VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish School Board intends to hire two academic coaches to assist a number of uncertified teachers in the parish following action in Thursday night’s school board meeting.

The board approved the job description for the academic coaches by a majority vote of 6-1, with board members Warren Enterkin and Jeffrey Goodman absent and board member Rickey Raven voting no, during the board’s regularly scheduled meeting Thursday evening.

All teachers are required to either have a teaching license or at least be in active pursuit of obtaining one, superintendent Whest Shirley said. However, not enough licensed teachers applied for more than 20 vacant teaching positions filled by uncertified teachers in various schools throughout the parish.

Board member Fred Butcher made the motion to create a job description for someone to provide external help for the uncertified teachers during the last board meeting on Aug. 9.

“I envision that if (hypothetically) Ferriday Upper Elementary needs some additional help and Ferriday Lower needs some additional help, there will be a form to sign,” Butcher said. “The (director of that school) would send that sheet to assign a coach, who would check, go through the schools, talk to the principals and find out what the problem is. … They would be able to relay to the principal what areas the teacher needs to work on.”

Similar to the way teachers are evaluated by their students’ performance, the coaches would be evaluated by the teachers’ performance, Butcher said.

Shirley said measures to place the new coaches are already being carried out.

“We’ve already been semi-proactive,” Shirley said. “My two directors and I met … and we’ve already identified hotspots in all 11 of our schools. There are teachers in all of the schools that need help.”

In other matters at the Concordia Parish School Board meeting Thursday evening, the board:

4Approved pay raises for parish administrators, assistant administrators and supervisors to be effective Sept. 1, 2019, by a majority vote of 6-1 with board member Rickey Raven voting “no.”

4Approved job descriptions for Supervisor of Child Nutrition, Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance, Personnel Coordinator and Supervisor of Special Population by a majority vote of 6-1 with board member Rickey Raven voting “no.”

4Unanimously approved regular expenditures for the month of August in the amount of $2,558,211, which includes payroll, supplies and daily operating expenses.