7 St. Martin schools get free lunch

Seven St. Martin schools will be serving free lunch to all students regardless of family incomes next school year.
The School Board last week voted to opt into the USDA-funded Community Eligibility School Nutrition Program for (in order of qualification) Breaux Bridge Primary, the Early Learning Center, Breaux Bridge Elementary, St. Martinville Primary, Breaux Bridge Junior High, St. Martinville Junior High and Cecilia Primary.
Those seven schools qualify for the program based on the percentage of their students who qualify for food stamps and other income-based federal programs. According to figures from the Louisiana Department of Education, about half the schools in the state qualify.
The free-meals-for-all program does not affect students with traditional free and reduced-lunch eligibility at the other schools.
However it can negatively impact the MFP by which the district receives money from the state. The number of students available for free or reduced meals is one factor in MFP funding. Once a district opts in for the Community Eligibility Program, that number is locked in for future MFP funding.
In the Finance Committee meeting just before the regular board meeting, members rejected a substitute motion by District 9 member Floyd Knott, who wanted to include Teche Elementary in the program.
Teche fell just outside the USDA criteria for inclusion in the Community Eligibility Program, a fine point Knott said those parents might not understand.
“Something is wrong when they’re poor at the primary and when they get to Teche, they’re wealthy,” Knott said. “I want to be consistent.”
When the measure came up in the regular meeting, District 7’s Richard Potier again tried unsuccessfully to insert Teche.
District 4 member James Blanchard voiced the prevailing view that busting the program’s guidelines would be too costly.
“We’re opening a can of worms,” Blanchard said. “This is going to turn into a big thing.”
In other business, the board:
•Approved entering into an intergovernmental agreement with the City of St. Martinville to reopen the nature trail behind St. Martinville Senior High.
At the request of District 4 member James Blanchard, the board voted to include the use of the baseball field in Magnolia Park in the bargain.
The city-owned ballpark has been the defacto home field of the Tigers for years without a formal agreement (or after the lapse of one), Blanchard noted. But that could change, he said.
The city is currently in talks with the Louisiana Office of State Parks to reopen the long-closed “back areas” of Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site, which includes an amphitheater, a pavilion, a boat landing, and the entrance to the nature trail.
•Approved a salary schedule that puts Career & Technical Trade & Industrial Education (CTTIE) certified instructors on a par with classroom teachers.
These will be the instructors at the district’s career center opening up on the former Breaux Bridge Elementary campus this August. (The elementary school is moving to the Breaux Bridge Primary campus per a reconfiguration plan approved by the board last year.)
Dr. Lottie Beebe, superintendent of schools, said the center will be for students from all three high schools who would be shuttled for half-day classes in certified nursing assistant, oil and gas certification, electrical, cosmetology and JROTC.
•Instructed Dr. Lottie Beebe, superintendent, to negotiate with St. Martin Sheriff Ronny Theriot for concessions to a proposed 8 percent increase in the cost of school resource officers. Members said they would like to cut that increase to 4 percent, or if the sheriff stands pat on his 8 percent, perhaps a lock on that cost for three to five years. The board rejected the idea of contracting with a private company to provide school security as being too costly.
•Placed the industrial arts building on the St. Martinville Senior High campus, now the old Early Learning Center, back on a list of buildings to be demolished. The building, which is directly behind the Courthouse Annex Building on West Port Street, seat of Parish Government, and had been donated to the parish for its use. The parish has informed the board that it has no use for the building and does not object to its demolition.