By LEONARD GRAY – Staff Reporter

LULING – A settlement agreement to head off a lawsuit against the St. Charles Parish School Board was approved at their February meeting.

The agreement with Carothers Construction Inc. suggested an amount of $64,000, trimmed back from the original demand of $318,499.

The settlement, said Larry Sesser, executive director of physical plant services, will cut the board’s legal costs if the matter had proceeded to trial..

Carothers, the contract manager for several major school construction projects for the school board, was abruptly fired at the Nov. 13, 2003 meeting of the St. Charles School Board in a 6-0 decision.

Carothers tried to argue their side at that meeting, but the board proceeded with the dismissal, saying only it wanted “to go in a different direction.”

Carothers was originally hired at the March 20, 2003 meeting to provide construction management services in exchange for 2 percent of the actual contract cost of five school construction projects on the 2001 bond issue list.

To that point in time, the company received $66,000 for its work.

However, if Carothers were allowed to complete its assignments, Carothers could have netted $400,000, according Sesser.

Kelly Allen, business development manager for Carothers, told the board he was “a little bit in shock” over the dismissal decision.

In protesting the move, he said the company had stuck to the letter of the contract.

The board voted 6-0 to dismiss the firm, with board member Mary Bergeron abstaining.

Carothers was assigned to oversee the construction projects at Luling Elementary, phase two of St. Rose Elementary, Norco Elementary and also the new satellite center and R.K. Smith Middle School.

Sesser observed, “My take is they didn’t blend with the contractors and architects here.” Among those included Glenn Higgins and Associates, Hewitt-Washington Inc. and Murray and Associates Inc.

Carothers is headquartered in Water Valley, Miss., with offices in Baton Rouge.

Funds for the settlement came from the Capital Projects Fund Number One.

In other activity at the board’s Feb. 11 meeting, the board approved the second change order for the Luling Elementary School addition totaling $21,010.60.

The change order still keeps the project at 1.1 percent of the total project cost of $3.3 million. Often, according to Sesser, change orders come to 7-10 percent of the project cost.

The board approved SigmaGroup as its insurance consultant, much to the objection of member Steve Crovetto.

Crovetto, reading from a prepared statement, objected to having only two firms from which to select, asserted the board failed to thoroughly review the proposals.

He also decried associate consultant Diana Watze’s professionalism, claiming she was “smiling and laughing” in a non-professional manner while sitting in the audience in a committee meeting.

Finally, the board granted the River Region Drama Guild’s request to build a storage warehouse behind the old Good Hope School, which is now used for the organization in a lease agreement with the board.