LIVINGSTON, La. — The Livingston Parish School Board honored state and national sports champions, approved a $2.53 million construction bid and 2026 millage rates, and ended its June 18 special meeting with word that a lawsuit had been filed that day to block the governor's order cutting Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funds.
The board opened the meeting with recognition of the Walker High School fishing team and the Holden High School state champion athletes.
"We wanted to recognize the Walker High School Fishing Team tonight for their hard work and dedication. A lot of early mornings, a lot of late nights, hot days, cold days, dry, rain, they go through it all," board member Jeffery Cox said. "They work for what they got, I guarantee ya."
The Walker fishing team's trainer told the board that the state organization holds nine tournaments, called state qualifiers, across three trails: east, west, and north. Each boat carries a two-person team, and the teams compete against one another in these tournaments. Whichever team finishes with the most total weight in fish wins first place.
According to Cox, Walker placed in the top three for team award points at a couple of the tournaments. Walker also had five teams qualify for the state championship, an impressive feat because teams must finish in the top 5 percent of the state qualifier tournaments to be eligible. At the championship, Walker won the team award. Louisiana is now sending 11 teams to nationals based on their championship performances, two of them from Walker.
The 2026 Strike King Bassmaster High School National Championship will take place on Kentucky Lake in Paris, Tennessee. The three-day tournament runs July 30 through Aug. 1, drawing teams from across the country to compete for the grand prize, a new bass boat.
The students representing Louisiana are third-place finalists Landin Sholty and Gavin Walterscheid and fourth-place finalists Tyler Laughlin and Drake Burchfield.
"This is a true family engagement that's going on in those boats. It takes the entire family to be able to support [the kids] and then all of the time that you're spending on the boat with the children, that's powerful. I appreciate that more than anything about it," Superintendent Jody Purvis said.
The board then recognized the Holden High School state champion athletes.
"Not only are they premiere athletes on our campus," Rusty Hutchinson, Holden High School principal, told the board, "but they're also top students."
Last year's long jump state champion, Gerardo Cervantes, was honored again, this time for winning the triple jump, placing second in the long jump, third in the 110-meter hurdles, and third in the 300 hurdles at this year's state championships.
Hutchinson also noted that "for the first time in the history of Holden High Athletics, we won the regional track meet… which is every Class B school on the I-10, 12 corridor stretching from Slidell all the way to Lake Charles."
"If you're familiar with track… for one kid to carry a team is a lot," Hutchinson said, "but [Cervantes] placed first in all 4 of these events at the East Regional Meet, scoring 40 points alone for his team who only scored 112 points to win the meet… that was a great accomplishment."
Mollie Bailey, a former USAPL national champion, is a three-time east regional champion who holds both the east regional squat record and total record, which she broke last year. A five-time state podium finisher, the first in Holden history, she is also a four-time state powerlifting champion, another first for Holden. Bailey recently graduated from Holden High at the top of her class.
"I think she has it in her to be a world champion one day," Bailey's coach, David White, told the board. "I really do believe that."
After the awards were handed out, the board moved on to administrative matters.
Chris Bankston of Gasaway Gasaway Bankston Architects gave the board an update on the bidding process for the South Live Oak Elementary School Multipurpose Building. According to Bankston, the lowest bidder was Blount General Contractors, at $2.53 million. The board voted unanimously to approve the bid so construction can begin.
Business manager Ashley Aime then addressed several administrative and legal changes coming before the board.
First, mileage reimbursement in the 2026-2027 travel regulations will rise from 70 cents a mile to 72.5 cents, to "stay in compliance with the State of Louisiana travel guidelines and the IRS."
Second, the board approved the Louisiana Compliance Questionnaire for Audit Engagements of Government Agencies for fiscal year 2025-2026, a "required part of the financial audit of all Louisiana state and local governments."
Finally, the board adopted a resolution keeping all millage rates the same for the 2026 tax year, with the exception of District 41, Walker, whose rate will drop from 9.25 mills to 8 mills.
According to the resolution, the following millages are levied on the 2026 tax rolls on all properties subject to taxation by the Livingston Parish School Board:
The following districts will have 0 mills:
The board unanimously approved all three administrative and legal changes and closed the meeting with the superintendent's comments.
Purvis gave the board an update on the governor's executive order, first mentioned in May, which seeks to reduce the MFP funds that go to certain districts.
"There's been lots of conversations back and forth, there's been a lot of surveying going on back and forth," Purvis said, "but it wasn't anything other than what we've kinda already been hearing."
Purvis then relayed that a suit had been filed that day by a former superintendent, a school board member, and a former Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) member. The suit requests a temporary restraining order to halt the executive order until a hearing can be held June 29.
According to Purvis, the 44-page suit asks the question, "can the governor use executive authority coupled with legislative consent to reduce an already appropriated MFP allocation and then re-direct that allocation to a different source?"
"They're arguing… that the executive order could be violating the separation of power, could be violating the constitutional MFP funding protections, as well as BESE's exclusive authority over the MFP allocation and the constitutional requirements for legislative approval," Purvis said as he ended his update and the meeting drew to a close.
