VIDALIA – Despite complaints from both school board members and citizens of favoritism, the Concordia Parish School Board hired two new employees Tuesday night.

In two votes, the board voted 6-3 to hire Mary Beard as a pupil appraisal secretary and Mary Tarver as a supervisor of special education.

In the Beard case, members of the audience and board members Raymond Riley, Mary Campbell and the Rev. Johnnie Brown complained that a selection committee and Superintendent Lester &uot;Pete&uot; Peterman picked someone from outside the system even though qualified district employees had applied.

Brown said he has been asking the board to adopt a policy to consider promoting people from within the district first because of this problem.

Brown said he has served on the board for more than 10 years and &uot;for some reason we always have problems when it comes to appointing some employees.&uot;