Following hours of questions and debate around the meeting table, first in committee session a week earlier then at their May session Monday, the Winn Parish School Board has drawn up a wish list for the superintendent, asking for 10 additional educators for Winn schools this fall.
And while all parties seemed to agree with the prospect of granting principals all the teachers they want, discussion around the table perhaps paralleled the adage of “an irresistible force meeting an immovable object.”
The cost to the Winn district of each teacher would run $50,000 once salary, retirement and insurance is added in, Supt. Al Simmons informed members. “Where are we going to get the money?” asked President Joe Lynn Browning. “We have a broke budget. Somebody’s got to pay for it.”
Simmons said that “somebody” is not going to be the State of Louisiana. All Winn will receive is the annual Minimum Foundation monies which are not growing. Steve Vines who had brought the issue before the board Monday said that surrounding parishes which also operate on MFP monies have better student/teacher ratios in the classrooms.
Simmons countered that these others have mills or other tax factors providing a funding base for addition hire. Winn has two sales taxes dedicated primarily to benefit school employees but they are for existing employees rather than new hires.
Vines had opened discussion by asking for three additional teachers at WSHS and WMS. He read through numbers suggesting top-heavy employment at the Central Office while the high school has seen three teacher slots eliminated since 2021 (with maybe another cut next fall), despite maintaining student enrollment around the 350 level. He contended that this is a “need,” not a “want.”
“We’ve hired this man (the superintendent) to run the system,” said Browning. “We can’t mandate him to hire unless we can find the money.” Underwood agreed that if the board puts its budget in the red, “the state will be up here.” Dan Taylor came back with “we’ve got to sit down as a board to look at the budget to see what we, as a united body, can do.”
“The most important thing we can do is staffing,” said Lacy McManus. “Make the money work for our students.” Michelle Carpenter observed. “Something has to be done but right now, we don’t know what.” She added for educators and staffers in attendance, “We are listening.”
Members agreed that they should start now, “not waiting until September,” to look at and understand the system’s monies and budget. The board has previously heard that its legislated responsibility is to produce a balanced budget annually.
The board voted to add three teachers are WSHS, three at WMS, two at WPS, one at DHS and one at CHS.