School Board debates new admin positions

The St. Mary Parish School Board on Thursday welcomed a new maintenance director, and debated the addition of a couple of new administrative positions.
And, in the last meeting before this week’s graduations and the end of school, the board praised students and school resource officers.
The new maintenance director is William Regard, who will succeed Brad Wiese.
Wiese recently announced his retirement.
Regard most recently served as director of operations of food services for Lafayette Parish schools.
He is a graduate of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas, and an Air Force veteran.
After the service, he worked in the oil and gas industry. Then he went back to school to obtain degrees in secondary education and educational leadership.
Regard worked as a social studies and career and technical education teacher in Iberia Parish, where he was also an assistant principal and supervisor of transportation.
Regard praised Wiese’s work in the job over the last 20 years. Wiese’s recent tasks have included a whole series of roofing projects and modifications in school entrances to limit public access to student areas.
“I hope to keep that level of maintenance for the schools,” Regard told the board. “I hold him in high regard.”
Also Thursday, some board members balked at a change in a human resources position.
Human Resources Director Kristina Estay had proposed changing an administrative assistant post to human resources manager.
Estay pointed to increasing tech demands on the position, which pays $31,680 per year. The manager post will pay $47,800.
The objection was that School Board members had no chance to consider the move in advance.
Later, when the subject turned to the creation of a second federal program liaison position in the district, board member Ginger Griffin said new positions should be created after consideration of the budget impact. She noted that the extra liaison post comes at a time when enrollment is declining.
“I just think we need to be responsible with our budget,” Griffin said.
A move to delay action on the human resources manager post failed, and the board voted 7-4 to make the change. The second federal program liaison passed with only Griffin objecting.
Also Thursday, the board prepared to set property tax rates for this year.
Millages provide 15% of the School Board’s general fund budget, Chief Financial Officer Becky Voisin said.
The rates include two directly for the general fund: 8.83 mills and 11.82 mills. Three more millages support school maintenance in three districts that cover the parish: 12.41 mills in District I, 12.73 in District II and 12.53 in District III.
Three property taxes are in place to pay off bonds: 8 mills, 4 mills and 20 mills.
All the rates would remain at their 2024 levels.
The board also offered praise to:
—School resource officers. The uniformed officers and deputies work at schools throughout the parish. The school system has worked with local governments to boost the number of resource officers in recent years.
—The Students and Employees of the Month. The students are fifth-grader Parker Mason of M.E. Norman Elementary and fifth-grader Juliet St. Romain of Berwick Elementary. The employees are M.E. Norman teacher Lori Jo Case, counselor Yvonne Nunez of the St. Mary Alternative Program and Berwick Elementary Assistant Principal Rebecca Pye.
—Word Millionaires. The program encourages students to improve their reading slills. The top elementary millionaire is Berwick’s Christopher Pacheko with more than 1.6 million words. The top high school millionaire is Stanley Aucoin with more than 3.8 million words.
Hattie Watts Elementary and Berwick Elementary were the top schools with 17 Word Millionaires each.