By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LUTCHER – The St. James Parish School Board approved a new contract for Superintendent Alonzo Luce this week.

Luce’s new four-year contract, which begins July 1 and extends until midnight on June 30, 2015, designates his annual base salary at $143,166. He will also receive an annual travel allowance of $10,676. The contract further stipulates that Luce will be eligible for a 2.5 percent salary increase if, at the end of any year of the agreement, the superintendent has received an overall satisfactory evaluation from the School Board, the superintendent has met his goals and objectives, and the district’s teachers have received a cost-of-living raise that year.

The three stipulations for pay increase are new to the contract, but they are not the only changes.

“We did radically change both the evaluation tool and job responsibilities,” said Luce.

He noted it was the first time the evaluation tool had been changed in many years.

Luce said of the pay increase included in the contract, “It basically just carries my salary forward,” adding, “The last two years I did not take the built-in increases.”

School Board President Charles Nailor said, “I was glad to get this behind us.”

He said the approval sends a message to the community that the board and administration are “united as one.” He said this is especially important as the district prepares to ask voters in St. James Parish to renew millages that fund maintenance and salaries in the district.

When it came time to vote on the contract, however, one school board member was not in agreement. Patricia Schexnayder, who represents the west bank of the parish, was the only member to vote against the new contract.

She said she does not have a problem with the superintendent’s performance but instead is troubled by some of the fiscal matters contained in the contract.

“Our parish is too small for some of the things that are listed,” she said.

She said she found the benefits section of the agreement especially troubling.

That section of the contract reads in part, “If the superintendent opts out of the health insurance program offered by the board, he will be compensated instead at a rate equal to 50 percent of the board’s cost that year to insure an employee and family.”

“I would like to know where in the U.S. any employer pays for family benefits,” said Schexnayder. “Our parish can’t afford this contract.”

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Nailor announced the makeup of board committees for 2011. The Executive Committee will consist of Chairperson Nailor and members George Nassar and Carol Lambert; the Finance Committee will consist of Chairperson Schexnayder and members Lambert and Richard Reulet; the Building Committee will consist of Chairperson Nassar and members Kenneth Foret and Nailor; the Advisory Committee will consist of Chairperson Reulet and members Diana Cantillo and Nassar; the Insurance Committee will consist of Chairperson Foret and members Schexnayder and Cantillo; and the Legislative Liaison Committee will consist of Chairperson Nassar and member Nailor. Luce will serve as secretary for all committees.