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VIDALIA, La. — Concordia Parish schools are debt-free, officials were excited to share with regular school board meeting attendees on Thursday evening.

“Our superintendent likes good news … We don’t owe anybody,” said Concordia Parish School Board’s Business Affairs Director Tom O’Neal. “I don’t know how many other school systems in the state can claim that. It’s been a long run, but we are currently debt-free. We don’t know what future’s going to bring, but it gives us some flexibility that we may not otherwise have.”

After many years, the school board has recently paid its 2009 Qualified School Construction Bond that was originally in the amount of $1,811,900 and payable from a pledge of the school board’s ad valorem tax millage, O’Neal said.

Additionally, Superintendent Toyua Bachus congratulated the work of Rhonda Moore and the personnel department for staffing the schools for the upcoming school year.

In April, the school board hosted a job fair advertising its need for teachers, administrators, maintenance staff, food service workers and bookkeepers.

In the two months since then, school officials announced they are now almost fully staffed.

“I want to publicly say thank you for the work that has been done since the job fair and for putting such a wonderful job fair together,” Bachus said. “I like to have my hand in a little bit of everything, but in that instance, I literally just showed up. We are about 92% done with staffing. We have more certified applicants than we probably ever had. All the Ferriday schools are fully staffed. We were even able to diversify some of our schools. We’re excited about next year, and I just want to publicly tell our team thank you for all that they’ve done to make that possible.”