St. Mary school staff gets a little something extra in their paychecks

CENTERVILLE — The St. Mary Parish School Board on Thursday voted to award what amounts to two bonuses to employees, while also absorbing a steep hike in health insurance coverage for its more than 400 teachers and staff members.

The board also passed a budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The stipends for employees came from two sources. The first to be approved Thursday comes from state funding via the Louisiana Department of Education.

Certified employees — teachers and administrators — will get $1,000 by Dec. 21 and another $1,000 by April 30. Employees classified as support staff will receive two $500 payments on the same schedule.

Workers must be employed on Dec. 15 to receive the fall payment and on April 19 to be eligible for the spring payment.

The Louisiana Department of Education created the Certificated and Support Staff Allocation Fund outside the usual Minimum Foundation Program channel, Superintendent Dr. Buffy Fegenbush wrote to the board. St. Mary received about $2.3 million for the purpose.

Certified pre-K teachers and staff members aren’t included in the state plan, but Fegenbush recommended using $83,000 from the School Board general fund to give them the same stipends. The board agreed.

Also, board President Alaina Black recommended a $600 stipend to all full-time, active employees, and the board approved. The $900,000 for the stipends will come from the 0.45% sales tax devoted to teacher and staff pay.

The stipend will be disbursed Nov. 17.

Whatever employees decide to spend the money on, it won’t be additional health insurance costs.

The board voted to renew its employee health insurance plan with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana with a 16% increase in premiums from the current year.

Insurance consultant James Perez had told the board in August that the plan had been hit with a number of large claims late in the contract’s term, plus an upsurge in payments for expensive weight-loss drugs.

The board voted not to pass along the increase to employees, instead using school system funds to cover the increase.

Although it wasn’t discussed at length Thursday, school boards across the state struggling to attract and retain employees, especially teachers.

As of Monday, the St. Mary School Board website listed four openings for paraprofessionals and a librarian, two maintenance positions and 18 openings for teaching or related positions.

While employee checks are getting a bit bigger, that same isn’t true for School Board members, at least for now.

Member Marilyn LaSalle gave her colleagues information about the pay for school board members in the region.

St. Mary School Board members earn $600 per month, except for the board president, who earns $700. In six other nearby parishes, the pay is $800 for members and $900 for the president.

“I’m bringing you this information as food for thought,” LaSalle told the board.

“I’m not asking for anything tonight.”

Also Thursday:

—The budget adopted by the board anticipates about $139.2 million in revenue in 2023-24 and $138.9 million in spending.

That will boost the accumulated fund balance by about $401,000 to $56.3 million.

General fund revenues are expected to be $91.9 million with spending of $91.8 million.

—The council approved a contract for new roofs at Berwick High School, Berwick Junior High and Patterson High School.

The school system had estimated the cost of the work at $3.3 million, but the bids came in higher. So the system put out the work for bid again, this time with the option to reduce the insulation thickness, forgo re-roofing of the two high school canopies and without re-roofing a two-story classroom building at
Berwick Junior High.

The board approved the bid of $3.2 million submitted by Coleman Roofing and Construction LLC of Gonzales for the work with the changes. On a motion by member Chad Paradee, the re-roofing of the Berwick Junior High classroom building was put back in the project for $230,000.