1. education
2. school

2A
THE DAILY STAR, HAMMOND, LA
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013
TAXES
Death Notices
CONTINUED FROM 1A
JANICE LYNN PICOU
Janice Lynn Picou, 69, of Springfield, died April 24; funeral 11
a.m. Monday, St. Stephen Catholic Church, Whitehall; interment,
Maurepas Cemetery; arrangements with Harry McKneely & Son
Funeral Home, Hammond.
Depending on Louisiana’s May 4 election
results,
Tangipahoa’s
monetary support for education could very well
hit last place at the finish
line, according to reports
provided by Chief Financial Officer Bret Schnadelbach.
Also affecting the budget is the fact that the
board has had to dip into
savings in order to deal
with state-mandated retirement and health care
costs, which are rising
at rapid rates “without a
single dollar increase in
per-pupil state funding,”
Kolwe said.
The system will reportedly spend $7.8 million
more in employer retirement cost in 2013-14
as apposed to 2009-10.
However, health care
costs are largely uncertain due to implementation of the Affordable
Care Act, also known as
“Obamacare.”
Much of the “rainy day
funds” has been used
and is not coming back,
Schnadelbach said.
In an internal memo
to all system employees,
Kolwe wrote, “It is vital
for the continued improvement of our school
district that both of these
propositions are successful. If either of these
propositions should fail,
then our school board
will be faced with difficult
decisions in determining
the necessary reductions
in expenditures to develop a balanced budget.”
The tax proposals
themselves have sent
some red flags throughout the community with
several residents planting signs in their yard
reading “NO TAXES” in
bold red type.
Meanwhile,
organizations such as the
Hammond Chamber of
Commerce and the Hammond Area Economic
and Industrial Development District Board
have publicly supported
the proposals, claiming
a thriving local economy
partly results from offering potential employees
“good schools” for their
children to attend.
HAEID President Robby Miller recently said
the city has a major interstate system nearby contributing to commerce
as well as a benevolent
rail system. All that’s remains is ongoing support
for improvements at local schools, he said.
APRIL DIANA VANDER LINDEN
April Diana Vander Linden, 39, of Ponchatoula, died April 23;
funeral 1 p.m. Saturday, chapel of Harry McKneely and Son
Funeral Home, Ponchatoula; interment, Ponchatoula Cemetery.
Tributes
JANICE LYNN PICOU
Janice Lynn Picou, 69 years old of Springfield, La., passed
away, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, at Our Lady of the Lake
Regional Medical Center.
She was born on Monday, Aug. 30, 1943, in New Roads, La.,
daughter of the late Albert Nicholas and the
late Rita Nicholas.
Janice was raised in Baton Rouge,
where she raised her first family.
In March of 1985, she married Dawson
Picou Sr., who would become the love of
her life and ultimately her reason for living.
She spent 30 years as his wife, helping
raise numerous children, grandchildren and
flowers.
She was a member of St. Stephen
Picou
Catholic Church, she and Dawson lived
their lives to the fullest and Janice left this
world with no regrets.
Surviving are son, Steven McNemar and wife Staci;
daughter, Stacey McNemar; stepdaughter, Sandra Balfantz
and husband Eddie; stepson, Dawson Picou Jr. and fiancee
Carmen; stepdaughter, Deanna Rush and husband Andrew;
stepson, Alex Picou Sr.; grandchildren, Anne Lee Starks and
husband Brandon, Jacob McNemar and wife Megan, Stephanie
McNemar, McKenzi McNemar, Jenna Ollie, Caitlin McKeon,
Robert Deville, Caleb Hanna, Luke Hanna, Danielle McNemar,
Bradley McNemar, Christina Bovia and husband Kevin, Erica
LaBorde and husband Clint, Tracie Crawford and husband
Mikel, Seth Richardson, Ricky Bercegeay Jr. and wife Leslie,
Cassie Phelps and husband Bryan, Patricia Vicknair and husband Jeff, Joshua Picou, Jarett Picou, Anna Rush, Mathew
Rush, Alex Picou Jr and wife Misty, David Picou, Johnny Picou
and wife Cindy, Maegan Picou, Shawn Hodges, 14 greatgrandchildren; and special family, Adam “Jr” Guidroz and J.C.
Guidroz.
She is preceded in death by her parents; husband for 30
years, Dawson Picou Sr.; son, Daniel McNemar; stepdaughter,
Charlotte Richardson; and stepson, Craig Picou.
Friends will be received Sunday, April 28, 2013 from 6 p.m.
until 9 p.m. at Harry McKneely and Son, Hammond.
Visitation will resume Monday, April 29, 2013 at St. Stephen
Catholic Church in Whitehall, La., with Mass beginning at 11
a.m., with Father Jason Palermo officiating.
