The Baker School Board heard a report at its Oct. 2 meeting on economic development presented by Steve Stein of Whitney Bank.

The report covered results of a survey conducted with residents and business leaders by the Louisiana Development Ready Communities program.

The survey covered quality of life, education, government, leadership, workforce, transportation, utilities and market.

Baker is participating in the program, sponsored by Louisiana Economic Development, to improve its efforts to recruit new businesses to locate in Baker.

LDRC is planning a town hall meeting on education the week of Oct. 18 and Stein urged members of the school board to let him know what date they can attend.

In other business:

EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS: With funding from Entergy, Dr. Charles Vincent, director of Mwalimu Institute, presented materials to schools to assist in the social studies segment of the LEAP test. Board member, Dr. Dana Carpenter, suggested a geography bee may be in the offing.

BULLETIN 130: Concerns regulations for the evaluation and assessment of school personnel, but needs more work, Elaine Davis, board president, said. Job descriptions are lacking and positions named must align with budget, she said.

The board voted to table approval until the next meeting, with Doris Alexander abstaining. Superintendent Ulysses Joseph said the State Department of Education has not yet set a deadline for completion and he has five or six people working on the document.

REDISTRICTING: Board members received definitions of their districts according to census block data with most streets unnamed and indicated by numerical points. A vote to approve the ordinance for redistricting passed with Troy Watson abstaining and Alexander voting nay because no time was given to check for accuracy.

NEXT MEETING: The next meeting of the school board will be Tuesday, Nov. 13.