Vermilion Parish Superintendent responds to defeat of sales tax

The Vermilion Parish voters defeated a 1/2 cent sales tax dedicated to school employee raises and benefits.
With only a 13 percent parish-wide voter turnout, 2,689 said no to the tax, and 2,425 said yes.
So, what is next for the Vermilion Parish School system?
“The defeat is disappointing,” said School Superintendent Tommy Byler. “ I feel disappointed for our employees who go above and beyond on a daily basis. The fact that their efforts and the results they produced did not generate enough interest in the public to ‘invest in Vermilion’ is a little discouraging. It shows that we haven’t done enough yet under my leadership to gain the confidence back from the public to make them understand the importance of a good education system and the quality of the one they currently have.”
Byler said it will now be more challenging for the parish to compete with other parishes regarding teacher pay. He said the school system is in good shape, but the school system will have to look to make cuts in the future.
“Understand we are still financially in good shape and have a great job of being fiscally responsible. This defeat, however, doesn’t allow us to move forward and execute much of the visions that I had for the parish.
“We will begin to look at all systems of operation even deeper than we have, will need to look at the number of facilities that we operate as compared to the changing populations, and we will need to look at the distribution of students because of population shifts. All of these things ultimately circle back to the fact that we have to remain competitive in the salary market for all employees, so we will have to create funding sources via different means.”
As the school system leader, what will Byler tell the school employees to keep them positive?
“Teachers never got into this profession to get rich, but they also didn’t get in this profession with expectations of working multiple jobs to run their households,” he said. “They got into this profession for the kids, and I expect them to continue doing what is best for kids. The lack of support stings more to many of them than the actual raise, so it is my job as their leader to show their worth and encourage them to continue moving forward because others depend on them.”
With summer approaching, Byler expects some teachers to jump ship to another parish because they offer a larger salary than Vermilion Parish.
“When you start talking five and six thousand dollars, upwards to 10-11 thousand in some districts, I can’t guarantee anything,” Byler added. “I do know that it will be difficult to attract the few education majors that are coming out of college.”
Byler said he will take the blame for the tax not passing and will do a better job to improving the parish.
“I would like to thank those who did go out and support this proposition and the many who openly campaigned for approval. With the onset of social media and the ability to put out false information, we have to do a better job of getting people to support our cause,” he said. “You would hope that the results of our district and the progress we have made as a system in the past 20 months would have been enough, but obviously, that wasn’t the case.
“ As the system leader, just as when I was a head football coach, I will take this and put it on me and work