VIDALIA — An effort by a Concordia Parish School Board member to press pause on the start of a leadership initiative fell short Thursday.

During the school board’s meeting, School Board Member Ricky Raven made a motion to add a discussion of stopping the rollout of the Concordia Parish Leadership Development Academy.

The academy, an effort to identify and groom teachers within the district for administrative roles, has been inactive for four years. Its revival was given the official go-ahead in the school board’s September meeting.

The expected cost for the academy is $20,000, which is largely directed at salary supplements for participants, who take on extra duties and work more days than they would have otherwise.

Raven said he was not ultimately opposed to the program — which was stopped under former Superintendent Loretta Blankenstein because of lack of participation— but wanted to see criteria for selection and promotion from the program better clarified.

Raven said he also thinks the handbook from the old program needs to be revised and expanded.

While eight of the school board members voted to add the discussion item to the agenda, member Fred Butcher voted against discussing it.

“I want to go on the record that I am voting against (adding it to the agenda) because we already approved that at the last meeting,” he said.

Under the school board’s rules, the membership must vote unanimously to add an item to an already-approved agenda.

In other news, the board voted to approve its tentative meeting dates for 2016. Every meeting will be on the second Thursday of each month except for May and September, which are moved to different dates to accommodate graduations and Labor Day, Superintendent Paul Nelson said.