Years ago, in the early days of educational independence, Zachary voters readily agreed multiple times to raise their property taxes to upgrade the older school buildings they’d inherited from the East Baton Rouge Parish school system and build new ones.

After 22 years in existence, almost all of them at the top of state academic rankings, Zachary voters aren’t so willing to tax themselves for their not-so-new, but still A-rated school district.

That became clear after the Nov. 15 defeat of a proposal to redirect taxes that were used to build schools like Copper Mill Elementary. The reallocation of the existing tax would have used the money to dramatically raise the pay of school employees, upgrade technology and fund building repairs.

The proposal, dubbed Zachary Forward , was narr

See Full Page