Chamber hears from Superintendent Toni Hamlin on proposed tax issue

By: MICHAEL BORDELON

News Editor

Evangeline Parish School Board Superintendent Toni Hamlin addressed several concerns and answered questions regarding the upcoming bond election for a new Ville Platte High School during a meeting of the Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce, Monday, June 16.

Hamlin stated after the failure of the bond election in October 2007, she met with several business owners in the area and they all suggested the same solution. They wanted the millage to be lower and the length of the tax to be shortened. The bond election that failed was for $28,500,000 to be paid off in 40 years. Hamlin said the new bond election, calling for $21,500,000 to be paid in 30 years (18.7 mills), was a result of those meetings with business owners.

“I think this is fair, reasonable and attainable,” Hamlin said.

In addition to the construction of a new Ville Platte High School, the bond election calls for $750,000 of upgrades to be made at Chataignier Elementary. Hamlin provided a handout detailing the construction and upgrade plans.

Ville Platte High School construction will consist of the following:

•A new high school building, which will feature: Departmental and magnet classrooms; special education classrooms; science and computer labs; nursing program space; large group lecture room; band and choir rooms; library; administration suite; commons/cafetorium with stage; regulation gymnasium and dressing rooms; mechanical, storage and support space; new furniture and equipment; and technology and wiring systems.

•Athletic facilities: Home grandstand for 2,000 with press box; visitor grandstand for 1,000; all-weather, eight-lane track with field event areas; fieldhouse, tickets, concessions and public restroom facilities; football field lighting and public address system; and athletic equipment.

•Out buildings: Vocational - Agriculture shop

•Site development: Site grading, drainage, paving, fencing and landscaping.

Chataignier Elementary improvements will include:

•Gymnasium: New air conditioning/heating system and new lighting.

•Site work: New parking and drive paving.

•Main classroom building: Upgrade flooring, ceilings and lighting.

Hamlin fielded several questions regarding rumors and concerns over the tax. The first of those questions was from Terryl Fontenot. Fontenot brought up the question of why the current facility was not good enough for high school students, but good enough for middle schoolers.

Hamlin stated a new school was necessary to serve the needs of students. Only 18 percent of public high school students in this parish attend college, Hamlin said, and most of the other 82 percent go to work.

“We have an obligation to serve the needs of the other 82 percent,” she said. “And we can do that by offering vocational courses.”

The main problem with Ville Platte High School, according to Hamlin, is that it is land locked.

“There is no room for expansion and we do not have the facilities at Ville Platte High to provide these vocational courses.”

Hamlin added a survey was conducted of students at Ville Platte High School recently and there was an overwhelming interest in vocational/skill courses. A large part of why the new school is needed, Hamlin said, is for this purpose.

As far as the question of why the current high school building is good enough for middle schoolers, Hamlin said middle schoolers do not require the same level of learning as high schoolers. She stated a middle school only needed three things to operate successfully, and those are classrooms, a gymnasium and a cafeteria.

Fontenot also asked if there could be any guarantee that if the bond election succeeded the parish could put an end to the desegregation lawsuit. Hamlin said no such guarantee could be made, but did say she was told that if a new school was constructed, the school board would be about 95 percent of its way to achieving unitary status.

Carl Fontenot asked about students walking along the Chataignier Road to go to school. He said the road has no shoulder and asked if there was a plan to keep these students off that roadway. Hamlin stated every single student at Ville Platte High School was on a school bus driver’s roster and that transportation has been there for them to use. With the school outside of the city, she said she believed more students would be riding buses to and from school.

Hamlin also addressed the concerns regarding the tax itself. Many have suggested a sales tax would be better suited for the construction of the high school, so it’s not only business/property owners paying the bill. However, Hamlin said a sales tax is too unstable to ensure payment of these bonds. She added nearly every school built is done so with property taxes. She also stated Pine Prairie and Basile have the facilities they have because the people there decided it was in the best interest of the children to tax themselves for the sake of the schools.

“It would be an injustice to these kids to bus them around the parish. There is one person who calls the proposed school a new ‘Taj Mahal,’ but it is far from that. It will be a much-needed adequate school.”

As an example that the school is not as extravagant as some people are claiming, Hamlin mentioned the school’s proposed cafetorium. She said the school’s cafeteria and auditorium have been combined to create one room that could be used for multiple functions. This was a design choice to keep costs, and therefore the bond election, as low as possible without unnecessary sacrifices.

“It would be tragic to lose this school,” she said. “Think progressively. I ask that people look beyond their personal baggage and think about the students.”