By Baileigh Rebowe

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – St. John the Baptist Parish will be participating in a new wave of school reform next year through a pilot program called student-based budgeting.

Student-based budgeting gives more authority to principals to allocate funding where it is needed most in a school and allows them to direct budget resources to increase student performance.

Those schools participating in student-based budgeting will be putting most of the funding given to the school (based on student count) into the principal’s hands to distribute accordingly.

St. John is one of seven districts in the state trying out student-based budgeting. It is not yet a requirement for all schools.

Courtney Millet, superintendent of St. John schools, chose John L. Ory Magnet School in LaPlace and Principal Teri Noel to represent St. John in the state program.

“Teri Noel is our most experienced principal in the parish, and a lot of our principals respect her opinion,” said Millet.

Noel has been the principal at John L. Ory for 15 years and has won numerous awards.

Noel said she thinks student-based budgeting is an “interesting endeavor” and she supports exploring new options if it gives her greater latitude to better help meet the needs of her students.

According to Noel, her funding is not increased or decreased in the process but allowed to go where she feels it will best serve her students. She lost her librarian last year to budget cuts and is highly interested in the program so she may be able to apportion funding and get a librarian back.

“The idea is that the money that comes to the school district for designated schools will follow the children,” said Noel.

Millet said she agreed to get involved in the program because she feels St. John schools should always be open to opportunities for advancement.

“We are making great strides as a school district, but we should always be looking at ways to do things differently. We know there’s room for improvement, to keep making positive changes and to keep moving forward,” said Millet.

But the pilot program is not completely unheard of in the district, according to Millet. The Title 1 program is similar to student-based budgeting. This program distributes funding to schools based on free and reduced lunch numbers.

“We’re already doing it,” said Millet. “Student-based budgeting is just a step further.”

Even though the pilot is kicking off this year, student-based budgeting will not be introduced into the schools immediately. The pilot will slowly be incorporated into participating districts over a three-year period, according to Millet.

Participating principals, like Noel, will not have a chance to touch funding until after two school years of preparation.

Representatives will meet in the upcoming school year to set guidelines, rules and a process for the program to follow. Noel said policies and procedures on how to integrate student-based budgeting into Louisiana schools will be analyzed.

“It is the year to study and plan,” said Noel.

Year two will focus on training for administrators, board members, principals and teachers involved in the decision making process, according to Millet. Year three begins the implementation of the actual financial aspects of student-based budgeting into piloting districts.

At the end of year three, school and district data will be reviewed to determine the success of student-based budgeting and make modifications for the next year.

“I believe this is a next step we need to move toward as a district,” said Millet. “It can have a positive outcome.”

St. John, which is a designated “trailblazer” district, is the only one of the River Parishes experimenting with student-based budgeting before it goes into law. Neighboring St. James and St. Charles parishes recently passed resolutions in opposition to the still unmandated measure.