UPDATED: All St. Mary public school students must be re-enrolled; download the rules from the School Board

For St. Mary public school students and their parents, “back to school” is taking on a new meaning.
The school system announced on social media and at the regular monthly School Board meeting Thursday that all students must be re-enrolled for the 2024-25 school year to meet the requirements of the district’s ongoing segregation case.
The re-enrollment period will be April 3-30. Parents and guardians must provide proof of residence to ensure that students are attending schools in the proper attendance zones. An online enrollment form is available at https://www.stmaryk12.net.
Also, students who have an approved out-of-district for this year and those who are attending out of their zone without an approved transfer on file have been reassigned to their home attendance zones for 2024-25.
Students may apply for majority-to-minority and extreme hardship transfers for the next school year at the School Board website. The application deadline is 4 p.m. May 1.
The school system’s online announcement described the labor-intensive task, which involves re-enrolling about 7,000 students, as “urgent” and “mandatory.”
The announcement didn’t outline exactly where re-enrollment fits in with the current efforts to resolve the decades-old desegregation case.
But proving that discrimination has been eliminated in school attendance zones and assignments is one of the burdens school systems must meet to be declared to have “unitary status.” That means freedom from direct federal court oversight in desegregation cases.
The lawsuit, Boudreaux vs. the St. Mary Parish School Board, was filed in 1965. Within a decade, the district appeared headed for a unitary status ruling, but that ruling never happened for reasons the court record doesn’t make clear.
Recent efforts to resolve the case have now themselves dragged on for years.
After Thursday’s School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Buffy Fegenbush said the re-enrollment is a way for the district to be transparent in its student assignments.
Fegenbush also said this year will mark the first time she’s seen such a re-enrollment in the more than 30 years since she went to work for the district.
Also Thursday, the board adopted a school calendar for 2024-25.
The year will open Aug. 7 and continue through May 22.
A link to a downloadable version of the new calendar can be found on this story at StMaryNow.com.
The board also recognized and honored accomplishments by students and staff members.
Thursday’s honorees were:
—The school system’s Students of the Year: fifth-grader Carson Paradee of Berwick Elementary, eighth-grader Tyren Austin of Boudreaux Middle School, and senior Cherish Lewis of Berwick High.
—The Franklin Senior High boys basketball team, nattily attired in dark-red jackets, received praise for winning the Non-Select Division IV state championship.
—The Students of the Month for March: eighth-grader S’Nai Burrell of Franklin Junior High, senior Ella Doucet of Patterson High and fifth-grader Annabelle Guagliardo of Wyandotte Elementary.
—The Employees of the Month for March: paraeducator Norma Trouille of Franklin Junior High, special education teacher Anna Perry of Patterson High and second-grade teacher Lisa Hover of Wyandotte Elementary.
Also at the meeting, the board heard rosier than usual reports about insurance.
The board approved renewed property coverage, including insurance for school system facilities valued at about $394 million. The premium will be about $2.2 million, roughly the same as the current coverage.
The School Board’s health insurance coverage for employees and retirees took in about $2.2 million in premiums in January and February while paying out $1.9 million in claims.
The coverage was obtained through Frank’s Agency.
For calendar 2023, claims exceeded premiums by about 6%. Insurance consultant James Perez has told the board that the School Board was hit with large claims and increasing prescription drug costs last year.
The board’s employees are currently covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. The board is considering a move to a self-funded plan.
If that had been the case in early 2024, Perez said, the board’s plan and not Blue Cross would have benefited from $150,000 in medication rebates.