VIDALIA — With three members absent, the Concordia Parish School Board pressed forward Thursday night at its monthly meeting with an update on the second round of testing for parish students.

Students in grades 4, 8, 10 and 11 began the second phase of high-stakes tests Monday, which require students to achieve a certain score to proceed to the next grade.

Students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 will began the Integrated LEAP test Monday. The iLEAP does not determine whether or not students will proceed to the next grade.

School Board Academic Director Paul Nelson said the week of testing has been very stressful but all in all it has been a good week.

“We have not had any problems so far with the testing,” he said.

“Everyone has been positive and the students have been fine.”

Since the results of the tests are weighed and contribute to each school’s overall performance score, Nelson said it is imperative that students do the best they can on the tests.

“We are hoping for the best,” he said.

Nelson said the scores for the LEAP and GEE exams will come in May 18 and the results of the iLEAP exam will come in May 19.

In other news:

4 The school board voted to properly dispose of five vehicles owned by the board.

Business manager Tom O’Neal said the vehicles include one bus, one car and three pick-up trucks.

“What we usually do when we dispose of the vehicles is first take bids from the public to see if anyone is interested in purchasing them,” he said.

“If we can’t find any bidders, we are then allowed to dispose of them at a junkyard.”

O’Neal said the school board only disposes of vehicles after they have been in use for 10 years or have 150,000 miles on them.

“If they reach either of those points, and they do not have any problems with them, then we still use them,” he said.

“But these five just reached their limit.”

O’Neal said the vehicles were all models between 1994 and 1997.

4 The school board passed the financial statement for the month of March in the amount of $3,982,747.