Rejecting Superintendent Sito Narcisse’s original idea of compensating only classroom teachers and librarians, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board has decided to pay out an extra check to all employees, with $1,200 going to educators and $600 to support workers.
Board member Dadrius Lanus, however, would not join them, saying it was unfair to pay support workers less than other employees, many of whom have been overlooked for years.
“My mother was a cafeteria worker for East Baton Rouge Parish schools,” Lanus said. “I know what it looks like and feels like to come home with nothing.”
The final vote Thursday was 7-0 in favor. Lanus stepped out of the room and didn’t vote. He was joined by fellow board member Tramelle Howard, who also did not vote.
The one-time stipend goes only to full-time employees and is set to be paid out in late April. The estimated cost is almost $7 million.
Narcisse said little during Thursday’s discussion.
His original proposal, released Feb. 1, was to pay classroom teachers and librarians, but no one else, a one-time $2,000 check, which would have cost an estimated $8 million.
Several school districts in the Baton Rouge region have increased teacher pay, either in the form of an extra check or a permanent pay raise. East Baton Rouge Parish, no stranger to staff shortages, has had even more trouble this year than in the past filling job positions.
Narcisse said he wanted to do something right away for classroom teachers rather than wait for the completion of a planned salary compensation study, expected to be done by this summer. The study, once complete, will likely result in improved salaries for many groups of employees, not just teachers.
Board members, however, quickly distanced themselves from the proposal and pressed Narcisse to come up with alternatives that compensated more employees. In advance of Thursday’s vote, Narcisse did just that, coming up with at least five alternatives. None, though, were shared with the public before the vote.
Lanus tried to persuade the board on yet another alternative, approving a $1,000 across-the-board check, but excluding Central Office staff making more than $60,000 a year.
“I think everybody should have the opportunity to be paid the same thing,” Lanus said.
Lanus, a candidate for a seat on the Metro Council, said he was not “grandstanding” in offering this on-the-fly proposal. It was defeated in a 4-5 vote.
Board member Dawn Collins, a candidate for state representative, voted for the stipend that passed, but clearly struggled with it, saying it reflected less her personal beliefs and more what she thought would pass.
“I just want people to be able to get compensated,” she said.
Collins asked her colleagues if they would use federal COVID money to improve employee compensation rather than draw from the district’s general operating fund, but she got no support. It’s an appeal she’s made several times before. Narcisse, however, has resisted using the money in that manner, budgeting it instead for other educational purposes.
Angela Reams-Brown, president of the East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers, echoed Collins. While she supports paying employees more, she doesn’t want the school district to overspend not and have to cut back later, perhaps with layoffs.
“We need to make sure this doesn’t bite us in the butt,” she said.
Several support workers who were excluded from Narcisse’s original proposal asked the board to make sure they were included.
“I love what I do, but I want to be treated fairly,” said Catherine Woolfolk, a bus driver.
Another bus driver, Latoya Dunn, said the past couple of years have been tough. She said she gets up before 4 a.m. every day and often runs multiple routes because the district is short bus drivers.
“Whenever you’re sleeping,” Dunn said, “we’re out there struggling.”
Email Charles Lussier at clussier@theadvocate.com and follow him on Twitter, @Charles_Lussier.
A proposal to pay classroom teachers and librarians in Baton Rouge public schools an extra one-time $2,000 check is still alive, but school di…
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