By KERI CHAMPION

Staff Reporter

EDGARD- Tempers flared as a debate about the placement of temporary substitute bus drivers from LaidLaw, a company in Chicago, was brought up for vote at Thursday’s school board meeting.

Iona Holloway, a bus monitor and member of the St. John Education Association approached the board to oppose the motion that would allow LaidLaw to bring in up to 10 substitute drivers to help fix the critical shortage of drivers in St. John Parish.

&#8220We are worried that a private company is out to take over, for that reason we oppose the motion to allow LaidLaw to hire substitute drivers,” Holloway said.

She said that bus drivers would be everywhere to make sure that they were noticed if the jobs were taken.

It appeared to many board members that Holloway was waging a personal attack on member integrity with her assumptions and the board responded accordingly.

&#8220The board wants to assure you that the jobs will not be taken and we have discussed this more than once with you and your members Ms. Holloway. We are simply trying to fix a problem that is an emergency situation. If you think you and the association can help us with the situation than I more than welcome it. Three months is a long time between meetings” said Superintendent Michael Coburn.

&#8220The problem is that drivers are not being held accountable, said Board Member Russel Jack.We need to put our kids firsts and we are not doing that now,” he said.

Holloway then said that if the drivers were paid a &#8220living wage” then perhaps there would be more interest in people wanting to drive buses.

Board member Russ Wise disagreed with an amendment that would have changed the motion to hire substitute drivers from laid law and also to do a study about bringing pay up to a living wage. He said the amendment was misleading because a living wage is a union standard pay grade that is unrealistic and costly.

Eventually the board did pass the motion to hire the bus driver from LaidLaw and look into proposing a study that would raise pay to reasonable standard. The vote was 8-2 with one absent.

In other business, Superintendent Coburn, gave an update on the process of raising test scores and the process East St. John elementary and East St. John High School are going through to make them more accountable.

LANA and DIG processes to improve school performance were discussed.

The vote was 8-2 in favor of purchasing the Elvina Property at a cost of $700,000. The purchase had been put on hold until an issue about a road right of way in the middle of the property had been resolved.