By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LUTCHER – Some disused St. James Parish school buses parked at Lutcher High School will soon be moved as the School Board approved the sale of some of the surplus buses this week.

Only five of the 15 buses received bids, so the others will be sold for scrap metal. The total of the bids for the five buses came to $2,750.

The board recently received a letter of complaint from a neighbor of the school, who wrote that the buses were an eyesore.

The board approved another bus-related item Tuesday, as well. It agreed to renew an agreement between the district and Entergy that the power company would be allowed to use the district’s school buses in case of an emergency at the Waterford 3 nuclear power plant in Taft.

Also Tuesday, board member Patricia Schexnayder asked Superintendent Alonzo Luce to look into the reasons behind a drop in this year’s student population in the parish.

According to Luce, the district is down 79 students this year, but he attributed much of the decline to demographic changes.

“We have areas of the parish that have become very industrial-based,” said Luce.

Luce said most of the children no longer on the rolls have transferred out of parish or out of state. He noted that Romeville Elementary, which had a student population of about 200 a few years ago, is now down to 118 students. He attributed this to the aforementioned industrialization of the area as well as the exodus of Hurricane Katrina transplants.

Additionally, he said some of the figures are misleading because while the seventh and eighth grades at the two high schools have lower numbers this year, the ninth through 12th grades’ numbers are up.

He said this is because more students are passing the LEAP and being promoted to ninth grade than in previous years.

Lastly, the district is looking to sell a parcel of land adjacent to Lutcher Elementary School. Luce said the land is not fenced and presents a liability issue for the district. He said ideally the land would be purchased by a little league organization of by the parish for recreation.

He said, “The school doesn’t really have a need for it, but the community has a need for it.”