The Winn Parish School Board continued to move forward on two separate election issues through their actions at their regular April session Monday night.

The board will come together in a special-called meeting on Monday, April 14, to name an interim to serve in the District 6 seat until a special election is held this October. The resignation of member Michael Riffe was announced last week during the board’s committee session. The board is currently accepting letters from anyone interested in holding that temporary position but Supt. Al Simmons reported that none had been received prior to the meeting.  Submission deadline is tomorrow, April 10.

Discussion indicated that the board has no hard and fast policy on naming an interim member other than they “shall” appoint one by a 20-day deadline, Simmons said.  In the absence of board action, the governor would make that appointment.  President Joe Lynn Browning asked if the board would be bound by the submitted applications or could members make their own recommendations.

District Attorney Chris Nevils stepped in to suggest that in such situations, it’s not likely that there will be a number of interested parties and the board would do well to select someone who expresses their interest to serve.  But he agreed that as there is no firm policy, the board could handle the matter as seen fit.  The DA pointed out that if the issue ends up on the governor’s desk, he’d probably call the local superintendent for a recommendation.

The second election issue discussed involved the introduction of a resolution to call elections for the New Calvin School District and the Consolidated School District No. 12 (Winnfield and Atlanta), read aloud by Business Manager Jennifer Vidrine.  Monday’s action was the introduction with the election call to come at the board’s May 5 meeting.  If called, those elections would come in October.

Discussion showed that that no additional information on the proposed projects, costs or millage amounts were available at that point other than Vidrine’s report that the purpose of the elections would be to levy ad valorem taxes to service general obligation bonds.

And the board acted on the topic discussed a week earlier in committee on parishwide lawn care as the office will receive informal quotes for the ongoing maintenance work, likely to come in for specific properties rather than a single, parishwide estimate.  Simmons had been quizzed previously why these are considered “quotes” rather than “bids.”  He replied that the term “bid” is normally assigned to a large scale item or project.