By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

ROMEVILLE – About a dozen parents along with teachers, administrators and school board members recently gathered for a community meeting at Romeville Elementary School to discuss the future of the school.

St. James Parish School System Superintendent Alonzo Luce said, “We started having discussions about Romeville about three years ago.”

He said the discussions were prompted by Nucor’s interest in locating a steel and iron processing plant in the area, a move that would further tighten industry’s grasp on the region.

He said that since that time, a number of meetings have been held, and since then only two people have come out in favor of leaving the school as it is.

“The community basically said, ‘We want to move the school,’” he said.

Others measures that may factor into the school’s future include a steadily declining student population and a grade of “F” given by the state Department of Education based on the school’s School Performance Score.

Luce said the school had more than 300 students in 1999, but now has fewer than 90.

Further adding to the school’s population problem is the fact that as a nearly all African-American school, students there can choose to go to any majority white school in the district.

“Economically, you should have about 350 students in a school,” said Luce.

These problems, said Luce, have left few options for the school. He said if the school fails to pull itself out of the “unacceptable” range, the state will take over the school, the entire staff would be terminated, and the state would either sell the school to a charter organization or, more likely, close the school altogether because of the low student population. He said another option, the option the school board has been mulling for some time, is to close the school itself and relocate the students to other schools such as Paulina Elementary, where Romeville’s pre-K and kindergarten students were moved this school year.

Luce said that if the district decided on its own to close the school, the community would at least still be able to use its gymnasium as a kind of community center.

“The board is going to have to make a decision,” said Luce.

Board President Charles Nailor said, “This is a difficult task that we have to do. We all have this school at heart.”

The parents in attendance at the meeting, however, had no intention of making the school board’s decision any easier, as they put up much resistance against closing the school.

“I’m in favor of keeping Romeville open and bringing back pre-K and kindergarten,” said parent Rhonda Moore.

Many present blamed the school’s woes on the school’s faculty.

Jordan Elder, a parent and a graduate of Romeville Elementary, said, “We had the faculty at the time that got us where we needed to be. I’m trying to figure out what happened to our school.”

Added Wanda Bush, “I’m praying that this school stays open because it is beneficial to this community.”

Pointing to a parish land-use map, however, Luce showed the residential section of the area has shrunk considerably and shows no sign of regaining the numbers it once had in the face of industrial expansion. Unfortunately, that has led to a population that is, in many ways, cut off from the rest of the parish. The frustration with the situation showed in the comments of some parents.

“The only people that care about us is us,” said Sonya Taylor.

“If they’re going to move our children where they want, we can move our children where we want,” added Sebastian West, referring to the state’s voucher program.

Overall, the situation seemed a trying one for all involved as they struggled between following their hearts and their heads.

Said Principal Becky Louque, “We would love to stay together. We would love to stay here.”

Luce said he hopes to see the item up for discussion on the agenda for the next school board meeting, scheduled for May 8.

In related news, the St. James parish School Board met in special session Friday and accepted a bid of $1,264,483 for Paragon Sports Constructors of Texas for artificial turf projects at both Lutcher High School and St. James High School. The bid includes the purchase of materials for both schools and the installation of the turf at Lutcher High School. The turf will not be able to be installed at St. James High School until its new stadium is built, but the board decided to include its turf in the bid to save money.