School Board zooms through recommendations

The Acadia Parish School Board made quick work of its agenda Monday night, zooming through a few committee recommendations.
The board considered a few endorsements from its two committees – the Budget and Finance Committee and the Personnel, Insurance and Curriculum Committee – all of which were unanimously approved by the full board, all members present.
In its routine items, the board first heard from Budget and Finance Committee Chair John Suire, who presented the proposed renewal of a farming lease; the preparation and replanting of trees on a portion of a 16th section and the advertising for sale, by public bid, of selected timber on a separate 16th section.
Troy Fruge’s farming lease is for land owned by the school board along the northwest part of Acadia Parish. The crawfish farming portion of the lease agreement will be discussed at length during the board’s November committee meeting, officially scheduled for Monday, Nov. 16.
Fruge’s payments and production have been in order thus far and, according to Dr. Doug Chance, administrator of ancillary service for the school board, Fruge has also been improving the land for more production in the future.
In regard to preparing and replanting trees on one land area, it is just the next step in a process that reaches back to 2010. Then, the school board put forth money to thin out trees on the land. In 2013, it paid for the land to be cleared. When it did that, the school board netted $105,000. It will cost $38,000 to reforest the area to make sure the trees are of quality.
Finally, the timber sale concerns land in the Evangeline area. The timber will be put out for public bid and after the bids are received, the board can decide if it is worth selling.
Then, James Higginbotham, chair of the Personnel, Insurance and Curriculum Committee, presented the final routine item up for public discussion. The parish is facing a “critical shortage” of teachers in both the special education and core subject areas.
The parish must meet certain criteria to meet the “critical shortage” mandate. If it becomes official, the parish is given leeway to hire retired teachers to fill vacancies at no penalty to the board or the teacher and/or hire teachers that are, for example, not certified in science but may be in math to teach science.
Teachers that are properly certified and not retired would, of course, be more desired and be hired over the others, but it will hopefully alleviate some of the issues Acadia is already facing.
The board, in its opening items, honored Irma Trosclair, principal at South Crowley Elementary, who was one of seven to win the Terrel H Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership.
She was reflective and expressed extreme gratitude to her faculty and staff as well as Acadia Parish.
The Acadia Parish School Board will hold its committee meetings Monday, Nov. 16. The full board will meet Dec. 7.