St. Tammany New Property Tax Supports School Safety

St. Tammany Parish school system has 55 school campuses with 39,000 students. The school system takes no cuts when it comes to safety. Currently there are 1,793 security cameras in schools and buses, perimeter fencing around all campuses, and visitor photo id systems in place at each school.

The new property tax, which 64% of voters supported, gives the school system money annually allotted from the new 2-mill tax. The money will pay for police officers and mental health providers at each school campus. Luckily the 2 mills will not cost St. Tammany homeowners additional tax money due to the School Board decision to cut 2 mills from the district’s tax rate.

Other outcomes of the May 4, 2019 voting were also positive. Sixty-five percent of the voters agreed to allow $175 million in bonds to go to St. Tammany schools for construction and technology purposes. Covington elected Mark Verret as the final member of the City Council. There was also a 10-mill, 10-year property tax for Lacombe area recreation renewed as well as a 5-mill, 10-year tax for the Pearl River fire district.
This month St. Tammany Parish voters approved referendums “to pay for police officers and mental health providers on public school campuses.”



Click Here for the Source of the Information.

St. Tammany Parish Publish School District to Give Employees A Much-Needed Pay Raise

One of the most important career paths many can take is a job that helps mold and raise the next generation.  St. Tammany Parish public school district sees the importance of its employees and is proposing an increase by $2.8 million in salaries for the 2018-2019 school year.

The $235 million that will total the salaries in the district is part of a proposed $416.6 million budget that St. Tammany Parish School Board has agreed to and developed alongside the St. Tammany

Federation of Teachers and School Employees.

The district will also use the allotted monies for special revenue funds, capital project funds and debt service funds.  Typically, the School Board accepts a spending plan in September, but this proposed budget is set for the school district’s fiscal year that began July 1, 2018 and will end July 31, 2019.

The money projected for the budget will be granted by the state through the Minimum Foundation Program, State funding, and local funding.  There will be a projected $890,000 increase in the Minimum Foundation Program, with $212.3 million from state funding and local funding will represent $203.8 million of the budget.

This is a reasonable proposal for the St. Tammany Parish Schools.  The district runs 55 schools with more than 5,600 employees and 39,000 students.  According to Superintendent Trey Folse and Director of Business Affairs Terri Prevost, the budget will not affect local sales or property tax revenues.

To learn more information or for any questions you might have about the proposed budget, the School Board has scheduled a public hearing Thursday August 23, 2018 at 6pm. The hearing will be held at the School Board’s office located at 321 N. Theard St., Covington.

Click Here for Source Information.

Important Home Buying Information

In case you haven’t been “in the market” to buy a home in a very long time, now its as easy as a touch of your finger to begin the search for the perfect home you wish to buy.  However, this article gives you some helpful tips on how to process and move forward with the information that you find online during your home buying process.

Before you even get started with buying a home, make sure you know what type of home that you want.  That doesn’t just mean, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and location, although those are pretty much mandatory pieces of information you will need when searching for a home to buy.  Make a list of the items that you can and can’t “live without.”  If you definitely need a space for an office, make sure that the home you are buying has a room with enough outlets and phone lines to install your office equipment and hook up a modem.  If you need a lot of cabinets in your kitchen, make sure that you put that on the list and don’t settle for a home that has a kitchen which won’t be functional for you.  When you have your list of of absolute must-have’s, then make sure you know how much home you can afford so that you can find a home that not only fits your needs but fits in your budget.

Once you have established the exact type of home that you want, start your real estate search online.  There are hundreds of websites out there which carry what is called an IDX feed, which is access to the MLS feed (Realtor listings) of all homes for sale in your area.  By using a useful website, you can actually sort the homes for sale by bedrooms, baths, square footage, and price.  Once you have sorted down the homes which fit your basic requirements, you can view multiple pictures of the homes for sale to see what type of features they include.

After utilizing all of these preliminary tools, you may consider hiring a Realtor who can take you around, get you access to homes for sale, educate you on parts of town, school districts, and realistic pricing.  A Realtor should have their finger on the pulse of the real estate market and should be well-informed on where homes with your price range and parameters may be located. Also, a Realtor can assist you throughout the entire buying process as well.

When you are doing your preliminary research, be sure to pay attention to any open house information you may see about homes in which you are especially interested.  It is also advised that you drive the neighborhoods in which you are interested, as well as the surrounding area to see if they are going to fit your lifestyle as well as your budget.

All of these tools should help you make an informed and intelligent decision about the home you wish to buy.  These tips should also get you as close as possible to any existing home on the market which is in your price range, with the features you want, where you and your family can be happy.

Click Here for the Source of the Information.

St. Tammany Parish Students Prepare for New Industry Jobs

Dual enrollment in both high school and college will be available to St. Tammany Parish students with the advent of joint enrollment programs with St. Tammany Parish high schools and Southeastern and Northshore Technical College.  Programs are being implemented in local high schools focused on getting students to think about their career goals, whether they want to attend a 4-year college, a 2-year college, or go to a technical school.  For those students who have no plans for additional education after high school, the program gives students direction on where they can get technical certifications in a field in which they are interested.

In addition to this early planning for St. Tammany Parish high school students, a new task is now

being considered by  a panel of experts who met Tuesday, October 10th to brainstorm about how to prepare upcoming graduating students to be able to join an ever-changing workforce.  One of the unique ideas being discussed is preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist.  The panel of experts include educators, members of the economic development foundation, and business associates.

St. Tammany Parish Schools’ Superintendent Trey Folse, as well as Assistant Superintendent Regina Sanford are members of this panel.  Representing Northshore Technical Community College is Chancellor William Wainwright and university president John Crain represents Southeastern Louisiana University.

Programs are being developed and will be developed based on a supply and demand basis, which is why these experts are constantly touching base with local businesses to see what demands will need to be met by the emerging workforce.

“If our school system fails, your business is not far behind,” Folse told the audience.
Wainwright, meanwhile, said educators are constantly consulting with industry and economic development leaders to determine what programs are needed to meet future demand. “The programs we offer are supply and demand driven,” he said.

One of the tools that will be used to assist high school students to reach the next level will be the $10 million science, technology, engineering and mathematics campus that has been built in Lacombe and opened in February of this year. The industries that will be offering programs through this campus are biological sciences, maritime, information technology and business preparation for students interested in moving forward to get a 4-year degree.

Click Here for the Source of the Information.