By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

RESERVE – The ongoing negotiations between the St. John the Baptist Parish School System and the St. John Association of Educators regarding ways to cut the current budget deficit may soon reach their conclusion.

According to SJAE President Carolyn Batiste, before the last school board meeting the union presented the board with a plan to cut the deficit while saving the jobs of those employees who would have been victims of a Reduction in Force, which was part of the original budget plan.

The union proposed four days of mandatory unpaid furlough for each employee that falls under the union umbrella. According to Batiste, that plan would save the district about $1 million.

Batiste said union members have already voted in favor of the proposal, and now they are waiting on the administration and school board.

She said the administration is currently trying to put the proposal into official language, but Superintendent Courtney Millet, who declined to comment on the situation, is out of town this week, so she has not received any official word yet from the administration.

That will likely not come until Thursday when the school board convenes for its next regular meeting.

Batiste said she is hopeful the proposal will be approved, but if it is not she said the next step will be waiting for some sort of counter proposal from the administration.

“That’s going to be up to (Millet),” she said.

Board member Russ Wise shares Batiste’s optimism about the upcoming vote on the proposal.

“I don’t see any problems,” he said. “It resolves both problems.”

Regardless of the vote on the proposal or how the budget problems are eventually worked out, the district will have to work hard to make sure they do not find itself in a similar situation next year. Without the extra padding provided by the surplus the district is expending for the 2010-11 fiscal year, the district will have to work even harder to balance the books.

“We’re going to have to be prepared to cut spending gradually,” said Wise. “It’s going to be an ongoing effort.”

One of the union’s other suggestions for cutting costs — reducing school board salaries by $50 per month — was likely sparked by a suggestion from Wise, who wanted board members to voluntarily reduce their salaries to $1 for the next fiscal year.

“We can’t expect other people to make cuts if we don’t make the biggest cut,” he said.

His plan, however, may have hit a stumbling block as he was recently informed by School Board Attorney Lloyd LeBlanc that state law prohibits board members from altering their own salaries. If that is the case, the only course of action would be for board members to essentially donate their paychecks to the system.

“We’ve got to build the confidence back,” said Wise.