The Livingston Parish School Board held their regular meeting on June 4th, during which they honored a bright student for his excellence in self-advocacy and discussed upcoming budget changes that may be necessary due to the governor’s newest executive order.
The entire school board extended their congratulations to Jared Peters from Live Oak High School for his outstanding achievement in placing as one of only twelve national finalists for the “Yes I Can” award and for being the recipient of the Self-Advocacy award. This award recognizes students with exceptionalities that demonstrate outstanding achievements in taking practical responsibility for themselves by using their knowledge of legal rights to advance personal goals and advocate for their own, and others, needs.
During his time at school, Peters has worked to create a more inclusive classroom, foster more open communication with teachers, and use his experiences to pave the way for greater acceptance among his peers and the school staff.
“It means a whole lot to be honored with this celebration,” Peters told the board. “I truly believe that we can achieve higher things if we can put our minds to it and advocate for ourselves.”
“To everybody in the room who has touched Jared’s life: thank you, because that’s the reason why we do what we do,” Superintendent Jody Purvis added.
Following this, the school board heard Purvis’ comments on the newly issued governor’s executive order that seeks to reduce the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funds that go into certain districts.
Purvis noted that not a lot of information is available at the moment regarding the order itself, and that some of the language used in the official order document can be considered vague or unclear regarding the stipends that will be included.
Livingston Parish is already considered one of the lowest funded districts in the per-pupil MFP formula, causing concerns that the Livingston Parish School Board, which is already operating under a sharp budget, will be impacted severely by the order.
“Currently, 81% of the MFP that comes into our district is spent instructionally,” Purvis explained, “so that does not leave a large portion of funds left.”
“Many people have said this many times, but there is no secret pot of money anywhere here in Livingston Parish,” President Stephen Link stated. “I don’t know about other parishes, but I know there’s no secret stash somewhere where we can just go grab this money that people are saying we have.”
While the order has not officially been put into action at this time, if the legislature votes with 2/3rds majority for the order, it will then take place and move forward.
“I will tell you, our employees deserve a stipend. They deserve a raise. They deserve anything that they can receive… they do deserve it,” Purvis went on to add.
The next item for discussion was the purchase by the school board of 0.79 acres beside Walker High School and ended with a unanimous vote to go ahead with the purchase of the land.
The owner of the property in question, Paul McCarrol, said he wanted to give the school board the first opportunity to purchase the land in order to give back and “help the [school] system.”
The school board also voted unanimously to continue to adopt Livingston Parish News as the Official Journal for the 2026-2027 school year.
Finally, the meeting closed with the unanimous agreement to advertise for bids for a new football field scoreboard for Live Oak High School.
Board member Robert Seals described the old scoreboard as having “given up the ghost…so it’s time to upgrade and get a new one.”
