ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. (KLFY) — St. Landry Parish School Board is actively working to reduce its budget deficit, which has decreased from over $7 million to $4.9 million, according to Superintendent Milton Batiste.

Batiste said the budget shortfall has prompted the district to implement cost-cutting measures, including reducing operational expenses and consolidating teaching positions. This comes as the district faces declining enrollment, which has led to decreased funding.

“It’s like every other district right now, budget is a big concern,” Batiste said. “We have a variety of options for students, including traditional public schools, and we’re competing for students just like everybody else.”

Batiste explained that the district is being strategic in aligning staff numbers with student enrollment.

“If you had, you know, X number of teachers and a particular grade level, had X number of kids, and now we only require, you know, 3 positions as opposed to four then that’s a position we can pull back,” Batiste said. “You know, we’ll shift that position to a vacancy or a retiree’s position somewhere like that.”

The superintendent emphasized the importance of being conservative with spending while maintaining instructional quality.

“Just be as conservative as possible without, you know, compromises through an instruction, but also to, you know, through attrition or whatever else, we can start pulling back on positions,” Batiste added.

Batiste also mentioned the district’s efforts to seek grant funding as part of the strategy to manage the budget deficit.

“Also, we want to continue to seek grant funding. So just to continue to be transparent with these conversations, to let the public know you know where we are, but also being frugal, and responsible with the dollars that we do have.” Batiste said.

As the St. Landry Parish School Board continues its efforts to reduce the budget deficit, Superintendent Batiste remains hopeful that these measures will lead to financial stability and success for the district.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KLFY. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KLFY staff before being published.

Latest news