LOCAL
Houma’s Oakshire Gym is locked to its neighboring school
Colin CampoHouma Courier-Thibodaux Daily Comet
Aug. 11, 2026, 6:40 p.m. CT
- A dispute between a school district and a recreation district has closed the Oakshire Gym to elementary students during school hours.
- The disagreement stems from the school district allegedly not upholding a long-standing verbal agreement regarding cleaning and utility usage.
- The recreation district proposed a formal written contract to the school district, but school board members had not seen it.
- The gym, owned by the recreation district, sits on land owned by the school district, complicating the issue.
The Oakshire Gym is closed to use by the neighboring elementary school during school hours because of a dispute over gym rules
A disagreement between the Terrebonne Parish School District and the Recreation District 1 has left the Oakshire Gym, 5457 Vicari St., closed to Oakshire Elementary School, 5459 Vicari St, during the school hours, according to school, parish, and recreation district officials
The Rec. District and the School District have operated for years on verbal agreements on how to share the gym, but according to former Recreation District 1 Chairman Mark Amedee, that changed in the past year.
“All of a sudden, this all blew out, this all went crazy,” Amedee said. He said the Rec. District sent a contract last June to discuss but received no response from school officials
“We wanted a written agreement with them,” he added. “It’s very simple, I mean, it don’t say nothing bad,”
The gym still opens at 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. for the public to use it
The Houma Courier/Thibodaux Daily Comet asked the Terrebonne Parish Superintendent Cory Butler about the situation, but he refused to answer any questions about it. Butler was asked more than once if the students were allowed to use the gym, he said he would not answer the question.
“What I think is best is that sometimes we try to work things out so that it doesn’t become a news story,” Butler said. “So at this time I will defer any comments to Rec. District 1 as we try to work through this difference of opinions.”
He said not everything needed to be made public, and he would not disclose when the meeting was, or where it would take place
“Some of the stuff we don’t discuss publicly because simply it’s not something that needs to be discussed publicly,” he added. “We make decisions and we move forward.”
Amedee said the two parties have a meeting at 1 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Oakshire Gym, 5457 Vicari St
Amedee retired from the Rec District this year due to a parent’s ailing health, but said he would be attending the meeting on behalf of the new Chairperson Christine Vitter because she is a school teacher, and he was familiar with the discussions
He explained that during his time on the the Rec. District’s board, the district allowed the schools to use the gym during school hours as long as they have a janitor clean the facility after use, ensure toilets are unclogged, replace toilet paper, and keep the thermostat at 75 degrees
He said this agreement had always been kept, but recently the School District was no longer keeping its half of the deal. Janitors no longer cleaned up, toilets were left clogged, and the air conditioning kept being lowered
“They want the air conditioning running at 68 degree, we said ‘no’ it’s on climate control at 75,” Amedee said.
This was problematic, he said, because the Oakshire Gym building is owned by the Rec. District, but the land it sits on is owned by the School District
The Rec. District and members of the School District’s administration sought to review the original written agreement that led to this arrangement, but no such document exists. To rectify the situation, Amedee said, the Rec. District’s attorney drafted an intergovernmental agreement that was sent to the School District in June. The Houma Courier/Thibodaux Daily Comet received a photographic copy of this agreement to read
The proposed agreement states that the gym will not be available for use when used as a polling site, or during holidays. It states that the school district will pay part of the utilities, based on usage; that it is responsible for any damages caused by school district usage; that the school district will help with cleaning when it uses the gym; that the school district employees will not adjust the thermostat; and that the school district will maintain insurance
School board members said they did not see this proposed agreement, and they would have to vote on it if it were to be accepted
For some people, the fact that the gym is closed to the students is frustrating
“It’s utterly ridiculous that they can’t let the school there,” Nelson Kraemer said. “I would just put some locks on those air conditioning systems and just tell them, ‘You can’t fool with it,’ because recreation pays the bills.”
Kraemer, 75, is a former chairman of Recreation District 1, and during his time as chairman he said the school district could use the facility throughout school hours, and the district pay bill. He said the gyms didn’t have air conditioning at that time, and in fact he voted for their installation just before he left the board
The former chairman said he wasn’t aware of any written agreement ever existing, but the solution should be simple
“I don’t know if there was ever a contract drawn up,it was probably more verbal than anything,” he said
