BATON ROUGE &045;&045; Top administrators from Concordia Parish schools left Tuesday’s daylong state board meeting disappointed, but with a fresh take on exactly how huge the problems are.

&uot;I can’t exactly say we are going home with a lot of answers we had wanted,&uot; Superintendent Kerry Laster said. &uot;But it helped me to see even more what a monumental thing this is. It’s not going to be a one year issue.&uot;

Laster and three other administrators headed to Baton Rouge Tuesday hoping and halfway expecting to come home with some clear cut answers about when they’ll be getting much needed financial assistance and whether they’ll be held academically responsible for their new students.

They got neither.

Yet to handle just over 400 evacuee students the district needs more teachers, more textbooks, more desks and more buses.

Some of those things are already on the way, but the money’s coming from the district’s general fund and there’s no assurance they’ll be reimbursed.

&uot;I’m going to continue to be very conservative,&uot; Laster said. &uot;I didn’t get anything definite that we would be getting any huge sum of money.&uot;

Four new teachers have started at Concordia Parish schools to ease overcrowding in classes. Ridgecrest, Ferriday Upper, Ferriday Lower and Vidalia Lower have the new teachers, also evacuees.

Personnel Director Ann Sandidge said she still needed three more high school teachers.

Teacher-pupil ratios were low before the hurricanes hit, giving the district an advantage, Laster said.

The district is working with Durham Bus Services in Natchez to run two more buses in Ferriday and two more in Vidalia. The buses will be leased.

For now, all the district can do is keep detailed lists of all the costs linked to evacuee students. FEMA has said they will reimburse the schools.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is requesting relief from federal No Child Left Behind regulations, but no final decision has been made.

BESE did eliminate some state regulations for this year, but Laster said she feared the reprieve from test scores might cause teachers and students to relax too much and confuse parents in the long run.