Thomas, Tillman face off in Terrebonne

Terrebonne School Board’s District 1 incumbent Roosevelt Thomas will oppose current Terrebonne Parish Council member Alvin Tillman for the seat.

“Basically I’m running once again to complete a 12-year commitment that I made almost eight years ago when I announced that I was going to become a School Board member,” Thomas said, whose goal, if re-elected is to get more certified teachers into the school system and to focus on the budget.

“We have a decline in taxes so our biggest challenge is to make sure we have a budget to educate the kids of Terrebonne,” Thomas said, who noted this would be his last term on School Board, and he hopes to groom someone else for the position after he’s finished.

Tillman is no stranger to serving the public, either, as he is currently serving his third term councilman and has chaired the Budget and Finance Committee for the last year. He looks to make a switch to School Board, and will step down from council if elected.

“My experience as a council member has certainly been a plus, because I have a network in the parish and the school district,” Tillman said, who noted he has always wanted to run for a School Board seat and saw the opportunity in the upcoming election.

Tillman hopes to use his experience with the Budget and Finance Committee to help the Board’s financial issues due to the recent decline in sales taxes. He also wants to focus on the dropout rate.

“I want to assess the situation to find out what’s the reason for [the high dropout rate],” he said. ” I think one of the things we can do is to do inspections, in terms of going to the houses and asking the parents why the child as dropped out. We have to get parents involved. If children are not in school they can’t possibly get an education.”