vidalia — The Concordia Parish School Board members voted at their regular meeting Thursday to increase their monthly pay to the state average of $650 a month.

Board President Gary Parnham said he’d decline the additional $50 that would be allocated to him because of his position.

In February, the board members voted to increase their pay from $350 — what they’d been making since the 1970s — to $625. However, the vote didn’t garner the two-thirds majority that’s required by law to increase their salaries.

Legally, the board can vote to be paid as much as $800.

In other news:

• The board voted to reject a motion that would bar administrators from acting as coaches.

Parnham said paying an administrator his or her activity fee, which is built into the salary to compensate monitoring after-school activities, in addition to paying a coaching fee is unfair.

“If they want to coach, they’ll give up their activity fee and give it to someone else to (monitor games),” Parnham said. “To me, that’s paying them twice.”

Board member Fred Butcher said there’s no “ironclad policy” that says administrators have to attend every activity, so someone else could monitor the game while the administrator coached.

• Arlana Davis was selected as the new vice principal of Ferriday Lower Elementary School.

Superintendent Loretta Blankenstein said the board unanimously agreed on selecting Davis from the three people the interviewed.

Davis said she “didn’t expect it,” but she was “surely prepared to accept it if it was offered.”