District 1 committee prioritizes $707,000 in school repairs; approves canopy, security and road work

At a St. Mary Parish Maintenance District 1 meeting, the committee reviewed principals’ special-project requests and prioritized about $707,000 in maintenance and capital needs for the coming fiscal year.

Miss Boiesen, the district finance presenter, told the group the maintenance fund balance is projected at $1,100,000 and the capital projects fund at $627,000 for a combined $1.7 million; after the board’s proposed spending she said the remaining combined balance would be about $1,097,000. “Since our rule of thumb is to keep approximately 1,000,000 dollars of fund balance,” she said, the committee agreed to limit additional spending so the reserve is retained.

Committee members then reviewed school-by-school requests. The meeting record shows the board prioritized a repair of a deteriorating bus canopy at Franklin (estimated repair cost $40,000) and recorded District 1’s share at 27 percent — $10,800. A board member moved “to approve the items that were presented in addition to the 27% of the $40,000 for the replacement or the repair of the canopy of $10,800,” a motion that was seconded and later proceeded as part of the meeting’s allocations.

Mister Regard, the maintenance lead, read individual school requests while principals and school representatives described site-specific safety and access problems. Franklin Senior High requested a range of repairs including outlets ($2,500), parking-lot/concrete repairs ($20,000), gym bleachers repairs (estimated $18,000; requesting $11,000), chillers and cooling-tower work ($25,000), and food-service hot-water work ($10,000). Speakers noted some line items are “allotments” — partial funding intended to cover a substantial portion of a job rather than full replacement.

School representatives also asked the board to consider converting a frequently regraded gravel road that serves the baseball and football fields to asphalt to reduce recurring maintenance. Representatives described heavy traffic from events and frequent re‑graveling; the maintenance lead provided a rough cost estimate of about $12,500 for an initial resurfacing phase.

To make limited funds go farther, members agreed to smaller technical fixes where possible. The clerk summarized agreed reallocations: reduce painting allotments from $5,000 to $1,000 with school teams supplying labor; substitute small, on-demand hot-water heaters (about $500) instead of a larger $10,000 install where feasible; move $10,000 toward the asphalt road project; and move $5,000 toward track-safety items such as long-jump pit covers and mats.

The committee also agreed to engage an architect to provide options and cost estimates for secure front-office vestibules and mall-area security solutions at schools that lack a double-door vestibule, with the architect’s report to inform a later, specific capital funding decision.

Next steps recorded at the meeting included formalizing the prioritized allocations and preparing purchase/work orders; several motions were made and recorded by the clerk and resolved by voice or consensus during the session. The committee did not record detailed roll-call vote tallies in the transcript provided; where motions were adopted, the clerk noted the items would move forward and any unused earmarked funds would remain available to the respective schools.