LEESVILLE, La. -- The Vernon Parish School Board and Beauregard Parish School Board are urging parents of military-connected students attending schools in their districts to complete and submit Impact Aid forms sent home with their children.
VPSB Director of Finance Tim Ward explained that Impact Aid is revenue that school districts receive when federal property is located in their parishes -- which in this case would be the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk and the installation's corresponding training areas like Peason Ridge.
"Normally, we have property taxes on property located within our parish, but federal property is exempt so Impact Aid is a replacement revenue for those property taxes," Ward said.
The amount of Impact Aid funding received is determined by the number of military or federally-connected children in a parish. Ward said this is determined by parents submitting Impact Aid forms for their children in Vernon and Beauregard Parish schools, which is why it is important that they complete and turn them back in.
"Vernon Parish has a large amount of federal property -- with Fort Polk and Peason Ridge taking up almost half of the parish," Ward said. "The military makes up anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of our student population, and we just want to make sure we have that revenue to properly educate these children to make sure they have everything they need to learn."
BPSB Superintendent Timothy J. Cooley also stressed the importance of military families with children attending Beauregard Parish schools to turn in their forms.
"We encourage all families of federally-connected students to complete the Impact Aid forms and return them to their schools as quickly as possible," Cooley said. "Federally-connected students include those whose family lives on federal property, whose parent is active duty military or reserves, or whose parent or guardian works on federal property. Returning the forms helps our district qualify for Impact Aid funds which benefit the students and schools in our parish."
Deadlines for Impact Aid form submissions are as follows:
- Vernon Parish Schools: Dec. 21, 2018.
- Beauregard Parish Schools: Jan. 7, 2019
"The more Impact Aid forms are submitted, the more resources that schools in Vernon and Beauregard parishes will have to provide a quality education to their student populations, both of which are made up of a large amount of military-connected children," said Michael Reese, Fort Polk Progress President. "It's important to be part of doing everything possible to open up more and more opportunities for the academic excellence of our youth."
To print out the VPSB Impact Aid form click
here, and the BPSB Impact Aid form click
here.
For more information on Impact Aid, please contact your corresponding school board office: VPSB at (337) 239-3401 or BPSB at (337) 463-5551.
