By DAVID VITRANO

News Editor

RESERVE—After weeks of inspections, assessments, meetings and workshops, the consulting firm CSRS Inc. revealed its final draft on Thursday of the St. John the Baptist Parish Educational and Facilities Plan to the members of the school board.

The plan was divided into two major sections—one addressing academic achievement and another detailing the facilities improvement plan. CSRS representative Chris Pellegrin stressed, however, that the facilities improvements are not merely cosmetic but are there to support the educational objectives.

Superintendent Courtney Millet presented the educational portion of the report to those present in the Godchaux Cafeteria building.

As she did at the community meetings, she noted the importance of continuous, sustainable academic growth and maintained the emphasis of achieving this through specific goals, which address learning from the positions of the students, the administration and the community.

To this end, Pellegrin then stepped up to expound on the concrete facility improvements that will be enacted to promote the educational objectives.

The plan he presented utilizes all $46 million of the revenue from the proposed bond issue going before voters Nov. 4; however, not every deficiency noted in their site assessments could be addressed. The more minor items were deferred to the category of ongoing maintenance.

In the CSRS plan, which Pelllegrin said incorporated input from school administration, the school board and the community, every facility will see improvement before the end of 2013.

Under the scheme, every elementary school in the parish will receive improved outdoor play areas and those without gyms also get covered outdoor play areas.

Additionally, both high school stadiums will acquire significant improvements.

Also, all public schools in the parish will see technological improvements, including the installment of smart boards—a sort of combination of computer screen and dry erase board—and security overhauls.

The most major, and most costly, improvements will occur at LaPlace and West St. John Elementary Schools.

At LES, the pod classrooms will be replaced with a new classroom building while at WSJES the main building will be replaced.

The estimated total from these two projects tops the $23 million mark, over half of the revenue earmarked in the bond proposal.

The renovations at WSJES are scheduled to begin first with all other projects staggered between now and the end of 2013.

According to Pellegrin, the staggering was necessary because the revenue from the bonds will be released to the school system in $10 million annual increments with the remaining $6 million coming in 2013.

“The things we tried to put off until last were things that did not directly affect the students,” said Pellegrin.

During the presentation, Pelllegrin was sure to label the plan as the board’s and the community’s, not the firm’s.

“It’s important that everybody participate and feel ownership of the plan,” he noted.

In the end, the proposal was approved by the board with a vote of 10 yeas and one abstention.

Board Member Matthew Ory commended the firm’s work, saying that such near total agreement was rare for the board where such weighty matters were concerned.

Board Member Russ Wise expressed similar sentiments, saying, “I can give this proposal my wholehearted endorsement.”

The lone abstention came from Board Member Albert Burl III. Burls said, “I have no problem with the educational part of this plan,” but he expressed some concern over portions of the facilities improvement plan, most notably the late addition of major renovations to LES and WSJES.