NATCHITOCHES, La. — A suddenly slashed state funding pool has thrown teacher pay raises into jeopardy for Natchitoches Parish public schools, leaving local officials scrambling to navigate a difficult fiscal landscape.
During the Natchitoches Parish School Board committee meeting on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, Superintendent Grant Eloi revealed that while the governor’s statewide pay raise plan legally moved forward, the overall funding package was quietly reduced from $198 million in previous years to $168 million.
The $30 million reduction means certain school employee pay codes will not receive state backing. Eloi warned that bridging that gap with local funds to ensure all employees receive a raise will be a near-impossible task.
"When that [information] gets here, I will tell you... the people left off that list, it's going to be very difficult, if not impossible, for us to bridge the gap with the budget to make that happen," Eloi said. He added that multiple surrounding school districts have already acknowledged they lack the resources to absorb the shortfall.
The school system is currently waiting for exact guidance from the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) to clarify which specific employee pay codes are included or omitted from the funded raises. Natchitoches Parish officials expect to receive that definitive data next month, at which point the board will evaluate the full local impact.