It has been an interesting couple of weeks in St. Landry Parish.

Claims from Mayor Joe Pitre about the school board and Superintendent Patrick Jenkins about subjects like the cloudy future of Washington Elementary, failure to respond to meeting requests, and most recent questions about the use of tax dollars by the school board.

According to Jenkins, he finds the numbers to be off pace and says the one number he can reference as correct is the taxable base but not how it is used.

“We only collect 11.78 mills of those dollars which translates in 1986 to roughly $2 million dollars. Today that translates to $12 million dollars in property tax,” says Jenkins.

Pitre also referenced a multiplier from the tax passed in the 1980’s and it’s growth to today.

“He had a calculated value of approximately 3.74 times $3,800 dollars. That is also inaccurate,” says Jenkins.

The $3,800 dollars was alluded to as the raise for teachers but Jenkins says it came from multiple governors in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s in a sales tax.

“That’s where the $3,800 dollars comes from. Not a property tax, it came from a one-cent sales tax,” says Jenkins.

When asked about the tension between the mayor and himself, he said the focus needs to be elsewhere.

“Our focus is on children and not other things. This is a distraction for what the real message should be,” says Jenkins.

He also says his office has reached out to the Mayor’s office for a meeting and would be willing to meet at the Mayor’s convenience.