Interment will follow in the Maurepas Cemetery, Maurepas,
La.
An on-line guest book is available at www.harrymckneely.
com.
APRIL DIANA VANDER LINDEN
April Diana Vander Linden, 39 years old of Ponchatoula, La.,
passed away Tuesday, April 23, 2013, at North Oaks Medical
Center.
April was born on Tuesday, January 1,
1974, in Lutcher.
Surviving are husband, Brett Joseph
Vander Linden; daughter, Haley Vander
Linden; son, Taylor Vander Linden;
parents, Charles Georgel Sr. and Judy
Kennedy Georgel; sister, Dawn LeBlanc;
brothers, Charles Georgel, Jr. and
Christopher Georgel; and numerous nieces
and nephews.
Friends will be received Saturday, April
Vander Linden
27, 2013 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Harry
McKneely and Son Funeral Home in Ponchatoula.
Funeral services will begin at 1:00 pm in the funeral home
chapel with Pastor Deven Pedeaux officiating.
Interment will follow in the Ponchatoula Cemetery.
A guest book is available at www.harrymckneely.com.
The proposals
The first proposal is
Death notices are free. Tributes are paid obituaries.
a 15-mill tax for Hammond-area residents living within Consolidated
School District No. 1. If
passed, the tax would be
collected for five years,
generating approximately $3.5 million annually.
“This increase of six
mills would impact a typical homeowner whose
property is subjected
to homestead exemption and appraised for
$150,000, only $45 per
year or $3.75 a month,”
Kolwe said.
Called the Hammond
Magnet Program Tax,
the tax would replace
the existing 9-mill Accelerated Program Tax.
It would help not only
offset the loss of federal magnet grant funds
expected to expire this
year, but also provide
permanent funding for
nearly six dozen teaching
positions in Hammond,
the board says.
The second proposal
is the rededication of a
1-cent sales tax currently
restricted for brick-andmortar purposes. The
system collects two separate 1-cent sales taxes –
one for teachers’ salaries
and benefits and another
currently restricted to
new construction and
maintaining facilities.
Kolwe emphasized this
is not a new tax; it is an
existing tax that will be
collected until 2043, as
approved by voters in
2007. But is the board’s
hope that this money
would be freed up to
fund appropriate matters, he said.
“This flexibility (would)
not relieve the school
board of its responsibility
to continue to maintain
its existing school facilities or capital projects,”
Kolwe said. “Currently,
the board has in excess of
$8 million in the maintenance fund and $22 million in the capital project
fund. These balances
cannot be moved to the
general fund…(but) if this
is approved, some of the
future sales tax proceeds
could be used to pay for
teacher’s salaries and
benefits, textbooks, utility bills, and other operating expenses.”
Consequences
Many teaching positions in Hammond are
funded through an existing property tax and
grant money that will
expire this year. Without
these funds those positions are in jeopardy,
Kolwe said.
“If the Hammond
Magnet Tax fails then
the approximately 70 po-
sitions within the Hammond-area schools will
not have funding and
will be subject to elimination,” he said.
He further said that
if the rededication fails
then balancing the budget would cause them
to trim fat down to the
bone.
“The requirement by
state legislation is that
teachers will not be paid
less than what they were
paid the previous school
year,” Kolwe said. “The
only solution to resolving this budget deficit is
to reduce the number of
employees. Which positions will be reduced
has not yet been determined.”
Cutting back
The school system has
an annual budget of $125
million, approximately
19,800 students, and
1,210 teachers.
Currently, the system’s
student-teacher ratio is
one of the highest in the
state at 16 students per
teacher, making it difficult for children to get
individualized attention,
administrators say.
Meanwhile, instructional
expenditures
exceed the required
70 percent. The average teacher’s salary in
Tangipahoa is $47,672,
which is below the state
average of $49,168,
ranking 36th out of 69
districts.
“We have strived to
keep our teacher’s salaries as competitive as
possible. At one time our
starting teacher’s salary
was ranked in the top 10
in the state,” Kolwe said.
“However…we have had
to freeze step raises for
all employees for the past
two school years. In fact,
the last time we increased
salaries for all employees
was (six years ago).”
Other cost saving measures include eliminating
13 positions within the
Central Office in Amite.
Exact positions cut were
not provided to the Daily
Star.
“We have long since
trimmed the fat from our
budgets. Any additional
reductions in expenditures will impact student
learning and compromise classroom instruction,” Kolwe said.
Unfortunately, some
areas cannot see cuts due
to desegregation orders.
This includes support of
the magnet programs,
which are supposed to
help desegregate student
populations at a cost of
nearly $3 million per
year.
