PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCHOOL BOARD OF THE PARISH OF CONCORDIA, STATE OF LOUISIANA, TAKEN AT A REGULAR MEETING HELD ON THURSDAY, May 16, 2024
The School Board of the Parish of Concordia, State of Louisiana, met in Regular Session at the Vidalia City Hall meeting room in Vidalia, Louisiana, on Thursday, May 16, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. This meeting was moved to the third week of May due to Ferriday High School’s graduation ceremony on May 9, 2024. The meeting was called to order by President Lisette Forman. After prayer and the Pledge, President Forman declared that the Board was ready for the transaction of business.
Board members present were Mr. Fred Butcher, Mr. Fred Marsalis, Sr., Mr. Derrick Carson, Mrs. Angela Hayes, Mr. Wayne Wilson, and Mrs. Lisette Forman.
Absent were Mrs. Dorothy Parker, Mrs. Vanessa Houck, and Mr. Matt Taunton.
President Lisette Forman reminded those present that the school district will be observing a 4-day school week during the 2024-25 school year.
Keith Bridgham, with Volkert, Inc., reported on the progress of the ESSER projects and showed photos of the work.
Currently the work on the HVAC systems at the Ferriday Lower Elementary and the Ferriday Junior High began last week. There is a crew at each school. The question was asked, “What’s going to happen to the old units?” Bridgham stated that those units would be offered to the schools or the contractor would dispose of them. Some of the units have useful life still and they could be stockpiled for future use in case there is a need.
They expect to be finished with these two locations this month or early June and move on to the next locations. The next two locations should be finished in July, which segues into the window projects in the Ferriday Schools. By the time the air conditioning project is finished at Ferriday High School, the windows should commence. Those windows should be installed by the end of August or first of September.
The Vidalia windows have started to come in so they are being sorted. The plan is to start right after Memorial Day. They will start at Monterey High School and then go to Vidalia High. They are estimating about two months to swap out those windows.
The Vidalia HVAC work is substantially complete in the four locations.
They got three of the buildings completed at MHS, and they will go back to Monterey once school is out and finish up the little bit they have left to do there.
The committee reports were presented. Mr. Marsalis gave the Education Policy Committee report. President Forman gave the Finance Committee report. Mr. Carson gave the Building & Grounds Committee report.
It was moved by Mr. Marsalis, seconded by Mrs. Hayes, and unanimously carried to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting held on April 11, 2024, and the minutes of the Special Meetings held April 12, April 18, and April 25, 2024.
Mr. Fred Marsalis, Jr., presented the financial report. It was moved by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Mrs. Hayes and unanimously carried to approve invoices in the amount of $8,232,313 for the month of April 2024.
The personnel report was available in the board members’ binders. Mrs. Rhonda Moore presented the report noting that nothing had changed since the committee meeting on Friday.
Concordia Parish School Board
Personnel Announcements
Regular Board Meeting
March 14, 2024
Leaves:
Audrey Davis, Teacher, Ferriday High School, return from FMLA / extended medical leave, effective March 4, 2024.
Doris Malone, Teacher, Ferriday Junior High School, FMLA/extended medical leave, effective February 7, 2024 through March 12, 2024.
Appointments:
Reagan Fraze, Theatre Teacher, Ferriday High School and Vidalia High School, effective February 19, 2024.
Resignations:
Ponchella Lee, Paraprofessional, Ferriday Lower Elementary School, effective February 22, 2024.
Gerri Lipsey, Speech Pathologist, Special Populations, effective March 15, 2024.
Marcisha Johnson, Teacher, Vidalia Lower Elementary School, effective February 29, 2024.
Correction:
Shirley Perkins, 10 Month Janitor, Vidalia Junior High School, to 10 Month Janitor, Ferriday High School, effective December 4, 2023.
President Forman presented information regarding the Southern Designs building. We have done some checking on costs, and the installation of the fiber network for the internet will be very, very expensive, so much so that it will be prohibitive to make the Southern Designs building our central office building. It was moved by Mr. Butcher, seconded by Mr. Wilson and unanimously carried to rescind the original motion for the lease for the Southern Designs building. A roll call vote was requested:
Mr. Butcher – yea
Mr. Marsalis – yea
Mr. Carson – yea
Mrs. Hayes – yea
Mr. Wilson – yea
Mrs. Forman – yea
The motion carried with 6 yeas, 0 nays, and 3 absent.
It was moved by Mr. Butcher, seconded by Mrs. Hayes and unanimously carried to terminate the contract for GPS systems on the maintenance trucks after our attorneys look at the exit clause as the GPS tracking was no longer necessary. A roll call vote was requested:
Mr. Butcher – yea
Mr. Marsalis – yea
Mr. Carson – yea
Mrs. Hayes – yea
Mr. Wilson – yea
Mrs. Forman – yea
The motion carried with 6 yeas, 0 nays, and 3 absent.
