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ACADIANA
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T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
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T u e s d ay, J u n e 17, 2025
Voters to decide on teacher pay raises
Legislature OKs bills that allow for permanent increase
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Northgate Mall sells for $2.8M Breaux Bridge businessman plans significant upgrade
BY ADAM DAIGLE
Acadiana business editor
A Breaux Bridge businessman is planning a significant upgrade to the Northgate Mall after buying the property last week for $2.8 million. Jacoby Landry bought Lafayette’s oldest shopping mall in a credit sale deal that closed Friday, according to land records. The 20.8-acre site had been on the market for months. Landry said he wants to convert the mall to a dynamic mixed-use business center that will include small retailers and professional service providers and be anchored by a boutique medical spa, fitness center and indoor pickleball courts, the Lafayette Economic Development Authority announced late Monday. The building will not be demolished. “This has been a vision of mine for a long time,” Landry said. “I grew up seeing what the Northgate Mall meant to this area. Now I see what it can be — an energizing hub where small businesses thrive, people gather and north Lafayette shines again.” Landry took on the project after working with national redevelopment experts LEDA brought in through its Elevate North Lafayette Program. The initiative provides coaching, mentorship and networking opportunities to local developers and aspiring entrepreneurs focused on reinvestment in historically underdeveloped areas, infill
ä See NORTHGATE, page 4A STAFF FILE PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Third grade teacher Taylor Wallace works with students in her math class at Baranco Elementary in Lafayette. Voters will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment to permanently raises salaries for teachers and support staff. BY ELYSE CARMOSINO
Staff writer
Louisiana voters will return to the polls to decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment that would permanently raise teacher salaries by $2,250 and support staff salaries by $1,125 under a pair of bills that received final passage in the Legislature on Thursday. House Bill 466 by Rep. Josh Carlson, RLafayette, and HB473 by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, will ask voters to approve eliminating multiple constitutionally protected education trust funds in favor of giving raises to Louisiana teachers, who make roughly $5,000 less on average than educators in other southern states and about $15,000 less than the national average, according to data from the Southern Regional Education Board. If voters approve the amendment, teachers will receive the raises in the 2026-27 school year. The raises are slightly higher than the $2,000 and $1,000 pay bumps the bills originally proposed. The Louisiana House of Rep-
resentatives unanimously approved the additional increase Thursday. Both pieces of legislation now head to the governor’s desk for his signature. “I brought this bill on behalf of our teachers,” Carlson said in a statement. “We wanted to ensure that we did all we could to provide a permanent pay raise.” The bills, which repackage part of a constitutional amendment championed by Gov. Jeff Landry that voters shot down earlier this year, are the state’s latest effort to increase educators’ compensation. Lawmakers failed several times in recent years to increase their pay, opting instead for one-time stipends three years in a row. If signed into law, the bills will turn the stipend amount teachers currently receive into a slightly larger permanent pay increase. Emerson’s bill eliminates three trust funds that funnel millions annually toward state K-12 education initiatives, including early childhood education, student testing help and
“I brought this bill on behalf of our teachers. We wanted to ensure that we did all we could to provide a permanent pay raise.”
ä See TEACHER, page 4A
REP. JOSH CARLSON, R-Lafayette
Public defender board clashes over pay, jobs BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer
Three members of the board that oversees Louisiana public defenders have quit amid continuing turmoil over five district chiefs losing their jobs and an ongoing dispute over pay. Freddie Pitcher Jr., Ted Hernandez and Peter Thomson have all resigned, Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board Chair Gerard Caswell said during a board meeting Monday. The state has already found two replacements — Jeffrey Hufft joins as a gubernatorial appointee, while Senate President Cameron Henry,
ä See BOARD, page 4A
Cassidy silent on RFK Jr.’s moves to reshape vaccination committee BY MARK BALLARD
Staff writer
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, is mostly keeping quiet on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent appointments to a top vaccination advisory committee, including three new members who have made a splash in conservative circles for their opposition to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and for spreading vaccine misinformation. Last week, Kennedy said he “retired” all 17 scientists on the
WEATHER HIGH 87 LOW 75 PAGE 6A
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP, which advises the federal government on vaccine policy. Kennedy, a longtime skeptic of vaccinations, said the Trump administration wanted members more closely aligned with the president. “A clean sweep is needed to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” he stated. All 17 members of the nonpolitical scientific committee had been appointed during the Biden administration.
As chair of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, Cassidy, more than any other senator, is responsible for confirming Kennedy as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Several Republican senators withheld their support of Kennedy until Cassidy, a physician, weighed in. In a speech explaining his vote to confirm Kennedy, Cassidy said the nominee had promised not to encourage parents to stop vaccinating their children and work closely
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JOHN McDONNELL
Committee Chair Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, left, greets Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before Kennedy ä See CASSIDY, page 6A testifies at a hearing on May 14.
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