School Officials Deal With Deficit

School Officials Deal With Deficit

BOBBY ARDOIN

St. Landry Now.com Editor

The federally allocated millions in COVID-19 funding are now gone, as St. Landry Parish School officials are preparing to operate the District with a projected budget deficit of $4.9 million during 2025-26.

Board members officially adopted the annual budget last week and some of them appeared somewhat relieved after Finance Director Shaun Grantham said she found enough potential revenues and savings that she thinks will help reduce the previously anticipated budget deficit down from an original $7.1 million projection.

“It is what it is,” Superintendent Milton Batiste III told the Board during discussions prior to the vote, which featured no objections and a pair of abstentions from Hazel Sias and Tiffany Nolan.

“I think (the District) has the right size of central office staffing and at the school levels. That is going to be the new part of where we are right now,” Batiste added.

According to a revised budget message from Grantham, the budgetary issues confronting the District are primarily related to paying off revenue bonds, lack of growth in annual revenue streams and student count projections which she says could cost St. Landry $5.74 million this year.

The budget shows that 388 students are expected to attend the newly-opened Helix AI and Bio-Medical Academy.

Demographic projections provided to board members earlier this year indicate that the District could lose as many as 743 students in 2024-25, but Grantham thinks that number could be somewhat less.

During her budget presentation last Thursday night, Grantham also told the board that her amended 2024-25 budget, which was also approved by board members, anticipates an $18 million deficit, which Batiste said is due to paying off $10 million in previously bonded money.

While board member Raymond Cassimere said he is not thrilled with the financial situation facing the District, he said that $4.9 million looks better than the outlook presented by Grantham during preliminary budget discussions last month.

“We’ve reduced (the deficit projection). I thought that no matter what happens, we would probably be in a deficit of about two million. Now I think we are getting closer to that range,” said Cassimere.

Cassimere said it’s important for board members to watch staffing within the District.

“The bottom line is it comes back to that and that’s not an easy task, since (staffing) is going to be 85 percent of our budget,” Cassimere pointed out.

Compared to a potential $7.1 million deficit proposed early in August, Cassimere said he is “comfortable” with the $4.9 projection.

Board president Bianca Vedell said handling the deficit will probably be the major concern for board members and the administrative staff.

Batiste remained optimistic that the District can navigate through what is owed from last year.

“All of the invoices, expenditures and revenue are still being received from last year, so all of the final numbers are still not in, so we have to consider (2024-25) as a work in progress,” Batiste noted.