VIDALIA, La. — The Justice Department has given its approval to a plan to move third grades in Ferriday and Vidalia to upper elementary schools, Concordia Parish Superintendent Lester &uot;Pete&uot;&160;Peterman said Tuesday.

It is now up to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana to give final approval, which will probably happen in the next 30 days, said School Board Attorney Norman Magee. Federal approval is needed because the district is still under a 1970 desegregation order.

That means the school district has about three months to add portable buildings to accommodate the extra students, relocate 25 teachers from the lower elementary schools and Ferriday Kindergarten Center to the upper elementary schools, change bus routes and relocate some teaching materials.

&uot;But that should give us the time we need to make the changes that are needed,&uot;&160;Peterman said.

But Peterman is so confident the court will give its approval that on May 25, the school system will send letters to parents of upcoming pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and third grade students telling them that approval is expected and that their children will probably attend different schools in August.

In addition to moving the third grades, the plan would also add pre-K classes to the lower elementaries and moving kindergarten and pre-K in Ferriday to Ferriday Lower Elementary.

The district’s Curriculum Committee suggested the change earlier this year in hopes that having third-graders in upper elementaries — now only fourth and fifth grades — would let those schools to better prepare them for the LEAP test.

Fourth- and eighth-graders must pass LEAP to move to the next grades.