Ruston School District No. 1 and Choudrant School District No. 6 both passed bond proposals in Saturday’s election, with Ruston’s being fairly close between the yea’s and the nay’s (1161 – 1001). The LPJ sat down with Lincoln Parish School Board superintendent Ricky Durrett to discuss what the next steps will be following the passage of both proposals.
The complete list of projects is listed at the bottom of this article.
LPJ: Thank you for meeting with us. First, what are the next steps following the bond passages?
Ricky Durrett: We’ll meet (Tuesday, May 7) for our monthly meeting, and we’ll canvass the votes and make sure that’s done. We’d also like for the Ruston District specifically for the school board to go ahead and give us the Construction Management at Risk (CMAR) process, where we’ll go through the process to pick the contractor — we did this for the Simsboro project (last year). It’s a better process for us handling a bigger project like this. (Note: the RHS and RJHS parking lots, activity buses and body scan machines will not go through the CMAR). Hopefully, by the end of June, we will have our contractor picked. We will start immediately working with Mike Walpole on design and getting specs for each project. We’ll move forward on selling the bonds, hopefully in July or possibly August. Our timeline would be to start construction breaking ground around February.
LPJ: Do you have an order for which projects will be going first and so on?
RD: Once we get a contractor picked, we will work closely with them and Mike Walpole’s office to figure out what makes sense to do first, second, and so on. I’m sure several things can be done together.
LPJ: Will Choudrant need the same CMAR process?
RD: No, a CMAR project has to be $5 million or more. So we would bid the project and get that designed. It will take some time; I would anticipate probably around the similar timelines of construction in January or February. It could be quicker (in Choudrant) — it just depends on the settling of those bonds. That’s a smaller project, but it still has to go through the process with all of that.
LPJ: As you know, turnout for both districts was low, and in Ruston it was fairly close (54 percent voted for, 46 voted against). From the school board and the superintendent, what is your message to not just the ones that voted “no” but also the ones who did not actually vote at all?
RD: I would like to say first that I appreciate all those that did turn out and vote. We appreciate all of the support we received to move forward with the project. Going forward now, whether you voted for, against, or not at all, I hope everyone will see as go through and do the projects exactly as we said we were going to that we will follow what was approved by our board to complete. I hope that in the years to come that people will see the value they bring to our community and to our schools and to our student body. We’ll see that kids will benefit, whether it be from the security or the roof or an athletic upgrade or activity buses. I hope that our community will see the value and hopefully appreciate the plan that was put together and passed.
LPJ: Thank you for your time.
The Ruston District 1 proposal for capital improvement will include:
Ruston Junior High School ($1,820,000 total)
– Security Upgrades (Fencing & Gates): $1.3 million
– Additional Parking: $320,000
– Body Scan Machines: $200,00
Ruston High School ($14,780,000 total)
– New Roof: $1 million
– Entrance Upgrades for Security: $950,000
– Body Scan Machines: $300,000
– Parking Lot by Gym: $330,000
– Covered Pavilion: $5 million
– Softball Field Upgrades: $3.5 million
– Boys & Girls Basketball Renovations: $1.5 million
– Baseball Upgrades: $2.2 million
Transportation ($900,000 total)
– Activity buses: $900,000
Choudrant School District No. 6 will include:
Choudrant Elementary School
– Additional Classrooms with Boys and Girls Restrooms ($1.5 million)
Choudrant High School
– New Multi-Purpose Room ($500,000)
