School Board passes out end-of-year honors

CENTERVILLE — In its last meeting before the school year ends, the St. Mary Parish School Board passed out honors to scholars, readers and artists Thursday.

The board also had a little something for the tax man. Members set its property tax rates for 2023. They’re unchanged.

The board voted to name the Centerville athletic field for Karl Young Sr. And members adopted a 2023-24 calendar with minor tweaks to reflect its decision to institute block scheduling at parish high schools next year.

Under the new calendar, the first day of classes for students will be Aug. 8. The last day for students will be May 22.

Student breaks for the year include the fall break Oct. 9-10; the Thanksgiving break Nov. 20-24; the Christmas holiday Dec. 22-Jan. 3; the Mardi Gras break Feb. 12-16; and the Easter holiday March 25-April 1.

The LEAP tests will be administered between April 15 and May 17.

The Centerville athletic fields will be renamed Young’s Stadium. Karl Young, 92, who is active in community causes, was accompanied by his wife, Micki Bodin Young, at Thursday’s meeting.

Young is the grandson of Will Young, who donated the land for the original Centerville school, said Craig Pellerin, who introduced the Youngs at Thursday’s meeting.

The property tax rates for 2023 will be:

—8.83 mills for the consolidated school tax.

—11.82 mills for Consolidated District No. 5.

—12.42 mills for Maintenance District 1, 12.73 mills for District 2 and 12.53 mills for 6th Ward District No. 3.

—Three millages for bond repayment: 10.0 mills for the entire parish, 6.0 mills for Special District 4 and 20 mills for 5th Ward Special School District No. 1, which includes Patterson and portions of Bayou Vista.

A mill is 1/10th of a cent of tax applied to each dollar of assessed valuation. Residential property is assessed on 10% of its market value. The first $7,500 of a primary
home’s assessed valuation isn’t taxed under Louisiana’s homestead exemption.

The honorees at Thursday’s meeting were:

—Evan White of Berwick High, who has been named a National Merit Scholarship finalist. The son of Brett and Mary White, he was a semifinalist last year.

—Molly Doiron, who was the top individual performer in the LHSAA Level 4 state gymnastics championships.

She was first in the balance beam (9.850) and the floor exercises (9.725) on the way to a level-best all-around score of 38.750. She was fourth in the vault and 11th in the uneven parallel bars. Doiron is the daughter of Larry Doiron II and Angela Doiron of Stephensville.

She’s the only gymnastics competitor for Morgan City High.

—Sixth-grader Logan Collins of Morgan City High won the Red Ribbon Week Slogan Contest, and Hanson Memorial senior Grace Faucheaux won the Drawing Contest.

The students whose work was chosen for the Red Ribbon Calendar are: Berwick Junior High seventh-grader Stanley Aucoin IV, August; Morgan City Junior High seventh-grader Genesis Franco, September; Wyandotte Elementary fifth-grader Gracie Grizzaffi, October; Morgan City Junior High eighth-grader Astrid Sanchez, November; Centerville seventh-grader Anya Alfred, December; Morgan City High freshman Silas Hastins, January; Morgan City Junior High eighth-grader Geraldine Robles, February; West St. Mary junior Jayla Joseph, March; Berwick Elementary kindergarten student Wyatt Aucoin, April; West St. Mary sophomore de’Netra Schannaette, May; Morgan City High senior Jaiden Partain, June; and Berwick Junior High sixth-grader Addie Aucoin, July.

—Bayou Vista Elementary fourth-grader Ashley Tenorio was a top word millionaire after reading 1,285,037 words. Another top word millionaire: Stanley Aucoin IV, a Berwick Junior High seventh-grader, read 4,886,819 words.

—The May Students of the Month are Berwick Elementary fifth-grader Scarlett St. Romain and M.E. Norman Elementary fifth-grader Ryann Caruso.

—The Employees of the Month are Cathy Vaughn, a Berwick Elementary physical education teacher who has served for 35 years, and Brittany Longman, a second-grade math teacher at M.E. Norman.