By Rebecca Burk Ellis / L’Observateur / June 10, 1998

RESERVE – Courtney Millet and Shelton Smith are St. John the BaptistParish’s newest principals.

With principals retiring from two elementary schools in St. John Parish,Superintendent Cleveland Farlough made a recommendation at the school board meeting Thursday night to fill those positions.

He recommended Millet fill the vacant spot at LaPlace Elementary and Smith take over as principal at West St. John Elementary. The board votedunanimously to accept his recommendation.

Millet, who has been assistant principal at Glade School for the past two years, was a second-grade teacher at LaPlace Elementary before that. Sheis taking Principal Lowell Bacas’ place.

“I’m really excited about being principal at LaPlace Elementary,” she said.

“I’m looking forward to working with the staff, and I will work hard to keep the high quality of the school.”Smith, who was assistant principal under Myrtle Bossier, who is retiring, is also excited about his new appointment.

“I would like to thank Mr. Farlough and the board for this opportunity,” hesaid. “I will continue to work very hard to make West St. John Elementarya very effective school.”Also at the meeting, school board members voted to spend approximately $550,000 on summer maintenance projects to fix problems at West St.

John Elementary and East St. John High School and to do roof repairs atthree of the parish’s schools.

Roof repairs at the Glade will cost about $20,000, according to an estimate the auxiliary committee received.

The air conditioning system at East St. John High School has been a thornin the side of the board for several years now. Board chairman RichardDeLong said the unit has to be worked on constantly. And business directorFelix Boughton said the unit would only last a few more months.

For an estimated $189,500 the cooling towers will be replaced and for $247,000 a new air conditioner will be installed in the gym.

Drainage has been a problem at West St. John Elementary. But for $95,000that too can be fixed.

“We’ve been fooling around with these things for a while now trying to fix them and patch them up,” Superintendent Cleveland Farlough said. “Weneed to do something now.”Board members voted unanimously to spend the money to have the repairs made, hopefully in time for school.

Driver’s education classes will continue as planned this summer because board members also decided to buy a new driver’s education car to replace the one recently stolen and found burnt in a Reserve field.

The insurance wouldn’t replace the car because the umbrella policy that the board has which covers all of the buses and cars has a $50,000 deductible.

The cost to replace the car is $12,000, which will come from the Construction II Funds part of the budget.

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