Legislation to create a school district to match the city of St. George has hit a speed bump in the wake of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board’s decision to oppose the proposal unless there is greater sharing of an estimated $60 million in legacy costs associated with the breakaway.
School leaders also want a new approach to a section of the legislation requiring that students in the two districts be allowed to enroll in each other’s magnet programs in perpetuity.
The dispute led lead author, Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-St. George, to ask the House Education Committee on Tuesday to temporarily defer consideration of , which lays out the details of the proposed district.
The committee did vote 8-2 to pass a second St. George bill, , a proposed amendment to the ¶¶Òõh Constitution that would allow the new district to receive state education funding. That bill needs support from two-thirds of the Legislature.
Both bills have already cleared the state Senate. The House Education Committee is not expected to meet again until early next week. The legislative session ends June 12.
The chain of events began 17 hours earlier at a hastily called meeting Monday night when a narrow majority of the parish School Board approved a resolution opposing the two St. George bills “as written,†saying the new district “would place unfair burdens on the remaining students and residents†of the parish school system.
urged the committee and full House to “delay any action on this bill until appropriate amendments can be made to address the above issues.†The board, however, says it does not oppose the proposed April 18, 2026, public vote to create the new St. George school district. The referendum would need to pass both statewide and in East Baton Rouge Parish.
The parish School Board approved the opposition resolution after two months of fruitless behind-the-scenes discussions with Edmonds and co-author Emily Chenevert, R-Baton Rouge, to try to get the legislation changed.
When it came time Tuesday for the House Education Committee to hear SB 234, Edmonds asked the committee to defer the bill.
“I have met with multiple folks, and there is still work to do,†Edmonds told the committee.
In deferring the bill, he said he was honoring a request from Rep. Barbara Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge, a member of the committee. Before she was elected to the Legislature, Freiberg spent six years serving on the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, three as its president.
Edmonds, however, successfully persuaded the committee Tuesday to not hold up SB 25, the proposed constitutional amendment, saying that bill was not at issue. Edmonds also noted that SB25 and SB 234 both need to pass in order for the new school district to head to voters.
“It’s vice versa,†he said. “You have to have both.â€
If it comes to fruition, the new St. George school system would be the fifth public school district in East Baton Rouge Parish, joining Baker, Central and Zachary. Its boundaries would match those of the city of St. George, and it would begin operations in July 2027.
Baker, Central and Zachary were allowed to open without having to absorb legacy costs, despite complaints at the time that they should have done so. The St. George school legislation has revived this debate.
In its opposition resolution, the parish School Board complains about the current legislation’s failure to cover St. George’s share of an estimated $359 million in retiree health insurance costs that have accrued through the years. The resolution describes these legacy costs as an unfunded liability “created with the full knowledge and voice of the representatives of the voters of St. George through their duly elected Board members.â€
The $359 million estimate for “post-employment benefits†comes from East Baton Rouge’s most recent annual audit, completed by the auditing firm EisnerAmper.
St. George would educate an estimated 16% of the students in the school system. Multiplying $359 million by 16%, the school system argues that a St. George would owe it nearly $60 million. The school system wants the St. George legislation to establish a payment plan that would cover that cost, or a similar agreed-upon amount, over time.
Edmonds told House Education Committee members that he has spoken with a lot of people, including an actuary, to try to establish the true legacy costs at issue.
Committee member Rep. Rashid Young, D-Homer, told Edmonds he is inclined to look at the St. George legislation as a local issue, but urged the senator to work with school officials to address legacy costs.
“They’re real concerns,†Young said. “That’s $60 million.â€