Superintendent Bachus referenced the information in board members’ folders for the Interscholastic Athletics Policy and recommended an addition to the policy, which is to add the random drug testing of one semester per school to be done by an outside company, Workforce Consultants. The random selection process will be handled by Workforce Consultants. It is required by LHSAA that every student who participates in sports sign a form, along with their parent or guardian. Once the form is complete, it will be handed over to Workforce Consultants to be added to their data base. The selection will be made for one student in the spring and one in the fall per sport. Superintendent Bachus noted that the LHSAA policy states that on a positive result for drugs, not that the child will be removed from whatever team, but that we will give the child the support they need to be sure that this does not become repetitive. However, if a child refuses to take the test, that child will not be able to play the sport until he/she consents to the test. This is LHSAA policy, not Concordia Parish School District. It was moved by Mr. Marsalis, seconded by Mr. Butcher and unanimously carried to adhere to the Interscholastic Athletics Policy with the recommended addition presented by Superintendent Bachus.
Superintendent Bachus presented information regarding the new accountability policy model according to the State. This is not a proposal, it has passed. She noted that she was only highlighting the components that are resulting in changes. Simulated scores in 2023 were used. The state department took our last year’s scores and put them into a new calculator. The changes are in three components:
Growth – in comparison to the state average, we’re right at or have exceeded the state average. We do have a few areas where we can improve even more than we already have.
Achieve – about four years ago the state changed Basic from being Proficiency to a Master being Proficiency. Basic no longer gives us any points. That’s a big difference where we were getting 80 points for Basic and now zero points. We still get 100 points for Mastery. That’s why we have really pushed the Achieve category. ELA and Math have been the dominant subjects for accountability, but no longer. Science and social studies are just as important as ELA and Math.
Thrive – the last component, is where we are not as prepared as we should be. The State of Louisiana no longer recognizes Microsoft Word and Power Point as a way to give kids college and career credentials. We knew that was coming so as a district we put Adobe in our schools. We have been growing ACT scores every year, but the State has now said a score of 18 is no longer the mark – it’s 21. In addition, the State has always allowed us to use Work Keys Assessment as a means to offset your ACT scores. Now Work Keys Assessments will only count for students who are on the Jump Start Pathway.
We are as a district higher than the state graduation rate. In fact, this year we didn’t have even five students in the parish who did not graduate. That is with no waivers as well.
With the old accountability model we are nine points away from a B, and with the new accountability model we are only seven points away from a B because of the growth we’ve consistently had in the district. Superintendent Bachus anticipates our score being even higher because we’ve already started the work for college and career readiness.
Superintendent Bachus spoke about facilities management, stating that they have been working really hard on the budgets. One of the things the board requested was to get some numbers and then meet and go over them. She is requesting a meeting for the first week of June before the regular board meeting. Board members will be able to see the numbers and assist with prioritizing, and also prior to her meeting with Mr. Henderson, look at our summer plans. She indicated that she would really like to have a strategic plan for the summer as far as our big projects. She and Mr. Henderson will work to identify our mid-level projects, but the high-priced projects will need board approval. The meeting is set for Thursday, June 6, 2024, at 5:30 PM at the media center.
Mr. Tom O’Neal asked the board to consider a property site lease for two small cabinets for communications equipment to be placed at CPA and Monterey. These cabinets are about 3 ft x 65 ft, and they provide some protection for our cable and equipment that goes into our individual companies. They’ve asked for a 20-year term on the lease. If we decide to do that, the proposal is $150 per month per site. It was moved by Mr. Carson, seconded by Mr. Butcher and unanimously carried to approve the lease subject to review by our attorneys.
It was moved by Mr. Marsalis, Sr., seconded by Mr. Carson and unanimously carried to name the Vidalia Junior High School baseball field in honor of Mr. Charles Ferguson.
Mr. Wilson noted that the next item, “Discuss MHS Drainage” was already discussed during the committee reports.
Mr. Carson introduced the discussion on the board considering authorizing Superintendent Bachus to conduct a parent and student survey to gauge interest in a J.R.O.T.C. program at each Concordia Parish high school. He noted this a very good program which instills discipline and integrity and helps the participants choose a career path for students in Grades 8-12. This is also a very patriotic program to have our kids engaged in. The survey could also include whether there is interest in the Air Force and Army J.R.O.T.C. programs. It was moved by Mr. Butcher, seconded by Mr. Carson and unanimously carried to approve sending out this survey.
There was no executive session.
Superintendent Bachus made the following announcements:
Superintendent Bachus gave board members 10- and 11-month calendars to look over, saying next month we will consider them for approval.
School is out next Tuesday so the teachers’ last day is May 21st. We are going an extra day to make up a day.
There being no further business, it was moved by Mr. Butcher, seconded by Mr. Marsalis and unanimously carried to adjourn at 6:48 PM.