October 14
October 14, 2008October 16
October 16, 2008The Terrebonne Parish School Board rejected Superintendent Ed Richard’s choice for the vacant supervisor of transportation position at last Tuesday’s meeting.
The board voted 6-2 against Lisa Holmes, a former Dularge Middle School teacher who currently trains special-education teachers.
Board members Roger Dale Dehart, Rickie Pitre, L.P. Bordelon, Hayes Badeaux, Clark Bonvillain and Donald Duplantis opposed the selection. Gregory Harding and Roosevelt Thomas voted for Holmes. Richard Jackson was absent.
The biggest drawback to hiring Holmes was her lack of experience in fleet transportation, according to several board members.
“I know her as an excellent teacher, but the main focus of the job is transportation, and I don’t believe this candidate has the expertise in transportation,” DeHart said. “I’m not going to support any superintendent recommendation for a position that doesn’t meet the job description.”
Richard contended Holmes met all the qualifications since prior experience in transportation was “preferred,” not “required.”
Harding and Thomas asked fellow board members to give Holmes the same opportunity they allowed Lydia Alleman, the former supervisor who transferred from the post in August.
“The last person we hired didn’t have any experience either,” Thomas mentioned. “I guess we have double standards for some of the people we hire.”
Bordelon was not convinced that the administration exhausted every possibility to fill the position and suggested it hire an employment-recruiting firm.
“They interview candidates and come back to boards with recommendations for various people,” he said. “Have we talked with Laidlaw or any of these other bus transportation businesses who have their hand on the pulse of the situation.”
Personnel supervisor Debra Yarbrough said she ran advertisements for the position in newspapers, the school district’s Web site and every school district in Louisiana.
The vacant position will be advertised again through the end of next week.
Alleman will continue to head the transportation department until a successor is hired.
The supervisor of transportation is in charge of a 170-bus fleet that shuttles over 14,000 students twice daily. They also manage transportation for field trips, out-of-town trips for extra curricular activities and the department budget.
“There are a lot of issues that require a lot of organization and coordination,” Richard said. “When you have absenteeism, new subdivisions, more traffic, road closures, they’re all issues.”
Richard also discussed the ongoing recovery efforts at schools damaged by hurricanes Gustav and Ike in September.
He said the school district had already spent $866,000 on repairs. A total monetary damage assessment was not available.
“That’s going to take some time because we have a lot of damage at some of these schools,” Richard said. “Grand Caillou Elementary is going to take a little longer to complete than anticipated. At East Houma (Elementary), we lost a whole building.”
Grand Caillou Elementary was inundated with over four feet of floodwater from Hurricane Ike’s storm surge overtopping the levees. School officials thought it would be operational by December. No timetable was given for its reopening.
A building that housed the library and five kindergarten classrooms at East Houma Elementary had its entire roof blown off during Hurricane Gustav.
