TRSL Board receives election results, makes interim appointment

October 7, 2016

Baton Rouge— At its October meeting, the TRSL Board of Trustees received voting results for the Districts 3 and 5 elections, and made an interim appointment to the District 1 seat.
 
District 3 (special election): Interim appointee Tia T. Mills, Ed.D., of Baton Rouge, received 60.6% of the vote in the District 3 special election, ahead of Teicha Warner Woods, of Prairieville, who received 39.4% of the vote.
 
The TRSL Board appointed Mills to the District 3 seat last November to serve until a special election could be held this year. Mills is employed at Magnolia Woods Elementary School in East Baton Rouge Parish. She will take the oath of office in November and serve the remainder of the position’s four-year term, which lasts through December 31, 2019.
 
District 3 includes TRSL members actively working in Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Lafourche, and Terrebonne parishes.
 
District 5: Holly Bridges Gildig, of Albany, received 56% of the vote in the District 5 election. Candace Standberry Robertson (Reserve) received 23% of the vote and Grady “Andy” Allred (Farmerville) received 21% of the vote.
 
Gildig is a teacher at Hammond Eastside Magnet School in Tangipahoa Parish. She has served on the board since 2011, and her new four-year term begins January 2017.
 
District 5 includes TRSL members actively working in Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Franklin, Jackson, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, Tensas, Union, West Carroll, and West Feliciana parishes.
 
Interim appointment: Neshelle S. Nogess, of Paulina, was appointed to represent active members employed in District 1. She is the director of sales and use tax at the St. James Parish School Board.
 
Nogess will be sworn in at the board’s November meeting. A special election for the District 1 seat will be held next year to fill the remainder of the position’s four-year term, which lasts through December 31, 2018.
 
District 1 includes TRSL members actively working in Ascension, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, and St. John parishes.
 
In other election news: Ricky Julien, Sr., M. Ed., of Sunset, was elected to the District 6 seat without opposition earlier this year. Julien is the director of music at Cecilia Sr. High School in St. Martin Parish. His four-year term starts in January 2017.
 
District 6 includes TRSL members actively working in Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Evangeline, Grant, Jefferson Davis, LaSalle, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, St. Landry, St. Martin, Vernon, West Baton Rouge, and Winn parishes.