School Board Approves Parks zone change

As part of its ongoing desegregation battle and effort to keep Catahoula Elementary School open, the St. Martin School Board last week agreed to a demand by attorneys with the NAACP to modify the attendance zone governing students attending Parks Primary and Middle schools.
The proposal, if accepted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the federal judge with jurisdiction over the desegregation case, would result in the transfer of approximately 220 students in grades preK through 8 currently attending the two Parks schools to Breaux Bridge Primary, Elementary and Jr. High schools, effective with the 2016-15 session.
The action came last week following a 30-minute executive (secret) session during which board members huddled with attorney Pam Dill to discuss the latest developments in the almost 50-year-old desegregation case.
Following the secret session Dill explained that NAACP attorneys had agreed to a controversial proposal adopted by the board late last month to convert Catahoula Elementary, which is currently a preK to grade 8 school, to grades preK-5, transferring about 70 Catahoula students in grades 6, 7 and 8 to St. Martinville Jr. High. The plan also involved modifying the attendance zone between Catahoula and St. Martinville so that approximately 40 students currently attending St. Martinville Primary would be transferred to Catahoula.
But the NAACP representatives added that they would only accept this plan if the board agreed to the change in the Parks/Breaux Bridge zone.
The move to expand the Parks attendance zone was made back in the 1990s. And Dill pointed out that the change was made without the consent of the federal court, although the board was operating under the assumption at the time that no such approval was necessary.
And at the time of last week’s meeting Dill said DOJ attorneys had not indicated if they would go along with the proposal.
If all parties do not agree, the case is set to be heard by federal Judge Elizabeth E. Foote next week.
After a motion by District 5 representative Russel Foti to fight to keep Catahoula Elementary in its current configuration in court failed by a 4-5 vote, a motion to accept the Parks change was approved 6-3. Supporting the recommendation were Jimmy Blanchard, Burton Dupuis, Aaron Flegeance, Floyd Knott, Frederic Stelly and Wanda B. Vital. The only opponents were Foti, Steve Fuselier and Richard Potier.
According to demographer Mike Hefner, the adjustment in the Parks/Breaux Bridge zone boundary would change the racial makeup of the two Parks schools from 68.1 percent white to 63.5 percent, while the black percentage would go from 30 to 34.2 percent.
The overall racial makeup of the three Breaux Bridge schools affected would change from the current 31.8% white/67.2% black to 38.9% white/60.1% black.
Enrollment at the two Parks schools would drop from 937 to 716 and increase at the three Breaux Bridge schools from 1,362 to 1,583.
In debating the proposed Parks change Foti raised objections that the issue had not been properly listed on the meeting agenda and complained that parents from the area were not being given the opportunity to comment on the change.
And Fuselier argued that the need for increased bussing of students, particularly between Catahoula and St. Martinville would raise some serious safety issues.
He also wondered “When are their demands going to stop?”

Dill also got board members to approve three items dealing with the desegregation case so she could pursue consent order approval form the court.
They included the formation of a biracial transportation committee composed of bus drivers and others to review and monitor the system’s transportation program; to address disparities between black and white student in discipline issues and to gather and monitor data relating to the quality of education for all races; and to “develop a plan to desegregate all schools” in the parish.
If these consent orders are approved by the federal court, the board will have to gather and compile information and file reports for review at least through July 2019 in order to seek release from court supervision.