The Evangeline Parish School Board held its January meeting Wednesday night in the School Board Media Center. Darwin Lazard addressed the Board in his first meeting as Superintendent of Schools. Mr. Lazard announced the Special Election to be held on Saturday, April 29th wherein the public will be asked to renew maintenance and parish-wide mileages that are very important to funding schools. He stressed the importance of residents understanding how important the renewals are. He said “These are renewals and not new taxes. We depend on them and if the propositions do not pass, they take such a cut they would be forced to reduce personnel and/or salaries. I think the general public has seen the huge improvements and steps we have made in our school system, and hopefully, they will continue to support us in those efforts.” He went on to say “We want to give the public accurate information and make sure they know these are just renewals.”
Mr. Lazard presented a framed Proclamation to the Board after the Board passed a Resolution brought before them declaring January 2017 Louisiana School Board Recognition Month.
Mr. Lazard also reported that recently during a boil advisory his maintenance staff and warehouse crew did an outstanding job delivering 2,800 bottles of water to students one day and 2,800 bottles the next day. He commended them all.
The Superintendent stated he has now visited 10 of the 12 schools in Evangeline Parish and met many teachers and faculty as well as other support personnel that keep schools going. He said he felt very welcomed by everyone he met. Lazard says that he will always have an Open Door Policy as the leader of this school system.
Lazard congratulated School Board members for earning 135.5 credit hours of continuing education over the last year.
He also announced schools will be closed Monday in observation of Martin Luther King day.
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