AVAP costs, camp lease prices to be studied

Avoyelles School Board President Lynn Deloach will appoint two special committees to study specific issues facing the public school district.

One committee will research possible options for alternative education in the parish. The other will review the costs of the School Board’s Section 16 campsite leases and hunting permits.

Both items were brought up by Board Member Robin Moreau during the board’s committee meetings on April 11.

Moreau asked for discussion on the cost of the Avoyelles Virtual Alternative Program (AVAP), housed in the former elementary wing on the old Hessmer High School campus.

The board approved extending the AVAP contract for one year while other options could be considered.

AVAP is primarily for students who have been expelled or placed on long-term suspension. It also accepts students with diagnosed behavioral issues who are not expelled but are sent to the site due to their behavior in school.

AVAP is provided by the private Ombudsman Education Services. It is finishing its fifth year at the Hessmer site.

Since it began, it has conducted two half-day sessions per school day for students in grades 6-12.

The session includes behavior modification programs to help students change the behaviors that led to them being sent to the alternative school.

In 2019-20, AVAP will have a full-day session and follow the new 4-day school week. It will also add an elementary program to serve younger students in need of an alternative school setting and behavior modification therapy.

“It doesn’t make sense that we get $8,100 per student from the state and we spend $15,000 per student on those in alternative education,” Deloach said. “We are trying to trim that cost. We need to put it back in perspective.”

Moreau and Deloach both voted against renewing AVAP’s contract when it came up for board action earlier this year.

Moreau said he wants the board to consider eliminating student transportation to and from the AVAP site. He said parents would be responsible for getting the students to and from AVAP each day.

That would reduce some cost associated with the program.

CAMP LEASES/PERMITS

On the Section 16 issue, Deloach said the committee he appoints will look at the issue of camp leases and the cost of Section 16 hunting permits to determine if those costs can be reduced.

Moreau said he presented the item at the Building & Lands Committee because he wants the board to study the state laws concerning leasing 16th Section property and determine if the board is required to lease property for at least 85 percent of its appraised value.

“I am hoping we can do something different and do not have to go by an appraisal,” he said.

If the campsite lease prices have to be based on an appraisal, he said the board should obtain a new appraisal that would allow cost of the leases to be reduced.

“We have lost a lot of trust from the public, and they have not been supportive of us when we have asked for new taxes,” Moreau said. “If we try to build relationships by such things as making leases and hunting permits more affordable, it will be better for us in the future.”

Moreau said there are many campsites that are going unleased because the price is too high. The board also sells relatively few hunting permits for the Section 16 properties.