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VIDALIA, La. — The Concordia Parish School Board held its first meeting of 2025 in a different location than most other regular board meetings, but not much else has changed as the school board reappointed the same members to committees and decided to keep Lisette Forman as the board president on Thursday evening.

Since the closure of the old school board building on Carter Street because of a mold issue, the school board has been having most meetings in Vidalia Town Hall. That changed when board member Derrick Carson requested in December to meet in the CPSB Media Center at 508 John Dale Drive, Suite B, where the school board has held some of its special meetings since the central office closure.

Carson also asked for at least two of the monthly meetings to be moved to other district communities — one in Ferriday and another in Monterey — so that the school board would meet at least once in each of the communities in the district.

Tentatively, the Monterey meeting has been scheduled to take place on April 10 and the Ferriday meeting on August 14. Meeting locations have yet to be determined.

The school board voted unanimously on Thursday to reappoint members to committees as follows:

• Educational Policy Committee: Dorothy Parker, Angela Hayes, Fred Marsalis Sr. and Rhonda Moore
• Finance Committee: Lisette Forman, Fred Butcher, Vanessa Houck and Tom O’Neal
• Building and Grounds Committee: Carson, Wayen Wilson, Matt Taunton and Glenn Henderson

Also, during Thursday’s meeting, Superintendent Toyua Bachus recognized three students selected as District Students of the Year in fifth, eighth, and 12th grade. They are Ragde Torres, a Concordia Parish Academy senior; Kathryn Porter, an eighth-grader at CPA; and Aubrey Harrell, a fifth-grader at Monterey High School. Each of these students has earned a spot on an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City in June thanks to community donations. 

Bachus also presented a resolution acknowledging and thanking the school board members for School Board Recognition Month. Additionally, school board members Butcher, Parker, Marsalis Sr., Carson, Hayes, and Wilson were acknowledged for the voluntary completion of 20 or more hours of school board certification training.

“This is not anything they are required to do. This shows their commitment as board members to go above and beyond to learn the necessary skills to be successful in their elected positions,” Bachus said.

In other matters, the school board discussed holding a meeting with football coaches, district maintenance workers and the contractors who restored the Ferriday and Vidalia High School football fields to discuss maintaining those fields with all involved parties.

Carson said the fields were just restored last year and “we don’t want things to fall apart.”

The board also awarded a bid to repair a gas leak that was discovered over the Christmas break at Ferriday Junior High School. The leak had been patched temporarily prior to students returning to school this week, Bachus said. However, a more permanent fix is needed. Two bids on the project were received from Womack and Sons for approximately $50,000 and Thorpe Engineering for approximately $37,000, however, the Womack and Sons bid included additional plumbing work.

The board unanimously approved the low bid from Thorpe without the added plumbing.

In announcements, Bachus said a staff recognition ceremony would be held Monday, Jan. 13, at 9 a.m. at the Vidalia Convention Center where the district’s longest-serving employee Francis Lee will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Lee is the district’s curriculum specialist and a former teacher.