Editor, The Era-Leader:
What's going on?
The “walkout” of hundreds of the Washington Parish School Board employees came as somewhat of a surprise to many..........but, it shouldn't have been.
According to several sources, the 2024 school board budget contained pay raises for school board staff, but no raises for teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Huh....go figure, right. WWL-TV reported that there has been no raise in pay for teachers since 1978. But, raises for “staff”, yeah that's fair, right?
That decision ranks right in there with Bud Light deciding to use Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson for it's beer.
As a lifelong observer of humans and their behavior, I often ask myself, why? How are decisions like this made and does no one do any research?
To be fair, they did approve a $600 stipend to all employees last April with a 4% stipend paid in October. A stipend is a fixed sum paid periodically, not a pay raise.
Also, the bus drivers got a one-time fuel supplement of $1000.00 with school board president, John Wyble, stating that the board will take another look at it this summer. Did they? Are you curious what the Washington Parish School Board staff makes?
Well, I'm glad you asked. I'm going to start you off with these and I have included the webpage link if you would like to look at a few more. As of 2022, Frances H Varnado pulls in an annual salary of $132,396.00. Jennifer Sue Thomas, $93,223.00, Virginia Ann Cowart, $90,545, Daisy Aylene Crain, $85,200.00....this is all public information at govsalaries.com/salaries/LA/washington-parish-school-system?year=2022. I am not slighting these and others for their wages, but to vote yourself raises at this point in time is not a good decision nor is it good thinking.
There have been claims that there is no money in the budget for raises. As of 2022, according to buzzfile.com/business/Wpsb, the school board has in its coffers, $55.7 million dollars. Considering how government spends money these days, and how money is budgeted, the financials can get confusing. So it's hard to tell if that is true or not. I'm not a CPA or a financial auditor.
I have no children in the Washington Parish School System. I had three in there, but that was a while back. The last one graduated from Franklinton High in 2013.
That doesn't make me any less concerned.
If we want to support our teachers, our school cafeteria workers, our custodians, and our bus drivers, we need to learn to vote better. There are elections coming up folks, and we need to do the research and listen to what the candidates are saying and we need to vote better.
Ben M Sarro
Franklinton
