‘The St. John Parish School Board has been accused of not negotiating in good faith in acquiring a charter school in the parish. This assessment, which I can affirm, is not factual. The board has stood by the initial agreed upon terms since last year. However, each time this item bas been placed on the agenda, the representatives of the Charter School have added additional conditions.

Recently, paid advertisements by certain businesses were placed attempting to force elected officials from other entities to intervene on their behalf and try to force the School Board to conform to their demands. Parents have been told that this option gives them a “Choice” in their child’s education, and comparisons have been made to the neighboring parishes about their school systems.

So just to be clear, St. John Parish has 11 public schools and five private or parochial schools, the biggest ratio in the State.

Also, with there being so many additional schools in St. John Parish, this also takes away funding, which isn’t a problem in neighboring parishes, because they don’t have to compete with additional schools.

Furthermore, the taxes that are dedicated to schools in neighboring parishes, are far greater than the taxes of St. John Parish.

School Board members are elected by the people and took an oath to be fiscally responsible with our decisions. We have a duty to spend public monies wisely.

Allow me to give a brief summary of this process. Initially, the charter association’s proposed site was supposed to be on the former Reserve Christian School’s campus. However, after hearing rumors of another location, at the last board meeting, a lease with Riverside Academy was presented to the School Board.

In our quest to be accommodating, our board has continued to ask  for several items. These items include the racial make-up of the school and the site’s location so we would be in compliance with the Federal Consent Decree. Additionally, once the Riverside site became the new target location, the question of co-mingling of public and private funds came up.

Reserve Christian had offered their facilities for approximately $250,000, but we were informed at the last board meeting that Riverside’s lease agreement was for $500,000 for 4 years ;  and afterwards, it would double to $1,000,000. Additionally, another concern of the use of the Riverside Campus was, how can you have a Public School and a Private School operating on the same campus, using the same utilities?

Realistically, all of these expenses will be paid for by the taxpayers of St. John Parish, not the St. John Parish School Board. Furthermore, the School Board approved a K-9 school; however, the Charter board decided that they only wanted K-8.

Truthfully, one must ask themselves, Why? The obvious answer is the desire to continue to have Riverside retain their 9-12 grades, because with the charter school status, they would be ineligible for playoff contention in sports for two years.

Here is another stipulation in the contract. If the lease is breached, they can evict the charter school in as little as 20 days, and the St. John Parish School System will be responsible for allocating placement for these students.

In the lease agreement, Riverside would NOT be responsible for any harm or damages, regardless of the cause on their site. It will be the financial responsibly of the residents of St. John Parish.

At the termination of the lease, the Leaser would not have to provide reimbursement for permanent improvements made with the use of public funds. So, I ask, is this a good business practice?

Regardless of how it may seem, the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board has negotiated in good faith while continuing to protect the interest of the residents and taxpayers of St. John the Baptist Parish.

Albert A. Burl III is the District 2 representative on the St. John School Board. He can be reached at alburl@stjohn.k12.la.us.