School safety officials: 'We're on top of it'

CENTERVILLE — Three weeks after 17 students and staff members were killed at a Parkland, Florida, school, the people responsible for St. Mary Parish public school safety said the district has safety plans in place and is ahead of many parishes in taking precautions.
“I can promise you, we’re on top of it,” school resource officer Oscar West told the St. Mary School Board at Thursday’s meeting.
Also Thursday, the board heard a request for participation in a new way to award tax credits for manufacturers, approved the 2018-19 school calendar and took the first steps toward selling land where a new General Dollar store may be opened.
West and Gidget Everitt, who is in charge of at-risk intervention for the district, updated the board on school security.
The actions include plans for a safety summit; a planned meeting of elementary principals on security; exterior cameras and locks on school entrances; an annual safety summit; and a reunification plan for parents to connect with their children after a security incident.
Resource officers also review the final reports filed by authorities after school shootings around the country, West said.
Board member Kenny Alfred suggested that the people responsible for screening visitors to schools, usually school secretaries, should receive training for that task.
“Let’s be proactive and do all we can to make our schools as safe as possible, including this central office complex,” Alfred said.
He’d like to see active-shooter drills at all parish schools. And he brought up one of the most controversial measures proposed after Parkland: arming teachers.
“This is something we should at least start thinking about,” Alfred said.
Tax exemptions
Parish President David Hanagriff and Economic Development Director Frank Fink made a pitch for a resolution that would allow the parish president to award temporary exemptions from city, school board and parish property taxes to new or expanding manufacturers.
Hanagriff and Fink didn’t put a resolution forward, and the board took no action.
Until recently, property tax exemptions through the Louisiana Industrial Tax Exemption Program were awarded at the state level through the governor and the Board of Commerce and Industry with no input from the governments that would be giving up the tax income.
“I believe we left a lot of money on the table with the state controlling that,” Hanagriff said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards changed the process with an executive order giving local governments a say in the exemptions. But, according to Hanagriff and Fink, the order created another problem by requiring potential employers to go separately to the school board, cities, the sheriff and the parish council for approval of their exemptions.
“We will never know the businesses that don’t come, that bypass St. Mary Parish, because they say, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that,’” Hanagriff said.
The proposed remedy is a resolution that would allow the parish president to grant exemptions of 100 percent for five years and 80 percent for the following three years for all levels of local government in the parish. That decision would follow a benefits analysis by Fink’s department using an economic model adopted by the state and by One Acadiana, the regional development organization.
If the benefits, including new sales tax revenue generated by the additional employees, outweigh the cost of the exemptions, the exemptions would be approved, Fink said.
The Patterson City Council rejected such a resolution Tuesday, when Mayor Rodney Grogan broke a 2-2 tie with a no vote. Fink said he believes Patterson will pass the resolution on a second try after the proposal was discussed earlier Thursday at a meeting of St. Mary mayors.
One development did move forward Thursday. The board agreed to get an appraisal for a small piece of property on La. 317 in Centerville, where Capital Growth Buchalter hopes to open a Dollar General store.
The St. Mary Parish Council, acting on a Planning and Zoning Department recommendation, rejected a proposal to open the Dollar General near Centerville High because of concerns about traffic.
Now Capital Growth wants to buy the La. 317 property from the school board, a process governed by state law that requires the appraisal.

School calendar
The board approved a calendar for the 2018-19 school year. Classes will begin Aug. 8 and end May 27, 2019, which will be Memorial Day and a report card day.
The fall session will end Dec. 21, and the spring session will begin Jan. 7.
The biggest change, Assistant Superintendent Teresa Bagwell told the board, is that the Easter break will be April 15-22 next year. The bulk of the break will be before Easter, not after Easter as it is now.
High-stakes LEAP tests will be April 29-May 3. The earlier break spares students from taking the tests as soon as they return from the break, Bagwell said.
Also Thursday, the board agreed to spend $75,000 to add and improve bleachers at the Centerville High football field; $35,000 to build a football practice field and improve drainage on the main football field at Patterson High; and $7,500 for top dressing and subsurface drainage repairs at the Berwick High football field.