LIVINGSTON, La. — The Livingston Parish School Board held a special meeting on April 23, 2026, which began with a celebration of a local artistic achievement before shifting into discussions of bids and committee reports.
With four board members absent, the remaining members came together to congratulate River Grob, a fourth-grade student from Albany Upper Elementary, who placed first in the K-5 category of the 2026 statewide Artwork Contest hosted by the Louisiana School Boards Association.
"We're all happy and proud," President Stephen Link noted with a smile. "He's a good artist."
Following the recognition, Sommer Purvis, Supervisor of Child Nutrition Programs, came forward to discuss the food item bids presented at the last board meeting.
The school board received one bid for branded pizza, from Papa John's; one bid for ice cream products, from Ice Cream Warehouse; and two bids for frozen, canned, and packaged foods, from Gold Star Foods and Omega 3 Foods.
Purvis advised the board to accept the listed bids, excluding Omega 3 Foods, for the 2026-27 school year, and the board agreed unanimously.
The next point of order was to ratify the bids received for Albany Middle School's new gymnasium. Chris Bankston of Gasaway Gasaway & Bankston Architects approached the board to let them know that the lowest bidder was McLin Construction at $5,642,000, with an additional bid for extra paving in the amount of $189,000, bringing the total to $5,831,000. The budget for the entire project, according to Bankston, is $6,400,000.
"We're very thankful that it came under budget and that's gonna save us some money and be really good," Link said. "We look forward to showing y'all the new gymnasium."
The board voted unanimously to award the bid to McLin Construction.
Superintendent Jody Purvis followed with his comments. He began with an update on a 2024 report outlining recommendations for school nutrition. According to Purvis, the Child Nutrition Department has since expanded non-traditional breakfast meal services to 10 of the 20 schools that were not previously participating, with six of those 10 schools participating in the current school year.
As a result of this expansion, 32 of the district's 42 schools now offer non-traditional breakfast service. The six most recently added schools "have demonstrated significant growth, with breakfast participation increasing between 20% and 56% compared to the prior year," Purvis said.
Approximately 137,000 additional breakfast meals have been served from August through February compared to the same period last school year, generating more than $400,000 in additional revenue for the Child Nutrition Department.
"We will continue working to be as efficient as possible and do the best that we can for our kids," Purvis concluded.
Purvis closed the meeting with a notice that the July 16 school board meeting has been moved to July 23.
