Music director job hits a sour note on School Board

Adding “music” to a coordinator of instruction’s job description prompted some School Board members to question whether the position is needed.
The personnel committee recommended “music” be added to the job description, which might have seemed like a fairly easy thing to do.
But the School Board ran into procedural difficulties that even posed a restriction on discussing the change.
Raymond Cassimere, board president, asked that the job description change be added to the agenda, an action that requires unanimous approval.
The School Board needed a unanimous vote to place the issue on the its agenda.
Albert Hayes Jr., a School Board member from Eunice voted against placing it on the agenda, nixing the unanimous vote, but that did not stop the discussion.
Hayes asked if the job can be done by someone with no background in music. “If it could done is there a real need for the position,” he asked.
Board member Donnie Perron said, “I understand what Mr. Hayes is saying and I wish we would consider that.”
Perron said similar positions have been eliminated in the past and the job duties given to other supervisors.
“We would save a lot of money,” he said of not filling the job.
“We speak of cutting top heavy this and that. We never do anything. This would be an opportunity. Maybe we could have a discussion at the committee meeting in reference to that,” he said.
Board member Randy Wagley said the superintendent could fill the position before it is discussed in the next committee meeting.
But Matthew Scruggins, personnel director, said there is no plan to immediately fill the position.
Under state restrictions, School Board members have no say on who is hired, but they can determine how many positions there are in the school system.
Superintendent Edward Brown was absent from the meeting and reported to be in a hospital undergoing tests. There was no word on his condition given at the meeting.
When Cassimere directed Wagley to read the superintendent’s comments, the action was challenged by some board members as Wagley read.
“We don’t have an assistant superintendent?” asked board member Milton Ambres.
“I would like to know who is in charge...,” he said.
Board member Charles Ross said, “... I think it is an affront to the assistant superintendent that this board does not recognize him as the assistant superintendent.”
The assistant superintendent, Joseph Cassimere, who is also the brother of Raymond Cassimere, board president, declined to comment on the flare up.
In other action, the purchase of seven school buses at a cost of $374,500 was approved.