John E. Bourque announced his plans to retire as superintendent of Acadia Parish public schools at the end of this school year.
Many board members commented on how well Bourque has done in his 15 years as superintendent.
Among the comments, when he started, the School Board was in great financial stress and having major communication problems among board members causing meetings to last an extraordinary long time. However, Bourque was instrumental in bringing unity and trust to the board as well as managing to get the financials in order.
The board reluctantly accepted his formal letter announcing his plans to retire.
Other routine items on the agenda included approval of the updates to the Head Start 2017- 2018 Personnel Policy. The updates included aligning the current hand book to follow current law and code. The motion carried, as well as approval of the Head Start Staff Handbook.
Next, the board carried a motion from the Budget and Finance Committee to affirm the calendar for revisions of the 2017-2018 budget and for the 2018-2019 budget adoption calendar. Board members also approved a motion recommended by the Budget and Finance Committee to continue retaining Broussard Poche, LLP, as auditing firm for the year ending on June 30.
The board granted permission to advertise for sealed bids for the construction of classroom additions at Richard Elementary.
Two classrooms are being added as the school is rapidly growing, nearly doubling student enrollment in a few years.
The School Board will be accepting bids for two classrooms with no rest rooms and two classrooms with rest rooms included.
The dates of the next committee meeting is Feb. 19 and The board meeting is March 5.
The meeting closed with the superintendent commenting, “It takes a village to raise a child and I could not do anything without this board.”
