By Cain Madden

The Natchez Democrat

VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish School Board unanimously approved looking into a land swap of properties on the backside of Lake St. John on Thursday at its regular meeting.

The board currently owns a property that is approximately 130 acres, and finance director Thomas O’Neal is hoping to swap it for a property of equal value further away from the levee.

“Only approximately 82 acres are of value agriculturally,” he said. “The rest is only of use for hunting rights.”

The school board cannot lease property for hunting rights, so O’Neal said that portion of the property is going to waste. He said a landowner with more farmable acreage was interested in doing a swap.

“It would be of more value to us than the current property,” O’Neal said.

The board would maintain mineral rights for the property, Section 7, T8N, R10E, by state law. The farming acreage is currently on lease to a farmer, but the lease expires in September.

Following executive session interim superintendent Loretta Blankenstein announced the system would have to find replacements for five retiring employees, five resignations and one transfer.

“This is part of the regular staffing that we do at this particular time,” Blankenstein said. “We let the schools go ahead and fill out the paperwork, so we can make plans for the upcoming year.”

Earlier in the meeting, the board voted to enter into a contract with the town of Jonesville to collect taxes.

The Concordia Parish School Board is the tax collecting agency for the six-parish tax division.