– The St. Martin Parish School Board voted at its July 1 meeting to approve a contract with Lafayette General Health System for athletic trainers, with the exception of stipends for a 20 percent increase in pay and for playoff pay.
School Board President Mark Hebert said he had concerns over those two items.
“We pay them $10,000 per athletic trainer,” Hebert said. “They wanted to go to a percentage pay, which they wanted 20 percent … which would have given them a raise, and I disagreed with a raise because the MFP (Minimum Foundation Program, a formula for calculating state funding for schools) is going to get cut whether we like it or not. So we’ve got to watch that.”
Hebert suggested to school system Chief Financial Officer Casey Broussard that the 20 percent sought by LGH be lowered to a point where it matches what the parish pays trainers currently.
The trainers would get a raise every year because their pay is based off of teacher pay, which is raised annually, he said.
“The other problem is we pay our coaches in the playoffs,” Hebert said. “(Trainers) wanted to get paid the same thing like coaches, but if they get paid off of that 20 percent, they’re going to be getting paid more than our coaches, including our head football coaches, because they’re going to be getting paid off of that stipend.”
Hebert said Broussard would work on figuring out those two issues and report back to the board at its August meeting.
The board considered tabling a decision on the recommendation until its next meeting, but was urged to approve the contract since trainers will begin working with football and volleyball players before August. The Finance Committee approved the recommendation with the exception of the two pay issues, and the full board later approved the finance committee’s recommendations.
Closed hearing
The board met in executive session to discuss the status of former teacher Wanda Roy, who said she was forced to resign months before reaching her 60th year as a teacher in the school system after a 10-year-old video she recorded in her home was brought to the board’s attention.
Trainers
The board did not discuss what decision it had made after it returned from the closed hearing and Roy said she expects to be notified of the board’s decision in the future.
In other business
The parish’s summer learning faculty was honored as the Southern Scripts Employee of the Month.
The board approved a consent agenda that included approving some revisions to the Student and Parent Handbook for the upcoming school year.
That included adding quarter-zip jackets to the list of coats, jackets and sweaters in approved solid colors permitted to be worn by students in grades 6-12.
The Finance Committee recommendations approved by the board also included renewing a three-year contract with the Louisiana Claims Administration (LoCA), a third-party claims administration company that handles the school district’s workers’ compensation claims.
The board approved adopting resolutions authorizing the state Mineral and Energy Board and Office of Mineral Resources to “accept nominations, advertise for bids, accept and award bids, and execute any resulting oil, gas and mineral lease” for lands owned by the school board, with the stipulation that it not be used for carbon sequestration (underground storage of carbon capture materials).
Travel reimbursement rates also were updated. The majority of conference travel is paid for through Title II, Broussard said.
The updated rates were increased for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as mileage and lowered for incidentals for Tier I (standard rate for local conferences) and Tier II (travel to New Orleans or other major cities).
