The final public forum for the LaSalle Parish School Board’s proposed one-cent sales tax was held at Jena High School Thursday night, September 28, and LaSalle Assessor Tom Kendrick had many questions concerning the proposed tax. This was the second forum held by LaSalle Parish School Superintendent Jon Garrett where approximately 25 people attended. The first was held the week prior at La-Salle High School with around 20 people attending.

Garrett began the forum as he did at LHS, providing an overview of the proposed tax and what the School Board is planning to spend the money generated from the tax on should it pass.

The proposition states that 25% will be used for supplemental employee pay, 25% for school safety/security and 50% on construction/ maintenance.

At the LHS forum, not a single question was asked by anyone attending, but that was not the case during the JHS forum.

Following Garrett’s slide show presentation, he opened the meeting up for questions.

Assessor Kendrick wasted no time in diving right in to a list of questions and comments he had about the proposed tax that will appear on the October 14 ballot.

“Here’s my biggest problem with this tax,” Kendrick began. “You’ve got three different things lumped together. I would vote today to give teachers a raise but if you put it on there just so they’ll vote for this other stuff that gives me heartburn.”

He went on to say that he thinks a tax strictly for giving teachers a raise would pass easily but the other two issues are giving the public concern.

The Superintendent noted that all three of the items listed on the proposition are needed in the school system.

“I truly feel like all three of these things are needed,” he said. “I don’t necessarily think that any tax is easy to pass but what I see is an opportunity to fix three critical areas in our school system.”

He also pointed out that since his limited time as Superintendent, he has heard from many in the parish who have directly expressed to him that if the School Board does not place percentages on the tax to let them know exactly what the money will be spent on, they would not vote for the tax.

School Board President Marcia Cooksey added to Garrett’s comments, noting that not having the percentages detailed was one of the reasons the tax did not pass last year.

“That was part of the issue last time is they said we don’t know exactly what percentage teachers will get,” she said. “We left it open-ended, so we tried to correct that with this one as well as the perpetuity last time and we tried to correct that.”

The October 14th proposition has a 15year term limit.

“We were hoping to please or appease people this time that wanted to know exactly how much and where every percentage was going,” Cooksey said. “So, that was done in an effort to improve on what was done last time.”

Garrett added that while some may not like all three areas of the spending percentages, he believes all three are issues that the school system is going to have to deal with.

“I believe that we have to make sure that our schools are safer places, I believe that we need to get our employees at least up near the average of everybody else and I do believe that we’ve got to put some work into our buildings so kids can have a better day,” Garrett stated.

Kendrick replied that he agreed with everything the Superintendent said but questioned why much of the proposed work hasn’t already been done.

“How much money do you have left over from the last sales tax?” he asked.

“I think the last report I got was just under $8-million, $7.8 million,” Garrett responded.

“Ok, I think you could probably do everything on your slide right now,” Kendrick countered. “And then hire somebody from the outside to come in. Why aren’t we doing that beforehand and then you can tell us exactly what you’re going to do.”

Garrett noted that the funding that is currently in the bank is being spent on ongoing construction and maintenance projects by the Board.

“I do feel like in the last several months that I’ve been here the Board has been very willing to start some of these projects for the schools,” the Superintendent said. “That’s really all I can speak to. I can speak to my time here and what we have set our sights on and that’s the best I can do is speak to what we are about to do and what we are planning to do.”

Kendrick said that he also didn’t understand why the School Board is rushing to pass the tax.

“I just don’t understand the rush,” he said. “You’ve got money in the bank you haven’t spent yet. And the way it’s written on the ballot, if everything fails then the teachers don’t get their raise. Again, I believe, that if it was on there by itself you would get the teachers a raise.”

“I would ask if it does fail can we just put that on the ballot and get the teachers the pay raise they deserve?” he asked. “I think that would pass. Nobody has ever told me that teachers make too much money.”

Garrett agreed that he thinks the teachers deserve a raise as well, but noted that if the tax does fail, he will keep fighting to get all three items in place because he believes it’s the right thing.

“Apparently, what we’re going to do is, we’re never going to close a school and we’re going to keep patching on these schools forever,” Kendrick said. “Is that what you’re looking at?”

Garrett said that he wouldn’t speak about “forever” but he felt that the School Board is in a situation right now where they can continue to support all nine schools.

“Do we have a longterm plan?” Kendrick asked.

“This is our plan. This is our long-term plan,” Garrett said, gesturing toward the slide presentation. “We’re going to make our nine schools the best that we can make them.”

Local businessman Darrel McCartney joined the discussion trying to get clarity on the plan.

“I can’t hear everything that’s being said, but did I pick up there that there is no discussion of new construction?” he asked.

“No sir,” Garrett responded. “No construction of a new school right now.”

McCartney also questioned the figures given by Garrett regarding teacher salaries. In the slide presentation earlier, the Superintendent said that LaSalle Parish teachers are ranked the lowest among neighboring parishes for average teacher salary and they are ranked 66th out of 71 school districts in the state.

“Is that salary or does that include the supplement pay that they receive?” McCartney questioned.

Garrett noted that it is only the base salary and does not include the supplemental payments but added that other school system also give supplemental payments as well.

“What you all need to know is that the other districts are giving tax stipend too,” he said. “So, it’s still an apples-to-apples comparison. Now, ours might be a little higher than this one, or ours might be lower than this one, but other districts are giving those too.”

One person commented that he couldn’t believe that Catahoula Parish is paying more than La-Salle Parish.

Garrett noted that based on base salary comparisons, LaSalle is lower.

Although the forum had many questions, most from the Assessor, Kendrick was quick to point out at the end of the meeting that the discussions were valuable.

“I think that reasonable people can disagree and have a conversation like this and it is very constructive,” he concluded.