A petition with dozens of signatures has been sent to Attorney General Jeff Landry, requesting that he investigate a St. Landry Parish School Board meeting.
The letter to which the petition is attached is signed by Opelousas resident Derrick Comeaux. In it, he says that an item on a March board agenda was misleading to the public. You can read it yourself by scrolling down.
The item, which scheduled discussion and possible adoption of a capital improvement plan, was "inaccurate and misleading," and designed to prevent the public from knowing that part of the plan addressed the closure and restructuring of parish schools, Comeaux alleges.
The item outlined how funds that would have been raised by last month’s failed property tax would have been spent on parish buildings. Part of the plan included moving students so schools could be renovated, and consolidating schools into new buildings, and other rezonings. The school system’s plan included a demographic analysis of every school in the parish, as well as engineering analysis of each school building in the parish.
Comeaux claims that many people didn’t realize that construction would also include movement and rezoning of students, and in his complaint he alleges that the agenda item was crafted to conceal that.
Comeaux asks the AG’s office to investigate the item as a violation of the state’s open meetings law.
We’ve reached out to the AG’s office but haven’t heard back from them yet. A spokeswoman for the School System said the Superintendent is aware of the complaint.
