On Monday morning, a crowd of 30 officials – including state legislators, City Councilmembers, Orleans Parish School Board members, District Attorney Jason Williams, and school leaders  –  condemned Mayor LaToya Cantrell for trying to torpedo a $20 million settlement with the school district, which is trying to plug a deficit of at least $36 million, maybe significantly more.

The settlement would have resolved a six-year-old lawsuit by OPSB, which had discovered that the city was skimming a portion off of the top of its OPSB tax payments.

Cantrell cannot now take the position that “the city cannot afford to stop stealing money from schoolchildren,” said OPSB member Carlos Zervigon, noting that the city has skimmed at least $100 million due to the district. “We need the mayor to get out of the way.”

Local educators are in a dire situation. Schools create their budget based on district projections, which were faulty. Now individual schools must slash their 2024-25 budgets to the tune of possibly $1,000 per student – a task that is nearly impossible at this point in the school year. 

“We need help. We are in trouble,” Ben Franklin High School CEO Alex Jarrell said from the podium Monday morning.

In November, with OPSB staring down the unexpected deficit, board members stepped up discussions with the council about the 2019 lawsuit. They ultimately forged a deal with a $20 million cash settlement and an additional $70 million in education funding, promised over the next decade. According to details released in November, OPSB would receive $10 of the $20 million by the end of last year. That didn’t happen.

Then, last week, word came that Cantrell planned to crawfish out of the deal. Criticism began from within the Council.

In response, the mayor’s press office sent out a statement late Saturday night. The mayor had met with district officials on Friday and discussed “pending litigation,” the statement said.

While Cantrell “stands on her record of supporting schoolchildren,” the city could not afford to pay OPSB and still keep the city running, the statement explained. Instead, her administration would work “to secure a settlement that is also financially feasible for the City,” the statement read.

Technically, if the mayor and the council agreed, the city could decide not to pay. Public agencies in Louisiana must pay out settlement agreements — but they do not have to pay judgments unless they have a budget surplus.

But council members who forged the agreement were immediately critical of Cantrell’s position. “Months after an agreement was made, one rogue party backed out of the agreement and threw a temper tantrum,” wrote Councilmember JP Morrell in a statement tweeted on Sunday on the platform X.

“We hold the purse strings,” Morrell said Monday, noting if the administration is signaling a “secret financial crisis,” then the council will need to review all city spending and institute cuts across all departments.

Also, Cantrell does not have the authority to back out of the deal, Morrell and his colleagues say. “It’s illegal for the council allocation to now be disregarded,” said Councilmember Helena Moreno in a statement issued by the City Council on Saturday. 

On Instagram on Monday, Moreno wrote that the officials at the press conference “all stood together to ring the alarm that this reversal by the mayor … will harm the children of New Orleans.”

Cantrell’s signature on city budgeting documents, approving the budget as recommended by the council, flies in the face of the notion that the mayor didn’t agree to the deal, said Joe Giarrusso, District A Councilmember. 

“Let’s put a light to that,” he said, emphasizing the very public deal made in November. There was a press conference announcing the settlement on the front steps of City Hall, right below the mayor’s office. 

Cantrell’s right hand, Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano, even spoke glowingly about the deal, at the presser. “I want to thank everyone on behalf of the mayor, and to celebrate the great partnership and a well-managed process. It is a better day,” he’d said. 

In his remarks, Montano noted his role within the administration, to scrutinize municipal finances. “Obviously, the most important aspect that I have to evaluate is the financial integrity and structure of our budget, so that the city can operate not only in the present moment but for years to come – and making sure that we have the financial solvency to ensure partnerships like this can take place.”

It is unclear what is at the root of the mayor’s conclusion that the city could not afford to move forward with the deal, despite Montano’s seal of approval. 

The mayor herself also signed the resulting amended budget, based on documents prepared by the mayor’s office, typically by Montano.  

To say the mayor didn’t know about the settlement is implausible. “Either the mayor did not read the budget or the CAO has gone rogue,” Morrell said. 

Giarrusso, who chairs the council’s budget committee, said the council will file a motion to enforce the settlement. “Factually, legally, equitably — we have the best argument,” he said. 

Morrell said that to meet the obligation, the council would also freeze anything in the budget that members “deem unnecessary.”

Last October, school district officials announced a $36 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year. They said it was due in part to internal projection errors and unclear tax information from the city, which collects taxes on behalf of the school board. Though district officials continue to offer little in official numbers, a private contractor hired by New Schools for New Orleans is analyzing the budget to determine the miscalculation’s final effects. 

The City Council will convene a special meeting next Tuesday, February 11, to order Cantrell to stand down, allowing the city’s accounting department to pay the settlement.