West Feliciana board sets meeting to discuss revenue
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ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish School Board decided Tuesday to schedule a special meeting to discuss ways to increase revenue, including the possibility of raising taxes.
“I think all of us know we’re going to have to do something,” said board member Amanda McKinney, adding the board already made significant cuts to its budget.
School Superintendent Jesse Perkins said he intends to work with school administrators and board members to develop a long-range plan to “enhance and stabilize the financial situation of the school system.”
School system revenue has been on the decline since the Tembec paper mill closed in 2007, which caused a drop in student enrollment and state funding. Reduced revenue from sales and property taxes have contributed to the system’s financial woes.
A special meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Dec. 8.
At that meeting, the board plans to discuss the possibility of putting a bond issue before voters in the spring that would raise property and sales taxes, board President Sara Wilson-Wright said.
Wilson-Wright asked the board’s bond attorney to attend the meeting.
In other business, school officials said they were extending the deadline until Friday for students to turn in parental consent forms to receive a vaccine for the H1N1 flu.
About 400 of the school system’s 2,300 students have submitted consent forms, family service supervisor Beverly Grant said.
On Dec. 1 and Dec. 2, a “strike force” from the state’s Office of Public Health and Department of Education will be in St. Francisville providing vaccines to students. The school system has 400 doses of the vaccine, Grant said, and will order another 100 doses.
Grant said the Office of Public Health did not give the school system any control over what form of vaccine it received, whether a shot or a mist.
She did say children with asthma or diabetes would not get the mist form of the vaccine because of potential medical complications.
Although effective, vaccination is not a guarantee, Grant said. “You might get the H1N1 vaccine and still get swine flu.”
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