School tax meetings planned

• By DARLENE DENSTORFF
• River parishes bureau
• Published: Sep 6, 2009

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Ascension Parish residents on Wednesday will get their first look at the School Board’s $100 million capital improvement plan, which voters are being asked to fund by extending a 15.08-mill property tax.

The board is hosting a series of four community meetings, the first of which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the East Ascension High School auditorium.

The plan calls for replacing one existing primary school and adding buildings to and renovating 19 other schools.

The proposal also includes major upgrades in technology and installation of security cameras at all schools.

Voters will decide the fate of that tax proposal Oct. 17.

Drawings of the $16 million new school to replace G.W. Carver Primary School in Gonzales and information on proposed improvements upgrades at the other sites will be available at each meeting.

Superintendent Donald Songy unveiled the plan during an Aug. 27 news conference at Gonzales Primary School, the system’s oldest school.

At that news conference, Songy described the proposal as an extension of a current tax, not a tax increase.

In 2005, voters approved a $70 million tax initiative to fund five new schools to relieve overcrowding due to the parish’s rapidly increasing population.

While population growth continues in the parish, Songy has said, this new proposal is related to disparity.

Songy said a national accreditation team two years ago noted a “striking difference” between the district’s new and old schools.

At that time, the team recommended the district seek measures to reduce the disparity, or differences, among the facilities.

“Basically, the accreditation team said all our students should have facilities that support learning,” Songy said in a news release Thursday. “And that’s what this plan will do. It will ensure that all of our students have good learning environments.”