VIDALIA — Monterey High School might get a new gym as Concordia Parish School Board members agreed to seek quotes for developing specifications on the project.

Concordia Parish School Board President Raymond T. Riley Sr. during Tuesday’s regularly scheduled board meeting requested that Tom O’Neal, director of business affairs, begin the process of receiving quotes for the development of plans for the gym.

Last February, District 5B board member John Bostic said Monterey High School has a gym that seats less than 400 people in a school of 500 students, with standing room only at graduations and other events.

“It’s much needed,” said Bostic, adding people having been asking for a new gym for approximately 40 years.

Tuesday evening, District 3A board member Rickey Raven said the building itself has been standing for more than 100 years, adding that it holds a lot of sentimental value to the school’s alumni.

Raven said instead of replacing the gym, the board is considering adding a gym to the Monterey High School campus while keeping the old building intact.

Raven said he predicts the building would be similar to the gym built at Ferriday Junior High School 5 years ago, which cost $2.4 million at the time of its construction.

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

• Unanimously approved a resolution showing opposition to all proposed legislation that transfers the administration and collection of local sales and use taxes to the Louisiana Department of Revenue.

Earlier this year, Louisiana Rep. Tanner Magee proposed a constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would transfer the task of collecting sales taxes from an array of parish-level agencies to an unspecified central collection agency. In response, the Louisiana School Board Association asked school boards to adopt resolutions to be sent to state legislators showing their opposition to the amendment, O’Neal said during Tuesday’s meeting.

• Unanimously approved minutes of a regular board meeting held March 14.
• Unanimously approved all invoices for the month of March, which amounted to $3,697,417.
• Unanimously approved the schools’ student and employee calendars for the 2019-2020 school year.

Board members entered an executive session to discuss a personnel issue and took no action.