By CALEB FREY

Staff Reporter 

RESERVE – St. John Parish Students of the Year and the status of Godchaux Grammar School headed the list of topics at the monthly St. John School Board meeting Thursday.

Each school in the parish selected one student to compete for district student of the year. Students were selected based on their academic achievement, school and community service, recognition and leadership, portfolio presentation and written and verbal skills.

Fifth grade Students of the Year are Maitte Coronado, Destiny Ponville, Pablo Alcantara, Chrysalis Ortiz, Cassandra Lewis, and Olajowuan Pierre.

Eighth grade Students of the Year are Christy Joseph, Chelsie Stewart, Taylor Atkinson, Terri Franklin, Rasheda Gros, Michael Moore, and Amanda Fortner.

Students of the year for 12th grade are Troy Miles, Jr. and Rachel Clark.

The selection committee picked one student from each grade level to represent St. John Parish in the regional competition as Students of the Year.  Crysalis Ortiz was chosen to represent 5th grade, Taylor Atkinson will represent eighth grade and Troy Miles, Jr. was chosen to represent 12th grade in regional competition.

School Board Member Clarence Triche of District 11 noted that St. John Parish is running out of land for schools as many new homes are being built. Triche called for a motion to appoint a committee to review the options of construction sites for a new school in St. John. The motion passed with Triche and Keller to head the committee.

Another item on the school board agenda was the issue of roof replacement at Godchaux Grammar School. Nearly $7,400 has already been spent to repair the Godchaux roof and a new roof for the facility would cost anywhere from $29,000 for a shingle roof with a 20 year warranty to $37,000 for a 30 year roof or perhaps more depending on the severity of the damage beneath the existing roof.

&#8220This is a start to move in the right direction to get this building repaired,” Keller said.

Board Member Matthew Ory of District 10 was not as hesitant as other board members to adopt the spending for a new roof.

&#8220We’re going to accept bids on this, right?” Ory said. &#8220That’s too much of a difference in price between the two.”

After further discussion, the board decided to withdraw the motion until the March school board meeting.

Other items of interest were the old ceilings in some of the East St. John High School classrooms. Superintendent Michael Coburn recently paid a visit to ESJ to inspect the ceilings in which there is extensive peeling caused from age. 

Coburn said the ceilings could be repaired by installing suspended ceilings in the affected classrooms at a cost of $13,000-$21,000 and called for a motion of up to $20,000 to repair the ceilings.

Ory once again spoke up to ensure the most economical route on this was being taken.

&#8220I don’t think we’ve looked at all the options on this one,” Ory said.

Not totally sold on the fact that so much money was necessary to repair the ESJ ceilings, Ory felt it was too early to put a monetary value on the repairs.

&#8220If we’re gonna make a motion to correct the problem, let’s do that,” Ory said.  The motion was withdrawn for the next school board meeting on March 2.