The District Nine School Board seat in St. Landry Parish is currently vacant after the previous school board member left the seat for another job.  Now, three candidates, Armand Castille, Jarvis Claiborne and Randy Wagley all want the job.

Castille works for a State Farm agency, and has served as a school board member and as a member of the Louisiana Legislature.

Castille says often people will ask him why he wants to be on the school board again.  He says there are a couple of reasons.  Catille says, " I really think I can help out the situation and help fix it.  We are really in a mess right now. Our system is just about down to the bottom, and I think with my experience that I can help."  There have been many budget woes for the board in the last two years.

Castille says his second reason for running for the seat has to do with his grandchildren. He says,

"I have one that's finishing in the sixth grade right now and some of the schools in Opelousas right now are, to say the least, not in very good shape and in walking and knocking on doors throughout the district, I find more I find more home-schooled children by their parents than ever before, and there's a reason for this. Just like ten or fifteen years ago, we had 1,700 students in our junior high, today we have 400...what's wrong with this picture? It needs to be fixed, and I think I can help fix it."

Here is what Castille had to say about his candidacy, click here:

Randy Wagley used to work for the prosecutor's office and the attorney says that he wants to be the school board member from district nine in St. Landry Parish.  Wagley says he is wants the job so that he can help his children and others.  He says,

"Well, I still have kids in the public schools.  I have a ten-year-old at Park Vista and a daughter and two-step daughters who go to the Magnet Academy for Cultural Arts.  So I have a vested interest in this race and in education in St. Landry Parish."

Wagley goes on to talk about his other reasons for running and what experience he brings to the post.  Click here:

Jarvis Claiborne, an attorney with a private practice, did not return calls to his number.

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