By Kyle Roberts
The Lincoln Parish School Board met for its monthly session Tuesday night where two new principals were announced prior to discussions regarding the funds following the passage of the bond measures for the Ruston and Choudrant school districts and the ongoing relationship between the City of Ruston and Ruston High softball and tennis.
Both Jordan Blachier and Becky Sutherland were first announced as the new principals for Glen View Elementary and Hillcrest Elementary, respectively, prior to the finance committee’s reports.
“I am very excited to be serving at Hillcrest,” Sutherland said. “I’m excited to serve the students, the family members, the community members. And I’m looking forward to great things this year at Hillcrest. And I appreciate this.”
Blachier was also appreciative of the opportunity to be the principal at Glen View, citing the fact he was a student there starting in Kindergarten.
“I’m very familiar with the school; they’ve got a lot of great things going,” Blachier said. “I’m excited to work with the staff, the students, and the families, as well.”
During the following finance committee report, the subject of the relationship with the City of Ruston was raised regarding an offer for softball and tennis to both be housed at the Ruston Sports Complex for $55,000 for the upcoming year. Even as part of the Ruston School District bond passage includes the construction of a softball facility for Ruston High School with the plan to move back to the Bittersweet Ave. location, construction will go beyond the 2025 season, meaning Ruston High softball will still need a place to play in 2025 and possibly further depending on construction timelines.
Though no formal action was taken regarding accepting the offer, Lincoln Parish School Board president Ricky Durrett opened up the floor to board members on the direction to take with the city.
A recommendation was then made by Hunter Smith of District 7 to have members of Ruston’s city council and Mayor Ronny Walker to come to a meeting to see about shoring up a firm agreement moving forward.
“We can sit down in a room together and have a joint meeting,” Smith said. “We need to try to negotiate in person instead of back and forth, back and forth with the city, because Mr. Durrett cannot make a decision on his own (without a school board vote) and neither can Mayor Walker (without a city council vote).”
Multiple school board members along Durrett were all open to that idea.
Mayor Walker was reached for comment late Tuesday night and reiterated his desire to reach a deal with the school board.
“The city has always been open to continuing dialog between the school board and the city council as far as the field and sports complex,” Walker said. “So we’re very open to it. Our concern is, of course, just like the school board, the city council can’t meet separately without it being declared a special meeting, which, if that’s what they would like to do, is fine. But two of our city council members and the mayor could easily meet at whatever time the school board finance committee would like to meet.”
Durrett added after the meeting that it’s his desire to get an agreement done with the city of Ruston for this past year along with the 2024-25 school year, citing his desire to still be a partner in hosting various events and tournaments.
“We still want to work with the city to host tournaments at the softball complex and bring families to Ruston for tennis matches, whether it’s regional or state matches,” Durrett said. “Those things benefit everybody in our city and our parish. We want to continue to work with the city and work out a fair agreement that maybe everybody can live with.”
LPSB municipal advisor Lucius McGehee, Jr., with Argent Advisors, Inc., also spoke about the interest rates on the bonds for Ruston and Choudrant, which was passed back in April for capital improvements at Ruston High School and Choudrant High School and Choudrant Elementary.
The school board voted unanimously to send the bonds to the underwriter for both school districts.
“What we did today was to create to the opportunity to sell the bonds,” McGehee said. “This is the first resolution, and we will work through with the underwriter and arrive at a market price. Then we’ll come back to the board with the final numbers and get the money.”
The plan is for the funds to be made available to both school districts by Aug. 15, 2024.
The LPSB will meet again on Tuesday, July 2.
