(The Center Square) — The Caddo Parish School Board held both regular and special session meetings this week, deciding on an interim District 7 representative and a school bus tire contract.
The special session on Tuesday was used to interview candidates interested in filling the vacancy for District 7 interim representative and decide on a finalist. The candidates were Jerry Bowman Jr., Carla Buntyn, Pamela Jackson and Linda Smith.
Bowman won the majority vote with seven out of 11 votes. Buntyn received two votes and the other two female candidates received none, leaving two board members who chose to pick none of the candidates.
Immediately after winning, Bowman was sworn into the position.
Bowman served eight years on the Shreveport City Council and was either chairman or vice chairman for five of those years.
While all three of the losing applicants were former or current educators, their classroom experience was not enough to overtake someone with board and public service experience.
As for the regular session held after the special session on Tuesday, almost the entire discussion period was spent on a bid to supply school bus tires to the parish.
Steve Umling, District 1 board member, made a motion to deny the bid from Southern Tire Mart, saying they “Should know better than this.”
According to Umling, a tier 1 tire, which is the highest classification, was required by the contract. Examples of these are Goodyear, Bridgestone and Michelin. Tire Mart is presenting the School Board a brand called Double Coin, which Umling says are made in China and tier 3.
However, the legal team of the board revealed that tier 1 was not required in the contract bid, only a tier 1 equivalent. Southern Tire Mart Representative Robert Rickards admitted Double Coin tires are not tier 1 but had the same warranty (seven years) and met the necessary safety measures.
Rickards also defended Mississippi-based Southern Tire Mart saying it is the largest retreader in North America, a $3 billion a year company, and hasn’t had any issues with tires. The company’s main goal is to make sure the school board doesn’t spend too much money while also putting something good on school buses. Rickards said he felt the company achieved that.
A representative from Caddo Transportation seconded Rickards and defended Double Coin saying they’ve used them for years and have never had a problem.
Umling countered that there is a reason their tires are the cheapest and although they may meet certain contract requirements, they are still not near tier 1 equivalent in tread miles, strength and other important qualities.
Ultimately the almost hour-long debate ended with an approval of Southern Tire Mart’s bid in an 8-3 vote. Many board members concluded that it would be too much of a headache to try and do something else at this juncture and proposed they could take a better look at the contract next year.
