The final chapter in the story of Hurricane Katrina for the school board, the rebuilding of Salmen High School, is now officially complete.

The St. Tammany School Board committee as a whole for business affairs and administrative unanimously accepted the recommendation deeming the new facility as substantially complete.

The school was heavily damaged during Katrina and the Federal Emergency Management Administration funded the $50,327,190 project. This summer, the temporary building will be removed and salvaged. That area will once again become the baseball field, said Cameron Tipton, lead supervisor of construction for the School Board.

Construction workers put the finishing touches on the brand-new Salmen High School in Slidell, which the St. Tammany School Board said is ready to be used by students and teachers. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenach)

A tour and opening of the completed facility will be held later this summer.

The campus and all new facilities will be open for the start of the 2010-2011 school year.

The bid for modular classrooms at Abney Elementary School in Slidell was unanimously recommended for acceptance. The project estimate was $2 million, and the bid came in from Kent Construction at $2,267,000, the lowest of five bids received. The project involved the construction of 16 classrooms, the administration building, walkways and required associated parking and landscaping.

Modular buildings at St. Tammany Junior High will be used for the Abney Elementary pre-kindergarten program at the beginning of the year until the new modular buildings at Abney are completed.

The committee also unanimously approved stationery millages for the parish in the coming year, keeping them at the same rate and not rolling millages forward this year. A short presentation by Superintendent Gayle Sloan reviewed how much millage the school board can collect and the need to keep the millages as low as possible for taxpayers.

Currently, 47.55 mills are collected to support the general funds. This includes support for schools, wages and benefits for employees, instructional and operational funds, custodial and maintenance expenses, utilities, curriculum specialists, resource helping teachers, elementary physical education, the seven-period days in high schools and professional development opportunities for the work force of the school board.

Sloan said, “We have had no new taxes to support the general fund since 1983.” She added that the millage must be renewed every 10 years and will be up for renewal in 2012.

After property reassessments, millages were rolled back, in 2004 and 2008. Although taxing agencies are permitted to roll forward millages to the most recent property assessment year’s rate, the St. Tammany’s School Board has not done so, resulting in a net millage decrease of 13.65 mills, instead of the 60 mills originally approved in 1983.

A separate millage for construction and renovation of schools and classrooms, new technology and security cameras has also decreased after the 2008 assessment from 25.9 mills to 20.9 mills and will not be rolled forward this year, saving 5 mills. In short, there will be no increase in the amount collected in property tax for the school board the coming year.

In addition, Sloan reiterated the system’s dedication to keeping costs low, despite the rising cost of the retirement plan, additional health insurance costs and additional costs of state mandated plans.

In order to mitigate these additional costs, 120 employment positions are being eliminated through attrition. “No one is losing their job; some people will be changing work location, but will still have their jobs,” said Sloan.

Addition revenue from the state in the Minimum Foundation Program, or MFP, will amount to about $17 million. The new budget will contain the additional state funding, but much of this will cover the additional costs.

The remainder of the meeting was the acceptance the monthly reports from construction, maintenance and custodial, risk management, transportation and the monthly purchasing report.