School Board doors locked at committee meetings

As the St. Landry Parish School Board executive committee met Monday to discuss whether to begin its meetings at 1 p.m. or continue a 4 p.m. start time, some of the concerns voiced were about public participation.
But there was a problem.
The School Board building where the committee was meeting was locked.
The explanation was that the door is normally taped to prevent the lock from engaging.
A school administrator outside the building was eventually located to open a door for the late-arriving reporter.
Also meeting Monday were the Building, Lands and Sites and Finance committees.
The proposal to change committee times from 4 p.m. to 1 p.m. will be presented to the full board at its 4 p.m. meeting today.
The meeting change question was added to the committee’s agenda by Superintendent Edward Brown.
Roger Young, a Eunice board member, said the change didn’t matter to him, but he sees advantages with the 1 p.m. time. But he thinks the full board will keep the 4 p.m. time.
“Not meaning to step on any toes or anything but we get off the agenda so much some times,” he said. “The majority of the time we spend late is talking about stuff that isn’t on the agenda. If we stuck to our agenda more we’d probably get the meeting starting at 4 o’clock or 5 o’clock and get done at a reasonable time.”
Anthony Standberry, board president, praised the number of board members attending meetings, but said an earlier time may reduce attendance.
Albert Hayes Jr., a Eunice board member, said a 1 p.m. meeting time hinder public participating in meetings.
Standberry said, “As board members I think we know that when we ran for office we had to make sacrifices.”