By: ELIZABETH WEST
Associate Editor
The applications are in, and it looks like the Evangeline Parish School Board will have three individuals to choose from to become the district’s new Superintendent of Schools.
The board learned that they would need to begin advertising for the position after current superintendent Toni Hamlin announced at an August board meeting that she would be retiring when her contract ends on December 31, 2016.
The EPSB President Wayne Dardeau said, “The deadline to apply for the position was October 28th, so on Friday we went and got all of the applications out of the mailbox that they have been locked in. We had a total of three applicants; one female and two males.”
Without having the applications in front of him, Dardeau was unable to recall all three of the candidates’ names. However, when asked if the school district’s current assistant superintendent Darwan Lazard had applied, Dardeau answered, “Yes, Mr. Lazard is one of the applicants.”
He then continued, “The female applicant we have is from Mississippi and the other male applicant is from Florida.”
Although these were the only three applicants as of Friday, Dardeau says that there is a possibility that they could receive more applications.
“There is a chance that we could get another application in the mail on Monday or maybe even Tuesday,” said Dardeau. “If someone mailed their application on Friday then we wouldn’t have received it yet, so we are going to check the mailbox again on next week.”
The next step in this process of hiring a new superintendent will be to evaluate the applications and each candidate’s qualifications, which will be done by attorney Jon K. Guice with Hammonds, Sills, Adkins & Guice, LLP and Allen Parish Superintendent Mike Doucet.
The sooner the evaluations are completed, the sooner the board can set a date for the special meeting that will be held to interview the applicants. This meeting will be open to the public, however, Dardeau said, “Only board members will be able to ask the applicants questions.”
Following the interviews, the board of 12 will vote to hire a new Evangeline Parish Superintendent.
The next regular school board meeting will be held on November 2, 2016, at the Evangeline Parish Media Center, located at 607 Harvey Lebas Dr., Ville Platte. The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m.