By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

RESERVE – The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board and district administration breathed a collective sigh of relief as the board unanimously approved a budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

By doing so, they not only were able to step out from under the dark cloud surrounding the issue that has lingered for months but also beat the state-mandated Sept. 15 deadline, thus ensuring no intervention from the state Department of Education.

Executive Director of Business and Finance Felix Boughton said, “It’s a really conservative budget.”

He expects the actual numbers will come in below those set in the now-approved budget.

Earlier in the day, a public hearing on the plan was held at the central office, and Boughton said the response from the public was good.

“We did have a lot of input,” he said.

Some of the main focal points of public input were making sure the district collects all possible revenue and that administration will adhere to the plan.

Jennifer Frizzel, mother of current St. John public school students, said she had some huge concerns when she saw the initial budget, and that although those concerns have been alleviated, she wants the district to make sure it is collecting all the Medicaid money it is due.

The creation of the balanced budget came after a drawn-out series of negotiations between district administration and the parish’s teachers’ union. Those negotiations culminated in an agreement that all district employees will take four unpaid furlough days during the 2010-11 year. To account for those furlough days, Director of Human Resources Leigh Ann Beard presented the board with an amended school calendar Thursday evening.

The revised calendar makes Nov. 2 a holiday for students and puts the last day of school at May 19. To compensate for these alterations, the last day of each semester, traditionally half days for students, will be full days.

Superintendent Courtney Millet said the new calendar puts the district right at the number of instructional minutes required by the state.

She said if weather conditions necessitate school closures for a day, that time could be made up by shortening lunch periods or extending the school day by a few minutes, but should a major storm approach and force schools to be closed for an extended period, she said such instances would be dealt with “on a case-by-case basis.”

The board approved the revised calendar unanimously.

At the start of Thursday’s meeting, Millet presented the board with a couple of items of good news.

First, she gave a short presentation about the first days of the new school year.

“It really has been a very smooth opening of school,” she said.

Elton Oubre also presented the board with attendance numbers for the parish’s public schools. On the ninth day of school, the official attendance number for the district’s elementary and high schools was 5,939, 67 students more than at the same point last year.

Oubre said it usually takes a month for attendance figures to reach this point.

Millet also presented the board with summer LEAP test results. As in the spring, the parish once again excelled with 92 percent of fourth-graders and 86 percent of eighth-graders meeting promotional standards. In each case, the percentage was six points higher than the state average.