VIDALIA — Concordia Parish School Board members voted to host a special meeting next week to hear the concerns of two community groups, which were in attendance during Thursday’s meeting.

The community groups — Vidalia Parents and We Care — will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 18, to discuss administrative transfers and implementing a comprehensive disciplinary plan within Concordia Parish respectively.

The meeting is open to the public.

“They’ve wanted to have a say and I have no problem with that,” Concordia Parish School Board member John Bostic said. “Give them the opportunity to say what’s on their mind.”

The Vidalia Parents, a group who is against the decisions to reassign school administration officials within the parish, gathered petitions in support of Rick Brown earlier this month.

Brown was recently reassigned to Ferriday Lower Elementary School after 17 years as Vidalia High School’s principal, and 38 years working in high schools.

“This started out with the fact that (Concordia Parish Superintendent Paul Nelson) was moving a highly respected principal that has been doing his job for 17 years,” Vidalia Parents representative Paul Cangemi said.

The Vidalia Parents group will present their signed petitions during the special meeting next week.

Supporters of Brown had asked to be placed on the school board’s agenda for tonight’s meeting. However, Nelson said they didn’t ask in time. He said such requests must be made at least 10 days before board meetings.

We Care is a community group that focuses its concerns against what it claims is the regression of ethnicity throughout the area, the Rev. Justin Conner said, who is a representative of the group.

Conner said the group will ask for a disciplinary plan that covers the entire parish and having an equal curriculum within the parish.

“Things differ in a way,” Conner said. “You don’t know when they differ or when changes are being made. We don’t want any kids left behind.”

We Care representative Emerson Slain said education will be one of the many items the group will discuss Thursday.