Lafayette Parish School Board Whittling Away At Deficit

The President of the Lafayette Parish School Board, Dr. Hunter Beasley joined Ken Romero and Dr. John Sutherlin on Go Acadiana to discuss efforts to reduce a $23 million shortfall in the system's budget.

When asked why it took the School Board so long to propose cuts to reduce the deficit to $7.7 million Dr. Beasley said,

We had some of these ideas and some of these ideas had been proposed before or had been in the works. So it just basically kinda came to a head late last week...We looked at different things, a one-time distribution to teachers that was coming from the Minimum Foundation Program. We were giving the teachers a step increase anyway...We just basically merged those two together and saved you know about $1.2 million.

There were other cuts proposed according to Beasley,

We made some staffing adjustments for Special Ed and regular Ed basically keeping positions in-line with our staffing formula, the pupil-teacher ratio. We looked at removing some funding for some spots, instructional spots over at N.P. Moss Prep and eliminate Dean of Students at four schools. We've limited staffing appeals between both General Ed and Special Ed.

To hear the entire interview with Dr. Beasley, click on the blue arrow below: