LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD

Ruston, Louisiana

REGULAR SESSION

Tuesday, May 6, 2025  6:00 p.m.

The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Parish School Board, Ruston, Louisiana.  Members present were Ms. Debbie Abrahm, Mr. Otha Anders, Mr. Clark Canterbury, Ms. Donna Doss, Mr. David Ferguson, Mr. Danny Hancock, Ms. Lynda Henderson, Mr. George Mack, Jr., Mr. Joe Mitcham, Mr. Gregg Phillips, Mr. Hunter Smith and Dr. Danielle Williams.

President Phillips called the meeting to order, welcomed visitors, and gave the invocation.  Ms. Abrahm led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag.

Upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Ms. Doss, the Board voted 11-1 to approve the agenda as printed.  Mr. Ferguson voted no.

Upon a motion by Mr. Hancock, seconded by Ms. Abrahm, the Board voted 11-1 to approve the minutes of the Regular Session held on April 1, 2025, as presented.  Mr. Ferguson voted no.

Brandon Sutherland, Communications Coordinator, said that he was always happy to bring some good news of things happening in our district.  He then recognized five Ruston High School students who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT.  He introduced Harper Anderson, Trisha Pangilinan, and Sebastian Xochicale-Plunkett and presented them with a plaque.  Siriana Kilpatrick and Gavin McCown could not be here for the meeting.Board members congratulated them on this tremendous accomplishment.

Next, Mr. Sutherland recognized Ruston High School student, Jacob Gaskin who recently competed and won a State Weightlifting Championship in the Division 1, 114-weight class.  Gavin introduced family in attendance, and several board members expressed their congratulations.

LEAN Frog Consultant Dr. Brandon Payne thanked the board for the opportunity to present the Organization Review Executive Summary for Lincoln Parish Schools.  He began by giving an overview of how LEAN Frog reached the conclusions in the report including collecting data from all areas of the school system, requesting operational information, conducting on-site interviews, collecting employee job analysis questionnaires, and working in group follow ups with district leadership.

He discussed commendations and findings/observations in the report pertaining to all aspects of Lincoln Parish Schools.  Then looking at the district’s current organizational chart, he shared a proposed organizational chart to indicate how changes could better serve our district.  He then offered a summary of recommendations and talked about some of the best opportunities for improving the district.

Following questions from board members, Dr. Payne thanked the board for the opportunity to work with Lincoln Parish Schools.

Transportation Supervisor David Hoefler said he would like to request the purchase Samsara software for 80 Lincoln Parish School buses.  This software will provide diagnostics for maintenance and tracking to help insure safer bus routes for students.  Additionally this software provides the ability for a parent to see the location of their student’s bus.

Upon a motion by Ms. Doss, seconded by Ms. Abrahm, the board unanimously voted to grant permission to purchase Samsara software for 80 Lincoln Parish School buses.

Next, Mr. Hoefler reminded board members that we were previously able to add air conditioning systems to 35 school buses with the use of federal ESSER funding.  The air conditioning systems provide a safer bus riding experience for our students and drivers by cooling buses during extreme temperatures and helping to improve air quality.  He asked the board to continue this program to purchase and install air condition systems on 18 additional buses using the Request for Proposal process.

Upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Mr. Smith, the board voted unanimously to grant the Superintendent permission to issue a Request for Proposal to purchase retrofit air conditioning systems for approximately 18 school buses, and to accept the proposal that provides the greatest benefit at the most reasonable cost to the School Board based on the specifications requested.

Superintendent Ricky Durrett said the City of Ruston is requesting five Donations of Servitude to maintain the current water/sewer lines and fire hydrants around Ruston Junior High School, and also to extend the current water line development west of Tarbutton Road.

Upon a motion by Mr. Mitcham, seconded by Ms. Henderson, the board unanimously voted to grant the City of Ruston these Donations of Servitude.

Maintenance Supervisor Ricky Edmiston said that each year, we are required by state law to advertise for bids on materials and supplies for schools with an aggregate cost of $60,000 or more.  He then asked the Board to grant permission to advertise for bids for duplicating paper, and gasoline and diesel for the 2025-2026 school year.

Upon a motion by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. Hancock, the Board unanimously voted to grant permission to advertise for bids for duplicating paper, and gasoline and diesel for the 2025-2026 school year and also grant permission to the district administration to accept the lowest qualified bid.

New Construction Supervisor James Payton expressed to the board that the Ruston High School parking lot project is nearing completion.  He requested permission to formally approve change orders for the project.  Change order #1 – To increase the original contract completion date by ten (10) days, in order to obtain board approval for change order #2.  Change order #2 – (a) A large retaining wall connected to a sidewalk had to be removed and it was necessary to import select fill dirt where the wall was removed.  (b) It was necessary to excavate and remove soft muddy soil from the area where water was running into the ground under the parking lot.  Geotech fabric was installed in the bottom of the hole and the area was backfilled and compacted with select fill dirt.  (c) Additional topsoil along east side of curb line was added.

Upon a motion by Ms. Doss, seconded by Mr. Mitcham, the Board voted 11-1 to approve change orders #1 and #2 for the Ruston High School Parking Lot.  There will be an increase in the contract price of $13,521.10.  The new contract price will be $178,116.10.  Mr. Ferguson voted no.

Chief Financial Officer Juanita Duke told board members that the following equipment items are obsolete and have been replaced with new equipment: Four (4) Automated External Defibrillators and seven (7) School Buses.  She asked the board to grant permission to declare this property as surplus.

