St. George school district legislation to be presented in upcoming session
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - On March 20, Senator Rick Edmonds and St. George leadership outlined plans to introduce legislation to create a school district in St. George, which was the driving goal behind establishing the new city. Along with the bill, there would be a constitutional amendment. Sen. Edmonds said both the amendment and bill will be ready for discussion before the Senate Education Committee on the first day of the legislative session in April.
“First of all, people ask about the geographical boundaries. In the bill we will take now what is officially the St. George geographical boundaries, so any resident that lives there will form that school district,” Edmonds said. “I’m also proud today to announce that we’ve already had some wonderful meetings with the superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish, and we are working together that we will deal with charter schools. We expect a cooperative agreement with EBR Parish to deal with charter schools so no child will be left behind on that issue.”
Though Sen. Edmonds says he’s been in contact with the East Baton Rouge Schools Superintendent Lamont Cole about this process. Superintendent Cole declined an interview, instead issuing this statement:
“We’re going to review the information presented today with members of the school board and we will address the matter publicly soon.”
Six public schools and two charter schools fall inside the St. George city limits. Interim Mayor Dustin Yates said their school district would take over their campuses if everything is passed. He said it’s too soon to say where the students will come from and how many they will have, but they are banking on a cooperative agreement with EBR schools to give parents and students the choice.
“Every local decides what they’re able to pay and what the public passes or fails, so if a child that goes back to East Baton Rouge and stays in a magnet program there or another charter, those dollars, both local and MFP will follow that child, we’ll have that sharing agreement,” Sen. Edmonds said.
The plans are subject to change based on how much EBR schools and St. George officials are able to work together. Senator Edmonds said this could be a long process and this is just the beginning, but if everything lines up as they hope, we could be voting on this in November.
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