Goodness, no love between the Caddo School Board to Mooretown and the City of Shreveport!
Shreveport’s Block by Block Initiative had hoped to establish a community center with a special emphasis on senior citizens in the long-closed Mooretown Elementary School and only needed a long-term $1 per year lease from the Caddo School Board to make it happen.
The lease approval was on the school board consent agenda with all expectations that it was a done deal.
Guess what?
Somehow the wires got crossed with what has become finger pointing by both sides.
Although the proposition is not dead since the vote was postponed, the Block by Block Initiative has moved on. It is now looking at the Chris Hayes Recreation Center for a senior citizen component and has met with Mooretown residents.
This may have been the case of Mayor Arceneaux getting ahead of his skis by announcing the school board/city partnership in a campaign ad before advising the school board.
Some board members were concerned about “mission creep” from partnering outside of education benefits.
Additionally, there were concerns about future administrations being able to continue funding the proposed center and then abandon the building back to the school board after conversion into a community center.
There were also questions about a possible land swap that could have provided benefits to the school board
In the end, the postponement has most likely killed the deal. But it being an election year for school board members, the mayor and the council, who knows what will transpire between now and Nov. 3.
If nothing else the school board sent a message to the lame duck council representative James Green, who often is a demagogue at the Council while doing very little for Mooretown and his district in his seven plus years at the horseshoe.
