The Evangeline Parish School Board held its first meeting for November Wednesday night in the School Board Media Center.
It was announced that as of November 1st, all schools in Evangeline Parish began again providing breakfast and lunch to all students free of charge. The school system has been in the Community Eligibility Provision for the 2016-2017 school year. In September of this year, 9 schools in Evangeline Parish were included in the program. A re-certification was performed and because of the recent flooding and Evangeline Parish being declared a disaster area, the rest of the schools in the district were able to be added. Parents are still responsible for paying the meal fees for their child(ren) for the month of October which was not covered by the program. There will be another re-evaluation next school year to determine if meals will continue to be free of charge.
As previously reported, School Board Superintendent, Toni Hamlin, announced in August that she will be retiring when her contract ends on December 31, 2016. Hamlin plans to spend more time with her family after retirement. The Board advertised for the upcoming vacancy and has now collected applications that were due October 28th. The School Board is reviewing the three applications it received. As many have speculated, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Darwan Lazard, submitted an application to fill the position. Application packets were also received from Dr. Sandra Reed of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and Steve Benton, Sr. from Marianna, Florida. The School Board will perform interviews of the candidates in a public meeting sometime in December.