School Board continues to study costs, population

Revised costs to educate a St. Landry Parish public school student and population numbers were released last week as School Board members assemble information for future decisions.
Mary Ellen Donatto, chairwoman of the board’s Building, Lands and Sites committee, said, “We are trying to get some data involved so that when we have to make decisions in the future we have something to base it on.”
Edward Brown, superintendent of schools, said, “We are not out to close anybody. We are just trying to find the best fit.”
In May, Brown said the school system is faced with aging buildings and declining student numbers in some areas of the parish.
Brown said, “...when we look across the district where we have 37 schools and all of them over 30 years old, all of them need repairs and where is that money going to come from? We have to start making some hard decisions at this time.”
The average cost per student is $8,368 in the parish and the per student costs range from a low of $5,887 to a high of $13,958 at the Center for Academic Programs.
The other highest cost per student schools are Arnaudville, $9,677; East, $9,369; Magnet Academy of Cultural Arts, $10,817; North Elementary, $11,425; St. Landry Accelerated Transition School, $12,525; and Washington Elementary, $11,650.
The cost to operate all schools is $125,282,605, according to numbers given board members.
The highest costs are salaries, $67,182,643; and employee benefits, $36,278,627.
Other costs totaling the $125 million are: $1,925,303, purchased professional services; $2,813,336, utilities; $1,991,360, repairs and maintenance; $374,575, rentals; $931,873, travel; $1,553,541, insurance; $9,673,683, materials and supplies; and $2,673,683, bond payments and miscellaneous.
The costs are based on actual 2013-14 operating data and 2014-15 contract salaries.
At Monday’s committee meeting, the focus turned to census numbers showing population trends.
Since 1960, Eunice’s population has declined 8.19 percent to 10,398 in the 2010 census. Eunice hit a peak population of 12,258 in 1980.
Opelousas’ population dropped by 4.5 percent from 1960 to 16,634 in 2010. During the 50-year period Opelousas’ population peaked at 22,860 in 2000.
Other census numbers were:
Arnaudville — 1,057 in 2010, down 0.47 percent from 1960’s 1,062.
Krotz Springs — 1,198 in 2010, up 13.34 percent from 1,057 in 1960.
Leonville — 1,084 in 2010, up 106.08 percent from 526 in 1960.
Port Barre — 2,055 in 2010, up 9.54 percent from 1,876 in 1960.
Cankton — 484 in 2010, up 86.15 percent from 260 in 1970.
Grand Coteau — 947 in 2010,down 18.71 percent from 1,165 in 1960.
Lawtell — 1,198 in 2010, up 18.15 percent from 1,014 in 1980.
Sunset — 2,897 in 2010, up 121.65 percent from 1,307 in 1960.
Lebeau — 69 in 2010, down 21.59 percent from 88 in 1990.
Melville — 1,041 in 2010, down 46.31 percent from 1,039 in 1960.
Morrow — 684 in 2010, up 167.19 percent from 256 in 1990.
Palmetto — 164 in 2010, down 61.86 percent from 430 in 1960.
Washington — 964 in 2010, down 25.33 percent from 1,291 in 1960.
Donatto said populations numbers are needed for rural areas. Parish government is helping obtain those numbers, she said.