St. Tammany board members explain reasoning behind new school district
by Kia Hall Hayes, The Times-Picayune Wednesday October 29, 2008, 10:03 PM

Asked to his explain his decision to support the attendance boundary approved Tuesday night by the St. Tammany School Board, board president Neal Hennegan did not mince words.

"I have watched us move Greenleaves all over the freaking place, " he said, referring to the subdivision off Lonesome Road that has been considered to supply students to Mandeville area schools for more than a decade.

In a four-hour meeting Tuesday night, the St. Tammany Parish School Board once again considered a proposal to move Greenleaves residents to a new school but eventually decided in a split vote to select students living in the Monteleone Junior High School attendance zone, as well as those living around the Viola Street and Lotus Road subdivisions off Louisiana 1088, to send to the new high school.

Greenleaves was targeted "just to achieve a better socioeconomic balance" at the new school, Hennegan said Wednesday, explaining his resistance to that plan.

"I didn't want to move them again. They're like a football, " he said.

Jini Linn Cass, a Greenleaves resident, said Wednesday she appreciates his support. She was one of hundreds from the Lonesome Road area who urged the board to let them stay at Fontainebleau High School, which is two miles away from some Lonesome Road homes.

"We were very happy with the decision last night, " said Cass, whose son, a freshman at Fontainebleau, would have attended the $47 million new high school. It is under construction off Louisiana 1088 north of Interstate 12 and set to open for the 2009-10 school year.

"They seem to want us for the numbers and not for the real reasons of proximity and safety, " she said.

The approved boundary, introduced by board member Donald Villere at a previous meeting, will result in the new high school having 881 students by 2011, with 36 percent of its population qualifying for free or reduced-priced lunch. Fontainebleau would have 1,652 students, 26 percent of whom would qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The lunch figure is one measure of socioeconomic levels.

It also would send to the school about 200 fewer students than the rejected plan that included the Lonesome Road area, and about 100 fewer than a plan that included undeveloped areas north and south of the new high school and the Monteleone Junior High School district, according to enrollment numbers released by school officials.

During the lengthy discussion period, parents and officials expressed concerns that the approved boundary would not send enough students to the new school, which is being built to relieve crowding at the 2,260-student Fontainebleau.

Board member Mary K. Bellisario, who said she was "very concerned" about being able to adequately populate the new school, proposed an amendment calling for the board to revisit and possibly change the school's boundary in two years.

"Otherwise, unfortunately, the motion says that we will have the least amount of students at that school, " Bellisario said Tuesday of Villere's proposal.

After the amendment passed, with Villere voting against it, the board approved Villere's boundary proposal by a vote of 8 to 4, with Bellisario abstaining and members Ronald Panks and Daniel Zechenelly absent.

Villere, Hennegan, Elizabeth Heintz, Michael Dirmann, Jack Loup, Carmen Johnson, Bob Womack and John Lamarque voted for the motion. Charles Harrell, Jody Palmer, Ronald Bettencourtt and Ray Alfred voted against it.

Bellisario said she abstained because she did not like Villere's proposal but did not want to vote against her own amendment.

Parents crowded inside the Covington board room lobbied for or against the three plans on behalf of their children.

Money and class was an implicit theme, as some parents off Louisiana 1088 asked officials to include the more affluent Lonesome Road area to keep school performance and test scores high.

"All of these things can be directly correlated to socioeconomic data, " Stephanie Ruoss said.

Others accused the Lonesome Road parents of fighting to stay in Fontainebleau for socioeconomic reasons, a claim that made emotions run high.

"We have no problem at all going to school with children in Lacombe, " said another Lonesome Road mom. "It is not an ethnicity problem we have. It is a proximity problem we have."