Terrebonne superintendent visits Honduras Elementary to explain plans to close schools

Parents packed an elementary school cafeteria to express concerns about the planned shuttering of their school.

Terrebonne Parish Superintendent "Bubba" Orgeron explained his plans that include closing Honduras Elementary School to a crowd of parents. The plan goes before the Terrebonne Parish School Board Dec. 5 for a vote. If the vote passes Bayou Black Elementary, Gibson Elementary and Honduras Elementary all will close, and their students and teachers will be consolidated into other schools.

Gibson students would pool with Schriever Elementary School, Honduras Elementary School with Village East and Acadian, and Bayou Black would see some students go to Mulberry and some to Schriever Elementary School.

"I know tonight is about Honduras, but I'm looking at the community of Terrebonne," Orgeron said. "This is not a popular answer, but I'm working to get 100% certified teachers."

According to Orgeron, his plan to consolidate the schools will place more certified teachers in front of students by merging schools with dwindling student enrollment with other schools to make classroom sizes about 20 to 24 students per class. It also would remove certified teachers from positions like librarians and computer labs and place those teachers back in front of classrooms. The plan also gives a flat 10% pay raise to all teachers.

He said the school district operates on state dollars that are paid for each student that is enrolled in the district, about $4,000 a child. Because of the dwindling enrollment, decisions have to be made to head off potential problems that could occur if the enrollment continues to diminish year-by-year.

Terrebonne Parish School District lost 2,160 students district-wide in the past five years, a 12.5% decline. According to local data, those who are moving are moving toward the city, or out of the parish entirely.

Many of the parents of students at Honduras were not pleased.

"I can honestly say this is her home because she's here from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. If you take her from this home you are going to lose this money because I'm going to take her out," Kelly Livas said. "This consolidation, I don't want it."

Livas said that after Hurricane Ida she had to bounce her children from one school to another, and finally was able to settle in at Honduras. She liked the school, and its smaller classroom size. She said her children did well at the school and she didn't understand why her kids were being told to move to another school if they were performing well at Honduras.

Orgeron said that he believes that teachers are the most important part of the education process. He said he wants every teacher in every classroom to be certified because when a student has a bad teacher it creates a gap in their education. A gap in a child's education will set them behind, he said.

Daisy Rivas said her son has a learning disability and change further disrupts his learning process. She said the smaller classroom sizes aid her son in focusing on his assignments and she trusts the teachers at Honduras with giving him the education he needs.

"Our kids just benefit so much from this place," she said. "I'm scared to move them."

Renee Remant asked why if the number of students has declined, why did the parish need to get more certified teachers in front of students? Orgeron explained that when classroom sizes exceed 24 students, and sometimes less, the classroom splits into two classes, which requires two teachers.

The parish currently has 180 uncertified teachers, and this plan would see this reduced to about 70 in the first year. By consolidating the schools, the teachers from the merged schools are pooled at one location with the students allowing the school to better divide up the students among the teachers available. This will mean less teachers required for the same number of students.

Another portion of the plan that would increase the number of certified teachers in classrooms, is to take certified teachers from positions like librarians, computer labs, and master teacher positions, and put them back in front of students as teachers. This would cut down on the number of uncertified teachers necessary to instruct students.

More: Terrebonne superintendent to present consolidation plan at Bayou Black, Honduras schools

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A master teacher is a person who instructs other teachers on how to teach more effectively.

Meyblyn Briceno, Alexandra Torress and Jeny Ollives were in attendance watching the meeting. Briceno's son, Hector Sanchez, helped a reporter with the Houma Courier to speak with the three.

Asked how they felt about the potential consolidation, Sanchez said the three didn't have concerns with the education their children would receive, they just wanted to know what kind of new uniforms they would need and how they would get them.

According to Orgeron, if any parents need aid in getting school uniforms, they can visit the A.D. Martin West Park Special Education and Federal Center building located at 7573 W. Park Ave. and ask for Cheryl Degruise.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Terrebonne superintendent discusses consolidation plan at Honduras Elementary