Low rank in support
Tangipahoa is the only
district in the state without a parishwide property millage supporting
school operations. Individual municipalities
have opted to divide
property taxes per area
schools.
Based on 2010-11 data
from the state Department of Education, the
average millage rate
for all school districts
in Louisiana is 40.24
mills. The average mill
rate for Tangipahoa is
10.64, meaning the parish ranks second-to-last
behind Terrebonne, a
parish with 10,000 fewer
residents than Tangipahoa.
“Terrebonne
Parish
School Board has two tax
propositions on the May
4 ballot for 31 mills. If
they are successful, then
we will have the distinction of having the lowest
property millage support (of education) in the
state,” Kolwe said.
St. Tammany and Livingston parish’s average
millage rate is 65 and 37,
respectively.
If Tangipahoa collected the state’s average
property millage rate,
then local funding for education would increase
by $14.4 million, which
would be enough to the
cover the budget deficit
and beyond, Schnadelbach said.
Performance
schools
Why is it vital for the
community to continue
to support local education? Chief Administrative Office Theresa Hamilton said she believes the
numbers speak for themselves. During a presentation to this year’s Leadership Tangipahoa class,
she said 18 percent of
Tangipahoa parish public school students will
persist through college,
38 percent will arrive at
ninth-grade on time and
at level, and 72 percent
will graduate on time,
according to data.
The system received a
letter grade of C in 2012
with a performance score
of 93.5, which was up
from 87.8 from the year
before.
Nineteen schools had
improved performance
schools in 2012 as compared with the previous
year. However, 13 received a lower score.
Only two schools – including Loranger High
School and Southeastern
Lab School – received an
A letter grade.
HOSPITAL
CONTINUED FROM 1A
from the hospital’s ex-officio board members.
After the parish council’s vote, the hospital
asked Nelson to stay on as
a voting ex-officio member, but Derenbecker said
Nelson declined the offer.
Normally ex-officio are
non-voting, but Derenbecker said the hospital’s bylaws
allow such a move when
the board members deem
it necessary to conduct the
hospital’s business, which
includes getting opinions
from physicians.
Starting May 1, when
Nelson is no longer on the
board, the board will no
longer have a physician.
Derenbecker said it is vital for the hospital to have
such a member.
“Every hospital in the
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state has at least one
member on the board,”
he said.
The presence of a doctor is also important to
bring new doctors to the
community, he said.
“When potential doctors come here, they often
ask to speak to the doctor
on our board,” he said.
Derenbecker said the
Tangipahoa Parish Council’s role is to appoint
board members, but is
very limited after that.
The council must approve bonds the hospital
wants to get before they go
to the state bond commission. Derenbecker also
said if the hospital wants
to sell property valued
at more than $300,000,
then the council must also
approve that.
“(The council) creates
the hospital service district and defines the taxing boundaries of the district, which is the Seventh
Ward,” he said.
North Oaks receives no
public money or taxes, but
Hood Memorial in Amite,
which is Hospital District
No.2, does have a tax to
support the hospital.
Muscarello has maintained that having the
physicians as ex-officio,
non-voting members is
sufficient to provide guidance to the board.
“Only the state Legislature could change the
number of members on
their board, and then if
they did (the parish council) would appoint that
person,” Muscarello said.
“It seems they are trying
to circumvent the system,
and neither me nor the
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other council members
appreciate that.”
Muscarello was the
councilman who nominated and led the charge
to replace Nelson with
Macaluso. He said his
actions have been in the
best interest of the public.
“I have no personal vendetta against North Oaks,”
he said. “I want things
done correctly. I don’t like
sneaky stuff. I’m here to
protect the interest of the
people of the parish.”
Tangiahoa Parish President Gordon Burgess also
disagreed with Derenbecker’s opinion.
“As far as I’m concerned, the government
authority rest in the
hands of the parish government and council,”
Burgess said. “I hope we
get an opinion from the
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attorney general as soon
as we can. It’s only an
opinion, but it carries value. This may go as far as
the court system.”
Burgess also said that
he thought the council’s
role in North Oaks is
greater than Derenbecker
described.
“I completely disagree
that all the council does is
appoint board members,”
he said. “I think overall,
from what I know, the attorney general will side
with the parish govern-
ment and council.”
While the matter is still
being debated between
the two sides, Burgess
said he values North Oaks
and that the hospital vital
for the commmunity.
“North Oaks is very
important to the parish,”
he said. “We need them.
It’s very important that
we have hospital such as
North Oaks here.”
It’s unclear when the
attorney general’s office
will issue an opinion on
the matter.
Correction
In a brief for the Hammond High 40-year reunion, the incorrect phone number was listed. For
more information on the event, call Bobbie at 954381-9740.
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