St. Tammany Schools to Up Their Resource Officers

The United States has seen a great amount of school tragedies in the last ten years.  Schools across America are amping up their security measures.  St. Tammany School Board is no different.  The School Board recently approved hiring additional resource officers. There will now be police officers and mental health providers for each campus.

The county reports this will be a $4 million annual increase in cost and will come from the existing funding for the first year.  Administrators have advised the district that more funding for future school years will need to be covered.

Fortunately, there have been reduced tax rates across St. Tammany Parish. May 17, 2018 a 1-mill reduction over the 2017 rate was adopted, cutting the rate back to 64.41 mills.

Luckily St. Tammany School District’s property tax rate has dropped 23 mills since 1992.  This can be contributed to the amount needed to cover outstanding bonds dropping and the district’s bond attorneys refinancing outstanding debt at a lower interest rate. The 1 mill cut saved the taxpayers $1.9 million.

Since the recent cut in taxes, many board members are hoping that voters will agree to the $4 million in the security enhancement project.