By Cheryl Mercedes - bio | email
DONALDSONVILLE, LA (WAFB) - Tuesday night, the Ascension Parish School Board will consider calling a special election to fund renovations and repairs to more than a dozen schools after an accreditation committee that made its rounds a couple of years ago determined the difference between new and old schools in the parish is striking.
Prairieville Middle School is commonly referred to as "the jail." Its deep-colored facade includes large, thick bars. It is in line for makeover. "It really wasn't built for today's standards," spokesman for Ascension Schools Johnnie Balfanz said. He points to its lack of electrical capabilities, drainage, and space as some of the reasons the 50-year-old building is just not fit to handle 650 students.
"When all these desks are out, there's really not a lot of room here for teachers and students to walk around," he said. The school has ten sections of eighth grade, with half of them in temporary buildings. Those were the only buildings on the campus that did not flood during hurricane season. However, things will soon turn around. Plans are underway to renovate the school, beginning with its facade.
Carver Primary's look from the outside isn't quite as dramatic, but a quick look inside shows its age. The 1956 school has a leaky air conditioner, moldy walls and ceilings, and sandbags on standby. Humidifiers are in most classrooms to keep students from getting sick. "We change the water constantly, every day," Balfanz said. There are also makeshift cable mounts, exposed pipes, and relatively new floors that continue to buckle. "It's been fixed several times and just won't stay," Principal Barbara Guthrie said.
Superintendent Donald Songy says a lot of those problems, like space and updating for modern technology, will take a lot more than a quick fix. Donaldsonville High, for example, isn't quite as old as the others, but it, too, is experiencing growing pains. "It needs to be double this size," Songy said. The school library is past capacity. Books are stacked on the floors and computers are scarce. Songy would like to build a new library on campus and remove temporary buildings from all Ascension Parish school campuses. "With this bond issue, it can happen in the next three to four years," he said.
There are 18 schools listed for a total of $100 million worth of improvements. The school system would like to renew some bonds to fund the work. If the board votes to hold a special election to do that, it would be held on October 17th.
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