St. Mary and Franklin Banner-Tribune from Franklin, Louisiana • 1

taiKflfli ffiaiiKei? TAe Fbice ofe Teche 9 Vol. 98 No. 92 Franklin, Louisiana Thursday, April 1, 1982 TIT. 16 Pags 10' I) Parish teachers will soon he top paid in state MIK TRADER, a salvaged British vessel, lies athwart the west channel of the At Port of West St. Mary Salvaged ship berthed By JOHN TRAVIS The St.

Mary Parish School Board plans to offer the highest wages to secondary and elementary public school teachers of any school system in Louisiana. Last night, the St. Mary Parish School Board's Salary Committee voiced unanimous approval of a $1.4 million boost in yearly wages for its teachers and other school employees. The School Board will meet next Thursday to ratify the Committee's vote. However, the healthy pay increase looks certain, one School Boardmember noted, because the Salary Committee consists of 8 of the 15 members of the St.

Mary Parish School Board. Clearly pleased about being able to grant the wage increase, St. Mary School Superintendent Evans Medine last night predicted that "this number one ranking in the state should help in recruiting quality personnel for the system." But, Medine pointed out that the number one status may be short lived because other parishes like Lafayette are also contemplating increases. The $1.4 million for teachers com from an accumulated School Board surplus of $2.5 million, which has been built up from 3-10 cent and 14 cent sales tax collections. The Salary Committee's proposed salary adjustment will, this year, grant lump sums of $1,000 for all public school teachers and $550 for other school employees.

Besides the 872 regular nine month teachers and the 636 other employees: 62 twelve-month teachers will receive lump sums of $333 each; 13 fen-month teachers will get lump sums of $111 each; 226 twelve-month employees will collect lump sums of $182 each; and 11 ten-month employees will receive $61 each. This year's lump sum payment, according to Medine, will be granted May 20 if the full Board concurs with the Committee's recommendation. During the 1982-83 school year, however, the lump sum payment system will be converted into a month-by-month payment system, and the same pay increase scale will apply. Medine last night projected that the current sales tax collection level "looks good" for the next year and a half to two years. "After that (2 years) it will depend on how the economy performs," Medine reasoned.

Parish school teachers received a $600 lump sum payment last year. The Salary Committee also voted unanimously to set aside $100,000 of the $2,5 million surplus for an increase in longevity pay for teachers and other employees who have more than 20 years of service to the system. The state funds longevity pay increase during the first 20 years, and then the parish picks up the incentive increases during and after the 21st year. In addition, the Salary Committee endorsed a new proposal by Superintendent Medine to "Index" the job classifications of all parish Principals, Assistant Principals, Curriculum Consultants, Supervisors, and other administrative officials. Indexing refers to a system by which the salaries of the above mentioned officials are adjusted because of the relative importance of their job positions.

According to the present method, for example, an Assistant Principal's base salary may be $20,000 for a ten month work year. If that person was Assistant Principal at large junior high like Morgan City Junior High, his index would be 12-10, or 1.20. Hence, to arrive at that Morgan City Junior High Assistant Principal's full salary, the bookkeeper would multiply 12-10 (or 1.20) times $20,000, and arrive at $24,000. With the current method, the index factor for Assistant Principal is lower than that of a Curriculum With the new framework, Assistant Principals will carry a higher index classification number than Curriculum Consultants. Specifically, the Salary Com- Continued on Page 2) West St.

Mary Port awaiting refitting. pulled near a channel area, gusts of wind backlipped it onto shore again. "So we lightened the boat as much as we could," he said. "We took off everything that was expendable hatch covers, things like that. And we cut off the masts." It took "Cuz about five days to tow its salvage to port but even that venture was not without its hazards, said Daugherty.

