Lafourche Parish school board adopts new salary schedule and creates senior administrative roles

The Lafourche Parish School Board on May 7 approved a newly designed salary schedule and an organizational restructure aimed at raising teacher pay and realigning staffing roles across the district.

The board authorized creation of a chief academic officer and an executive director of operational services and directed the superintendent to prepare job descriptions and advertise the positions. The board also approved a new salary system that adjusts step increases, raises some coaching indices and removes the separate CSEP coaching scale so long‑time paraprofessionals receive pay more comparable to teachers.

Byron Hendrick, who presented the package to the board as part of a vendor review, said the plan was intended to “right size” positions and make compensation more transparent and competitive. The presentation credited a vendor study (referred to in the meeting as LeanFold) for benchmarking pay against peer districts and proposing step and index changes.

The schedule includes larger step increases early in employees’ careers, higher stipends for advanced degrees (the presentation noted a $4,700 annual stipend for a master’s degree), and specific index increases for extracurricular roles, including middle‑ and high‑school cheer and dance sponsors and additions such as an assistant middle‑school track coach.

Public commenters praised the changes. Community member and former teacher Shanna Urotich said she was enthusiastic, calling the package “fabulous” and welcoming the increased transparency. Bus driver Tammy Rivera, who spoke during an earlier item on transportation, urged the board to consider training existing staff for routing tasks rather than contracting out services.

Board members discussed timing and fiscal impact. A board member described the first‑year lift as the heaviest and referenced a large additional cost figure as stated in the transcript; the meeting transcript renders that number as “$5,700,000” (the precise figure and whether it referred to annual or one‑time cost was unclear in the audio transcript). Presenters said step increases and other changes would be reflected in September payroll once the fiscal year and staffing placements are finalized, and they committed to returning with further financial detail.

Motions to adopt the organizational changes and the salary schedule carried; the transcript records “motion carries” but does not include recorded roll‑call tallies. The board additionally approved related administrative items (job descriptions, pay‑index adjustments and public posting of the schedule) and said the district will publish the full schedule and supporting documentation on its website.

Next steps: the superintendent was authorized to create and advertise the new positions and to implement the adopted salary schedule; the board will receive published schedules and further fiscal detail in follow‑up reports.