School Board looks for savings

School Board looks for savings

• By JAMES MINTON
  
• Advocate Baker - Zachary bureau
  
• Published: Dec 2, 2009 - Page: 5B
  

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  CLINTON — The East Feliciana Parish School Board doesn't have enough money to pay its bills, and a board member suggested Tuesday the first place to begin budget-cutting is in the board room.
  

  Superintendent Douglas Beauchamp said the board is counting on federal stimulus funds and budget cuts to weather a $1.2 million deficit this year, but funds are not immediately available for a "large number" of unpaid bills .
  

  Member Matthew Peterson called for the board to cut its salaries, reduce the board from 12 to nine members and consolidate Jackson and Clinton high schools to save money.
  

  The consolidation proposal, which was dropped last year, again drew opposition from Clinton member Michael Bradford, who claimed that any savings realized would be "pipelined directly to Slaughter," where community activists are trying to form a charter school.
  

  The board referred cutting members' salaries to the Policy Committee, although Bradford, Peterson and board President J. Curtis Jelks said they are donating some of their salaries to the schools.
  

  The board budgeted $80,000 for salaries this fiscal year.
  

  Assistant District Attorney Mike Hughes said the board cannot reduce its membership until after population figures from the 2010 federal census are available.
  

  "We have a School Board member for every 185 students. We're top heavy in administrators, but the first place where we're top heavy is in this room," Peterson said in arguing for adoption of the Police Jury's nine-member districting plan.
  

  As for consolidating the high schools, Peterson said the only difference between East Feliciana and West Feliciana's school systems "is what they did in the 1970s," referring to West Feliciana and its one consolidated high school. The district has ranked second in the state for academic performance the past four years.
  

  After a lengthy discussion, members Beth Dawson, Leon Franklin, Tony Rouchon, Peterson and Jelks advanced a motion to ask Beauchamp to submit a consolidation plan at the January meeting.
  

  Bradford and Willie M. Jackson voted against the motion, Richard Terrell abstained and members Mitch Harrell, Oliver Wingfield and Henry Howell were absent. Member Clay Barksdale, a volunteer fire chief, was called from the meeting for an emergency before the vote.