Upon a motion by Mr. Mitcham, seconded by Mr. Canterbury, the board unanimously voted to declare the equipment as surplus and authorize administration to dispose of the equipment in accordance with state laws and board policy.

Ms. Duke then reminded board members that in the spring of each year, schools are allocated funds from the 1979 Sales Tax Fund for the purchase of instructional supplies for the following school year.  This distribution is made from 1/3 portion of 1979 Sales Tax collections dedicated by voters for instruction.  After reviewing spending by schools, adjustments were made in the allocations for 2025-26 to allow for increased spending for Science, Art and P.E. materials without creating an increase in the overall allocation.  Distributions will be made directly to each school and expenditures will be accounted for in their local school accounting records accordingly.

Upon a motion by Mr. Hancock, seconded by Ms. Abrahm, the board unanimously voted to approve the allocation of instructional supply monies from the 1979 Sales Tax Fund in the amount of $70,021.25 to be distributed to schools for the 2025-2026 school year.

The following personnel items were shared by Dr. Doris Lewis, Director of Human Resources:

Ms. Duke reported on sales taxes collected for the month ending April 2025.  She reported collections were up 12.26% compared to April of 2024.  Overall, sales tax collections for the fiscal year are up 7.6% to date.

Moving on to the financial statement for March 2025, Ms. Duke said our combined general fund revenues are 78.9% of budget.  With seventy-five percent of the fiscal year completed, expenditures are 66.5% of the budget, which is lower due to the lag in the payment of salaries and benefits earned by nine, ten and eleven month employees that will be accrued at June 30th and paid in July and August between school sessions.  Revenues in the special revenue funds to date are 82% of the budget and expenditures are at 70.4% of budget.

In the Health Insurance Fund report, Ms. Duke shared Plan performance in the first three months ending March 31 of the 2025 plan year.  Contributions to the plan are $4.4 million compared to $3.4 million this time last year.  Plan expenses are $3.7 million compared to $4.3 million this time last year, which is a reduction of $636,000 in overall expenses resulting in the positive change in net assets of $743,406 in the first quarter.  After going through the data with Brown & Brown, there is an increase in drug claims and a reduction in medical claims paid through this period compared to the prior year; Ms. Duke cautioned that it is too early to count this as savings, as medical claims incurred in the first quarter are still going through plan payment processing implementation with UMR.  Ms. Duke pointed out the $644,588 reported in drug rebates are from Blue Cross for drugs dispensed in 2024 and that the Plan has not received rebates for drugs paid in 2025 from UMR; she noted there is a three to six-month lag in processing and receiving those rebates.  In anticipation of the drug rebates from UMR, we are cautiously optimistic that favorable plan performance will continue through the next quarter.

Assistant Superintendent John Young gave a report on the Strategic Plan for Lincoln Parish Schools.  He began by saying that back in 2021, Lincoln Parish entered an agreement with the Louisiana Department of Education and became a member of Cohort 1 of the Strong School Systems Initiative to do three things: increase equitable access to opportunities, improve outcomes for all students and sustain the improvements over time.  Our district was one of the first in the state to take on this endeavor and we were matched by LDOE with Attuned - Education Partners, a technical advisor whose main job is to improve student outcomes across the country.

The Strategic Plan from Attuned focused on improvement in academics, equity and access for all of our students to get the best quality education, safety and student well-being, and community engagement.

At the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, Attuned completed a Performance Data Analysis, an Instructional Quality Review, collected Constituent Perspectives, interviewed district leadership and board members, and conducted four focus groups with principals, teachers, family members and students.  Four goals were established:  1) Rigorous Instruction, 2) Improve Individualized Student Support, 3) UFLI Implementation, and 4) Building a Diverse and Talented Team.

Along with the Strategic Plan, we have Directly Responsible Individuals for overseeing the work.  The DRI’s conduct progress monitoring for initiatives, report back, and changes are made as needed.  The DRI team meets monthly to discuss and analyze information and data, and typically, Mission Measures are updated every October with the release of DPS and SPS scores.  He went on to explain how the plan is measured and how Attuned provides support in a variety of ways to the district.  Mr. Young said that the Strategic Plan is done in five-year increments and we just renewed to take us out to the year 2030.

In the Enrollment Report, Mr. Durrett said that attendance at all schools was above 94%.

Mr. Durrett told board members that the Ruston High School Bearcat Nation Network has been streaming graduations, ballgames, signing days, and many other events over the last several years.  Some students who have been a part of this program since the beginning are graduating this year and we want to recognize them, along with Coach Nick Brown who leads this group.

Coach Brown said that the students working in the Bearcat Nation Network start each day at 7:40 a.m. at Ruston High School and they log many hours.  This meeting tonight marks the 95th broadcast of this school year.  He then introduced and thanked the senior students in the program:  Joey Wheelus, Daniel Johnson, and Marijah Heard.  These students have done a tremendous job and he thanked RHS and the Lincoln Parish School Board for giving them the opportunity to serve in this way.

In a Report of the Superintendent, Mr. Durrett said:

Mr. Mack asked if it would be permissible for the Board to go on record by adopting a resolution to express how much we appreciate the efforts our teachers in Lincoln Parish.  Mr. Durrett said that we could put together a resolution for our next board meeting in June.

After some discussion by board members, upon a motion by Mr. Smith, the meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.