BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. John Bel Edwards named his three appointees to Louisiana's top public school board for the upcoming term, keeping two of his picks from his first four years in office and replacing the third.
The Democratic governor, whose second term begins Jan. 13, announced Thursday that Doris Voitier, superintendent of St. Bernard Parish public schools, and Thomas Roque, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Alexandria, will continue as members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
For his third appointment, Edwards is replacing Lurie Thomason Jr., a Grambling State University criminal justice professor, with Belinda Davis, a Louisiana State University public policy professor who ran unsuccessfully for the state House on the fall ballot. No reason was provided by the governor's office for the switch.
The 11-member Board of Elementary and Secondary Education sets policies impacting more than 700,000 public school students around the state, chooses Louisiana's education superintendent and writes the multibillion-dollar financing formula for public education.
Edwards' three appointees will join the eight board members elected this fall at their first meeting of the new term later this month.
