CROWLEY – Following the opening items, the Acadia Parish School Board moved to their routine items where, among other things, a bid for LCD multimedia projectors and 16 performance contracts were approved.

Julie Miers, APSB Supervisor of Technology, presented 14 potential vendors for the projectors. The vendors’ composite scores ranged from 97 to 36.5. Miers explained that the composite scores were based on five factors: price, the board’s prior experience with the vendor, technology support and maintenance, warranty and if the products offered met and/or exceeded specifics the board laid out. Based on all the factors, Miers recommended the Florida Micro bid of $44,149.92.

“They received the highest composite score, a 97,” she explained. “They are also the only company to offer a five year warranty.”

The company, as Miers continued to explain, also offers free bulb replacement for the life of the projector. The average cost for a bulb is $300. The school board needs to purchase 76 projectors. Thus, changing each bulb only once would cost $22,800, and most projectors go through two to three bulbs in their lifetime.

“It isn’t the cheapest bid, but we feel it is the most cost effective,” said Miers.

The board approved and awarded the bid to Florida Micro.

The school board also approved 16 performance contracts for central office and individual school employees. In total there were five principals’ contracts, five assistant principals’s contracts, a child nutrition supervisor’s contract, a head start director’s contract and four central office employees’ contracts approved.

The meeting closed with several comments from Superintendent John E. Bourque. Bourque took his time to address two controversies that arose over the week last week. First, the issue of a school being used for a church’s meeting grounds. Bourque confirmed that the matter did not conflict with any laws as the school was leasing usage of the building to the church. He also asked that churches that use schools as their meeting places not use the schools’ names and instead use only the schools’ physical addresses.

He also addressed the decision to close school Thursday and Friday of last week prior to the start of the ice storm that hit Acadia Parish.

“My main concern is the safety of the kids,” he said. “It is always a tough decision to close schools for rainy days and things of that nature, but I believe we did what was right.”

Bourque stated that he had initially thought of keeping schools open until noon on Thursday, but in hindsight, things worked out for the best as transportation would have become an issue Thursday afternoon and was an issue Friday.

The school board will next meet March 7, 2011 as the central office is open the Monday prior to Mardi Gras as opposed to the schools which have the Monday and Tuesday off.