A new school district in EBR Parish is one step closer - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
A Senate Education Committee debated plans for several area schools to break away from the East Baton Rouge Parish School District and form their own district Thursday, and the bill passed. However, the bill was amended to make the district slightly smaller.
People living in the Shenandoah and Woodlawn areas of Baton Rouge want to leave and form their own district. The new district is one step closer and it could be up to the voters in a statewide vote in the fall. Senator Bodie White says if everything goes well, the new school district would be ready to go in the fall of 2013. Around 6,500 students would be affected by the change.
Senate Bill 299 establishes the school district for the Sherwood Forest area. It allows that district to put a tax for the district.
Norman Browning, with a local community group, says the independent school model has worked in the nearby Central District. Their proposed new system would include seven existing schools in the Woodlawn-Shenandoah area.
"The new proposed district will take Interstate 10 and Interstate 12 where they meet and form a pie with Ascension Parish line and Livingston Parish line. So everything inside there," said Browning.
Interim East Baton Rouge School Superintendent Carlos Sam protested the move. "If we are to lose these 10 schools, our school district would go to a school district in crisis," said Sam. "We will have an unfunded liability of 10 to 15 million dollars if not more. We will lose an estimated $83 million, and because of budget constraints we will lose an additional 28 to 33 million."
The bill is a constitutional amendment and would need state wide approval. Plus the measure needs two thirds on each side.
The measure was amended by Sen. Dan Claitor R-Baton Rouge to take out two schools Jefferson Terrace and Westminister Elementary would remain with EBR. The measure now moves to the Senate floor.
The following schools would be part of the proposed new district:
Copyright 2012 WAFB. All rights reserved.
 | 
|