"Last Saturday, just as we were getting ready to come in," he said, "we got hit by 60 mile winds. We had to stand offshore and anchor in the Gulf. But we finally got that baby in." the vessel will be renamed "Deep Diver Daugherty said the recovery operation actually lasted from February 15 to MarcV 4, when the. MIK Trader was hauled into deep water where a UCT team dived to inspect the hull. "We had to repair some holes, after all, that boat had been pounded heavy on what they call an ironshore rocky said.

"But making underwater repairs like that are the marks of our trade, after all. "But I tell you, this is the first ship I ever salvaged, and it was quite exciting." West St. Mary Port Director Gary LaGrange was ecstatic today about the economical potentials the hurricane-beaten prize catch offers. By RAY BROUSSARD Salvaging his first vessel, a 190-foot, 500-ton British freighter, was "quite an adventure" for William "Cuz" Daugherty, rugged deep sea-diving leader of Underwater Completion Team (UCT) of New Iberia. Several years ago, Daugherty set a world's record of more than 1,500 feet in a simulated deep sea dive, in a specialized compression chamber in Florida.

"But bringing in this freighter was a special thing, too," he said today in a telephone interview! "It was rugged to accomplish, because we actually had to salvage the vessel twice." Daugherty's prize catch, the --Pwiish freighter "MIK Trader," beached athwart the new west channel at the Port of West St. Mary Parish near Louisa. UCT leader Daugherty has special plans for the vessel. are going to laboriously cut a giant hole in the underside of the vessel and practically restructure it so that it can be used to launch and recover submarine diving craft used by our company in undersea oilfield service operation," he said. The wrecked freighter was towed to the West St.

Mary Port by Daugherty's diving support vessel, the "Cuz because UCT has 12 (Photo by Roger Stwiff) "Three or four years ago we sent out probes, testing the market worldwide just to see what we had here, what we could offer, who we could lure here," he said. "The most encouraging responses were from United Fruit of Honduras, Officials told us that if our port could handle banana boats with tonnages between 500 and 1,000 we might be able to divert some of the banana traffic headed to New Orleans. "Actually, what the officials told us makes profound logic. Look at it this way. If our port can handle the MIK Trader, which is docked in our new west channel near the UCT, it can probably handle vessels of 1,000 tons.

"The United Fruit officials i Jto us that Ecuadorian interests might find it more profitable to use our port, where immediate offloading would be available, rather than go to New Orleans and face stevedore strikes and have their bananas rot. "We also got a call yesterday from West Indian Lines (out of West Palm Beach Fla.) saying that they heard about our port and might consider using it, rather than the Port of Iberia. Using our port would preclude their vessels from having to twist up the Commercial Canal. In short, we might be more accessible to them." headed cerned, next year's number will be the same as this year's, twenty-two. Four are expected to leave, but there are also four expected incomers.

If Chitmacha Day School is closed, it faces three possible alternatives. It could become a Cooperative School between the State of Louisiana and ihe BIA, in which non-Indians would be able to attend. It may also become a private institution which charges tuition to Indians and non-Indians alike. Or, it may open itself to other Indian Nations across the country. Chitimacha Day School for extinction? acres of land at the port.

Daughtery plans to establish a subsea completion research and development center at the port, dredging slips and constructing bulkheading and dock areas. The "MIK Trader" is believed to have been foundered about 200 miles northwest of Jamaica by Hurricane Allen in August, 1980, and was driven ashore on Grand Cayman Island. Daugherty discovered the vessel there in January of this year and claimed her for UCT. "The British crew had already offloaded all the cargo," Daugherty said. "But we figured we still made a prize catch because we estimate the worth of the vessel at $3 million." f- Daugherty widjhe vessel was in remarkably good condition when he found it, despite its being pounded against hard rock and coral.

It will be sandblasted and refitted at the St. Mary Port. "You could actually stand on shore and walk along the side of the vessel where it had been beached on Grand Cayman Island," Daugherty said. "It was one hell of a job getting it off." Actually, the work, said Daugherty, involved "two salvages." He pointed out that once the freighter was tugged offshore and year. This new building offers the latest in educational and audio-visual equipment, a modern cafeteria and kitchen, classrooms for each grade, a gymnasium, and a library.

