LPSS To Discuss Budget Wed.; Board Invites Public Input
If you have any suggestions, comments or concerns about the Lafayette Parish School Sytem's budget, your chance to speak up is offered Wednesday afternoon.
A public hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday at the LPSS Central Office ahead of a special meeting to adopt the proposed budget. If you do wish to offer any comments, you must do so quickly as the public hearing is scheduled to last 30 minutes.
The budget includes $500,00 to fund the increased presence of school resource officers. An additional $700,000 is proposed for school safety contingencies. The school board has discussed school safety concerns amid school shootings across the U.S.
The school system was plagued with transportation issues at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. Along those lines, the budget has several line item adjustments shuffling funds to and from the district's transportation system. Officials have budgeted $657,000 from the general fund to fund the transportation zone reorganization. The board is expecting to have a $125,000 drop in fuel costs to run the district's buses and maintenance vehicles. A proposed allocation of $80,000 is proposed to fund what the document terms a "Community Liaison For Transportation Zone." Two clerical assistants will be on the payroll for a combined $62,000 One line item that caught this reporter's eye, is a $21,000 allocation for traffic control at Ridge Elementary.
Following the Special Budget Meeting, the school board will meet for its regularly scheduled monthly meeting. The regular meeting agenda is filled with items that mostly include bid approvals for projects throughout the district and HR items which may fill employee positions ahead of the start of the school year in August. Click here to view tomorrow's regular meeting agenda.