a step toward selling the historic M.D. Shannon Elementary School building to the Morgan City government.

By a voice vote without objection, the board approved a resolution in favor of the sale and authorizing Superintendent Dr. Teresa Bagwell to make it happen through a cooperative endeavor agreement with the city.

Shannon was one of two elementary schools closed in 2016 in response to declining enrollment. The board spends about $30,000 a month on utilities, insurance and other expenses related to the building. The board had hoped to get rid of that expense.

Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna stepped up with a plan for the School Board to sell the school to the city, which already uses the Shannon gym for youth sports. The sale would include the city block on which the school sits. In the half of the block on the opposite side of the school from Brashear Avenue, a city authority would sell 16 lots for residential development, creating a small subdivision with landscaping amenities.

Bagwell told the board the sale price would be $100,000.

School Board member Michael Taylor of Berwick praised Dragna.

"When this was presented to the mayor," Taylor said, "he saw an opportunity and put together a plan to do this project."

Also Thursday, board members took part in a redistricting workshop with consultant Mike Hefner of Geographic Planning and Demographic Services.

The districts in state and local governments are generally redrawn after each Census. The 2020 Census showed a 9.6% drop in St. Mary's population from the 2010 headcount, a result that Hefner said is surely an undercount.

Even so, his latest proposed district map, put together so recently that Hefner didn't have time to produce paper maps to give to the board, has few dramatic changes from the current map.

The biggest change in Hefner's latest map would be in District III, represented by board President Kenneth Alfred.

His district currently runs along the parish's northeast border from the Charenton area to Berwick.

Hefner's latest map creates a more compact District III in the Berwick area.

The work on the new district map, incorporating comments from board members and the public, will continue. Hefner said the process could be complete and ready for board approval in June.