VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish School District maintained its state-issued accountability grade — but would have jumped a letter grade overall based on an older point system, said Superintendent Whest Shirley.

On an A through F grade scale, with A being the better rating, the district maintained a C grade from 2017 to 2018.

Each school’s grade is determined, in part, by scores earned in state assessments given each year. Shirley said the state board of education voted to change the point system by which districts are graded this year, making this year’s accountability grade incomparable with last year.

Based on the old system, the parish improved by an average of 10.3 points — from a 77.3 to a 87.6 on a 150-point system — which would make the districts overall grade a B instead of a C, Shirley said.

The new system reflects that the parish increased by 4.3 points, from a 67.9 to a 72.2. Shirley said the parish showed the second highest growth in the region by the old grading system.

Ferriday High School showed the most growth in the parish and achieved a B grade this year — a fact of which Shirley said he is extremely proud.

“Even with the new system, Ferriday High School is still a B,” he said. “Without playing with numbers, that is big news.”

Shirley said he is most proud of the district’s growth as a whole, but said areas could still be improved.

“ACT and the Work Keys assessments tell us how job ready these kids are,” Shirley said. “We need improvement there and keeping up with the students’ performance to reduce the dropout rate. Those are the main things we need to work on. Other than that — we need to keep doing what we’re doing. I’m proud of the teachers and principals … and the students. They deserve all the credit for the schools that showed growth.”

In other matters during Thursday’s meeting of the Concordia Parish School Board, the board:

• Approved regular expenditures for the month of October, which amounted to $4,052,973.
• Discussed revising of the district’s school bus discipline policy.
• Received proposed bids for districts accounting software, which were taken under advisement.