By BETSY SWENSON
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL — Teachers, administrators and other St. Tammany Parish School Board employees breathed a sigh of relief Saturday as St. Tammany residents approved a three proposals funding school upgrades, employee salaries and benefits.
Proposition 1, a $135 million bond renewal, allows for renovations and building additions at numerous schools, plus technology and security upgrades.
The bond will fund classroom construction in the amount of $46 million, building permanent classrooms in place of the modular structures currently at Fontainebleau Junior High, Lyon Elementary, Madisonville Elementary, Mandeville Elementary, Pontchartrain Elementary and Tchefuncte Middle Schools.
$52.5 million will go toward building renovations at Bonne Ecole Elementary, Boyet Junior High, Little Oak Middle, Covington High, Slidell Junior High, Abney Elementary, Carolyn Park Middle, Chahta-Ima Elementary, Clearwood Junior High, Fontainebleau High, Mandeville Junior High, Northshore High, Pearl River High and Slidell High.
Another $20 million of the bond funds will go toward technology improvements, as the School Board looks forward to a future of state-mandated computerized standardized tests for students. Schools will also see security upgrades with that money.
Proposition 2 allows for the rededication of $5.7 million generated by an existing 3.44-mill property tax from construction repairs to employee salaries and benefits. Also tied to salaries and benefits is Proposition 3, a 10-year, 3-mill property tax that will generate $5 million annually. The new tax will cost tax payers nothing, the School Board says, because it is offset by voluntary cutbacks the board has made in other areas of the budget.
Propositions 1 and 2 will help ease the School Board’s burden of rising health care costs and increased student numbers, while state funds have dwindled.
Failure of the propositions could have resulted in increased classroom sizes and possible layoffs.
Superintendent of Schools Trey Folse thanked voters for approving the propositions. “This effort shows that our parents and the community as a whole continue to support the St. Tammany Parish Public School System,” he said. “The funding from these propositions will allow us to continue on our current path of academic excellence and help us achieve our goal of providing the best education possible for every child, every day.”