Langston Rogers held the position of director of athletic media relations for the University of Mississippi for more than 25 years. He organized interviews, ran game-day operations and assisted media outlets from all over the Southeast with anything and everything media-related. He was one of the best.

Had Ole Miss not had a media relations director for athletics, it would have been mayhem. The position was necessary, if not vital, to the program.

The Vicksburg Warren School District is not Ole Miss athletics.

Here, there usually is one news reporter — representing The Vicksburg Post — who covers the school district on a regular basis. The need for a media relations director is absurd, bordering on ridiculous. To hire two people at a combined salary of nearly $80,000, plus benefits, with substantial increases after one year is lunacy.

A media relations director to handle the massive requests of — one media outlet? Are you serious? And the raises? When is the last time you were guaranteed a 25 percent increase before the first day on the job?

In a decision that truly defies comprehension, the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees voted 4-1 to hire Elizabeth Wade, a recent Mississippi State graduate, for $37,282 for her first year, and $45,651 for her second. Her responsibilities include updating the school district’s website and working with social media. Nearly $40,000 to play on Facebook and Twitter? Get a teenager for minimum wage!

The board also hired Susan Mandarino for $42,182 her first year and $51,651 the second — a nearly 25 percent guaranteed bump in pay, no matter her performance or the need for her position in the first place. Two years, $100,000 to coordinate media requests from one beat reporter. Insanity.

Two people were hired to make the district look better for the equivalent amount paid to three entry-level teachers — $33,100 each.

These two women might be superbly qualified for positions such as these, and their abilities are not in question. The school board’s abilities are in question. We cannot commend Jim Stirgus Jr. enough for voting in the minority. Stirgus said after the vote, “This is what I love about this administration. The taxes are going up and we give people raises.”

To the other four — this is a screwup of monumental proportion. If the desire is to make the school district look better, or be more appealing, how about getting those test scores higher than average. Let’s let teachers teach and let the students learn with the proof to the outside world coming in test scores, not via Facebook.

Priorities certainly are fouled up in this case and the board, save Stirgus, erred.

In Oxford, Rogers ran a media relations department successfully because his job was 100 percent necessary. On any given gameday, he was responsible for handling hundreds of media members all with varying requests.

Had the university only had one reporter covering games, would Rogers’ job have been necessary?

In the VWSD’s eyes, it certainly would.

And they would have hired two of him — one to make the university look good and another to tweet all about it.