School budget issues: Enrollment down, health insurance costs rising

Perhaps finances will be a top issue on St. Landry Parish School Board members’ list of priorities for a new superintendent.
The board’s finance committee recently learned student enrollment and health insurance costs are biting into the school system’s budget.
Tressa Miller, finance director, said the system will received about $1.1 million less in Minimum Foundation Program money because of decreased enrollment.
The MFP money is from the state and paid at about $4,000 per student.
The school district’s total enrollment has declined since 2014 when it was 14,586 in September. In 2015, enrollment was 14,452 and in 2016 it was 14,031. Those numbers include pre-kindergarten students.
MFP students by year are: 13,926 in 2014; 13,727 in 2015; and 13,388 in 2016.
The 421-student decline in a year had Albert Hayes Jr., Eunice board member and finance committee chairman, questioning staffing.
“Shouldn’t we have less employees? We have less students. We have 400 less students. That represents a whole campus. I don’t know of an elementary school in Eunice that has over 400 students in the whole school,” he said.
School Board member Milton Ambres said it would be difficult to cut staffing because the student loss is spread across schools.
“You can’t take a teacher away from a class because you lost two students out of each class,” he said.
But School Board member Donnie Perron observed, “You should have fewer teachers.”
Hayes said the count points to consolidating areas and better distributing resources.
As to where the students are going, there was no definitive answer other than charter, parochial, home and non-public schools.
Miller also said annual insurance premium costs would rise $1.4 million in January. The district’s budget is for $18.9 million in insurance premiums. The rising insurance premiums will add about $700,000 to the current fiscal year budget, which started in July.