St. James Parish School Board approves vendor payments, funds district attorney and advances Head Start continuation

The St. James Parish School Board on March 10 approved several routine financial and contractual items, including pay applications for construction and design work, a $25,000 annual funding allocation for the board’s attorney, approval of the Head Start continuation application and an extension of the district’s contract with Noel Consulting LLC.

Board president opened the meeting, and committee chairs reported unanimous recommendations from recent executive, policy, finance and building committee meetings. The board voted to approve pay applications presented by staff for projects including the St. James High School media center broadcast studio, design work by Murray Architects, softball-complex renovations, campus drainage work and a food-service freezer/cooler replacement. Staff stated the presented payouts as totaling approximately $429,364 (figure taken from the meeting presentation; transcript numbers were partially garbled—see clarifying details). The motion to approve the payments passed by voice vote with no recorded opposition.

On legal services funding, staff sought board approval to fund a portion of services provided by the board’s attorney. The request was for $25,000—the same amount approved last year. The board approved the annual funding request; a board member praised the attorney’s long service during the discussion. The motion was seconded by Diana Catilla and carried without opposition.

The board also approved the St. James Parish Head Start continuation application and program improvement plan for the current year of the district’s five-year grant cycle. Presenting staff said most of the grant budget is allocated to salaries and staff; the motion to approve was moved by "Tim" (as recorded in the transcript) and seconded by Raymond Grove, and passed by voice vote.

Separately, the board approved an extension to the district’s contract with Noel Consulting LLC to continue work aligning the district’s data tracker with the state accountability system, provide professional development and pay teacher stipends for summer assessment-alignment work. Staff said the extension will support training in May and additional summer work to prepare for the next school year. The contract extension motion passed by voice vote.

After convening in executive session to discuss pending litigation, the board returned to open session and accepted recommendations from outside counsel on the items discussed. The board indicated no additional public action was taken beyond accepting counsel’s recommendations.

The meeting included recognitions of district employees, health service providers, new teachers and principals of the year; those honors and group photos were taken prior to the business votes.

Clarifying details: the transcript’s numeric amounts for some pay applications are garbled in places (see clarifying_details). Where motions, seconds or roll-call tallies were not named in the transcript, the minutes record the motion as carried by voice vote with no recorded opposition. The board did not request additional funding or policy action beyond the items listed above at this meeting.