The Concordia Parish School Board voted Thursday night to temporarily contract a full-time sheriff’s deputy to be present in Ferriday schools.

The board will re-examine the decision in early summer to consider how effective the officer placement has been.

The contract will cost about $3,700 a month — about $4,700 for the last six weeks of school.

“We felt like if we did it on a trial basis between now and the end of school we’d have a better idea about it,” Superintendent Kerry Laster said.

Laster said she met with the principals of the Ferriday schools, as well as with the sheriff and the mayor and Ferriday chief of police to discuss the matter.

At the meeting, the Ferriday officials brought a list of calls that they had received from the schools, Laster said.

Ferriday officials were concerned that they would not be able to respond to a call from the school if there was a crisis elsewhere, school board member Fred Butcher said.

“Do we need a full-time officer down there?” School Board President Gary Parnham said. “Are we having that many problems?”

There has been a need, especially in regard to the alternative school, Butcher said.

“All we want to see is if the board would be willing to consider the position,” Laster said. “We have a need for it.

“We have had several incidents that this person could have helped with.”

The officer will be a sheriff’s deputy that the school system essentially rents out, Laster said.

“We will pay the sheriff for the use of this person,” she said. “They’ll send us an invoice and we’ll pay it like any other bill.”

The officer would have nationally recognized school resource and child safety certification, Laster said.

“I think that you need to look at the person and not have it be just any law enforcement officer,” she said.

The deputy will be in uniform and will have a police car, Laster said.

The officer will work primarily at the Ferriday Educational Center, but will be available whenever needed at any other Ferriday school.

The board also voted to proceed with the demolition of the old Ferriday Junior High School.

The demolition will cost $82,600.

“We voted a year ago to tear it down, but because it has asbestos in it, it can’t just be bulldozed,” Laster said.

The board is concerned with the legal aspects of leaving the building standing, Laster said.

“We’ve had problems keeping it secure, and we’re still holding insurance on the building,” she said.

“It’s a fire hazard, and there has been evidence that people have been sleeping in it.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt inside it.”

When Butcher inquired if the demolition was in the board’s budget, School Board Business Manager Tom O’Neal said that the building either has to be torn down or brought up to building code standards.

“I guess you have to find the money,” he said.

When board member Ricky Raven asked if the building could be renovated, Laster replied that it would be cheaper to build a new building than to repair the structure.

“I don’t think that we could ever bring that building up to code,” she said.

The Ferriday High School band practices at the old junior high, and Laster said that the board hopes to mark off the area so that the band will have a practice field.

In other business:

4The board asked Lastor to begin conducting a feasibility study for a vocational training program.

“This could help reduce the drop-out rate and introduce kids to skills to help them determine what that want to do,” Butcher said.

Director of Academic Programs Paul Nelson said there are already some similar programs in place in Concordia Parish schools.

Next year, parish schools will offer a patient care technician program in which students will become certified as nursing assistants upon graduation, he said.

“We already have the groundwork laid for that program, as well as for some others,” he said.

4The board voted to redesigning the Ferriday High School weight room.

“It’s an old building that was never brought up to code from the start,” Butcher said.

“We could get an architect to look at it and see what needs to be done, how much it will cost, and we can go from there,” he said.

4The board voted to reschedule its May meeting to May 8 so that it would not conflict with the Ferriday High School graduation ceremony.

4They also voted to approve the first reading of a change in the policy on the use of parish-owned school busses.

Under the change, drivers who use parish-owned buses will only have an operational fee deducted from their pay on the first day of use. On the second and third days, they will pay the operational fee and a $25 and $55 charge, respectively. Drivers will not have to furnish gas.

Should extenuating circumstances dictate that the driver use the bus for more than 10 working days, they will have to submit a request outlining the reasons why the bus is needed and will have to provide full documentation — for example, garage statements — of why they are requesting use of the bus.