Procedures for the upcoming search for a new superintendent were briefly discussed during recent committee meetings for the Acadia Parish School Board.
At the February meeting, Superintendent John E. Bourque formally announced that he will retire from that position effective at the end of the current school year.
Bourque has served as superintendent in Acadia Parish for the past 13 years and is currently the longest-serving parish superintendent in the state.
Committee members reviewed procedures for the superintendent search and announced that packets containing guidelines will be distributed to all board members at the next regular meeting.
The board is also planning a workshop on guidelines to be held following that March 5 meeting.
Also during the committee meetings, board members heard recommendations for permission for a field trip from numerous schools in the parish.
These included a request from Church Point High School FFA to attend the National Land Judging Contest in Oklahoma from April 30 - May 4. The team placed number four in the state out of 50 teams and hope to continue on to national competition. The total cost of the trip will be around $3,000, which will include food, fuel and lodging.
The four students participating are two seniors, one junior and one sophomore. The team has already hosted a BBQ burger sale as a fundraiser as well as collection of a $500 donation from a local business for the trip. The students will be chaperoned by the FFA sponsor.
The Evangeline Elementary 4-H also asked to attend NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas, on May 9. The club sponsors reported that the club, consisting of about 54 members, have been learning about space in their monthly meetings.
It is the first year that Evangeline Elementary has had a 4-H Club in a very long time, according to officials. The student enrollment is approximately 25 percent of the school and only students in the fourth through eighth grades are allowed to join.
Students will be chaperoned by their parents with an expectation of a nearly 1-to-1 student/chaperon ratio.
Board members noted that “4-H makes a great contribution to a child’s education” and how good the 4-H program is as a whole. Superintendent Borque recited the 4-H Pledge aloud and divulged that he was the 4-H president as a seventh and eighth grader.
Finally, committee members approved a request by Estherwood Elementary School for sixth and seventh graders to travel to Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas, on May 10.
As requested from the board in a previous meeting, a report on the club accounts of the various school in the parish was presented. The total amount of funds in each account was included in this report.
It was discussed that the only reasonable club account that should have a exceptionally large total is yearbook since they gather sponsor moneys to offset the cost of each year’s production cost. Furthermore, the board discussed that funds in each account should be monitored so that certain caution is exercised in reference to fund-raisers.
