School board zips through agenda

Even with a few extra minutes sorting through logistics of a discussion item, the Acadia Parish School Board flew through more than 10 items Monday night.
Regarding policy, an effort to change language in JGCC regarding lice was officially quashed during the board’s lone action item.
On a motion by Delo Hebert, seconded by James Higginbotham, the board unanimously voted to keep JGCC the same, meaning students with lice must still be “nit-free” to return to school.
By the same token, two policies that appeared as one discussion item on the agenda will go back to committee as language is changed and shored up in the parish’s cell phone and uniform policies, respectively.
As the item should have been separated from the get go, some confusion ensued as it was set to move back to committee.
The board agreed that when it meets Feb. 22 for its committee meetings that it would definitely appear as two items moving forward.
As it was discussing the policies, however, issues were cleared up in the cell phone policy after the removal of language regarding simply possessing a cell phone as an issue at school.
Language discussing the turning in of cell phones to principals or designees daily was also removed.
Changes in the uniform policy to remove confusion regarding outerwear were also generally agreed upon, specifically that pullovers with zippers, of any kind, are considered outerwear.
In routine items, recommendations from the Budget and Finance and Personnel, Insurance and Curriculum committees were approved by the board during the meeting.
These items included:
• Continuing to retain Broussard, Poché LLC as its audit firm for the fiscal year ending June 30.
• Granting the district permission to advertise for its official journal for 2016-17.
• Granting the district permission to advertise the hunting lease portion of Section 16, T7S, R1E, located southeast of Eunice, containing approximately 142 acres – more or less.
• Granting the district permission to advertise for classroom furnishings.
• Approving the 2015-16 General Fund mid-year budget revisions.
• Granting the district’s staff permission to continue establishing the new high deductible health insurance plan premium rates for 2016-17, which meets the criteria of Public Law 111-148.
Finally, in its consent items, the board learned of five new appointments in the district, one resignation and that there were no retiree notifications this month.
It also learned that while January 2016 saw a 15.3 percent increase over collections in January 2015, the fiscal year collections for 2015-16 are still down nearly 6.7 percent overall from 2014-15.