After that time, (Jhe rise in the educational aptitude of the students leaving Chitimacha Day School was very noticeable. Learning conditions were improved and thus education was improved. At last, Indian education was at a high point. Today, things are again looking bleak. Because of recent reductions in the federal budget, the school has been forced to cut back and there is a defintie danger of it being closed entirely.

The school's principal, John Singleton, said that although "Reaganomics" does have something to do with this danger, it actually began with the Carter administration. "The Carter administration made a law which said that the BIA's school's budgets were to be determined by their enrollment. This was because some of the larger schools were not able to make it on a fixed budget for each BIA schools," he explained. When President Regan came into office, policies were made which kept the" schools from filling any vacancies when someone quit or was released. Therefore, the number of teachers gradually dropped was never rejuvenated.

Another serious factor con concept of culture shock. Prior to the graduating class of 1977-78, very few of the students finished high school, and even fewer attended college. The shift of cultures, from one of a reservation to one of an intergrated school was the cause of this. Should Chitimacha Day School be closed, the children there would have to attend public schools, and over a million dollars of educational, facilities would be wasted. So also would be wasted the talents of people like John Singleton, who have dedicated their lives to the education of Native Americans.

Some persons have commented that this budget cutting of BIA schools might be the first step in a federal plan to eventually terminate all reservations in the country. But Singleton doesn't think so. "I don't think CCongress or the people would stand for that, he said. Elswhere in country schools funded by the BIA have been put on a list of possible closures, such as in Anchorage, Alaska, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Phoenix, Arizona. Another major problem of closing down Chitimacha is the By ROGER E.

STOUFF The establishment of an elementary school on the Chitimacha Indian Reservation involved a long historical struggle. However, this continuous effort may soon come to an abrupt end. In 1937, St. Mary Parish condemned one of their public schools and ordered that it be removed. Rather than having the school torn down, it was moved to the Chitimacha Indian Reservation on the outskirts of Charenton.

This old wooden derelict had only two classrooms and a kitchen. There was no cafeteria space, and the students had to eat lunch at their desks. Restrooms had to be added on the outside. The school, held together by paint and dust, accomodated the grades of first through eight, with kindergarten being added in 1968. However, as time wore on, the school aged even more, and the number of students grew, over sixty in the two classrooms.

It became apparent that this building would no longer suffice, even with a recent addition of another classroom, and a larger facility was needed. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a division of the Department of the Interior granted funds for the building of a new school for Chitimacha, a school costing over a million dollars. The new building opened its first term in the 1978-79 school tributing to the possible closure of Chitimacha is the fact that since it opened in 1978, the enrollment has been steadily dropping. For the 78-79 school term, the enrollment was thirty-eight students. In 79-80, the enrollment was thirty-seven, then in 80-81 it was twenty-nine, and this year it is twenty-two.

"Periodically we have to send in reports on the square footage for each student, and they say what we have here is a big waste," Singleton said. The school was proposed when sixty-seven students were enrolled, and a projected outlook predicted that there would be almost ninety kids when it was completed. However, something went wrong, and this number was never reached. Singleton taught at Chitimacha for one year in 1964-65. When he returned two years before the new building was opened, he taught classes and maintained the job of principal at the same time.

However, for three of four years now he has been acting in the capacity of principal only. But because of Reagan's freeze on goverment hiring, he finds himself back in the classroom once more. There is only one regular teacher besides Singleton, one aid, and one Title I teacher and aid. The parish does send in a part-time aid at the present time. However, because of the budget cuts, the Title I aid will be cut next year.

As far as enrollment is con it STUDENTS AT CHITIMACHA DAY SCI OOL. No. 8 City Councilman For Experience Vote Neil Minor Pd. For By Neil Minor and Leadership.