Vermilion Parish School Board: Moving closer to 9 school board members

The Vermilion Parish School Board is moving closer to becoming a nine-member board.
On Wednesday, seven school board members attended a special workshop to look over the new district lines for the school board members.
The final vote to approve the new boundaries for a nine member board will be voted on at the May 19 school board meeting.
School Superintendent Tommy Byler emphasized the new district lines are for only school board member representation and not new school zone lines.
“This is for the school board members only,” said Byler. “What the school board members are doing tonight has nothing to do with rezoning attendance lines.”
There is the regular school board election in November. The school board has to get the new boundary lines approved in order for the ninth school board race to be put on the ballot for the November election.
New school board boundary lines had to be redrawn because of the recent 2010 census.
The school board hired Mike Hefner, a demographer, to redraw the school board lines for a nine-member board.
Hefner informed the school board that each district has to have a population of 6,366 people, give or take five percent.
The new school board district will be in the North Vermilion area. The new board member will represent the Meaux Elementary and Indian Bayou area.
The other North Vermilion board member will have North Vermilion High, North Vermilion Middle, and Cecil Picard Elementary in their district.
School Board member Laura LeBeouf, and board members Dale Stelly and David Dupuis have concerns with the preliminary lines drawn. Dupuis’ district will continue to be the rural area west of Kaplan and all of Gueydan.
Stelly’s district, the Forked Island area, is south of Kaplan toward the Vermilion Bay, and part of the town of Kaplan.
LeBeouf, with a nine-member district, will continue to represent most of Kaplan and north of Kaplan.
Abbeville and Erath will continue to have two school board members, with the boundary lines staying pretty much the same.