Zachary’s school board spent more than five hours Tuesday grilling three career educators who want to be the next leader of Louisiana’s top-ranked public school system, asking the candidates to explain their ideas on handling the district’s growth, better supporting teachers and offering more opportunities for students.
At a meeting that lasted past 10 p.m., the board posed questions to three finalists in the search to replace Scott Devillier, who has been in charge of the district since 2012 and plans to retire in July. The board is expected to meet again Thursday evening in executive session to further discuss the candidates and try to select one.
The finalists interviewed Tuesday were Ben Necaise, a former teacher and principal in West Feliciana Parish who currently is the associate superintendent for workforce development in East Baton Rouge Parish public schools; Jennifer Marangos, who has spent much of her career as an administrator in Zachary schools and now is the district’s supervisor of elementary programs; and Patrick Jenkins, who has been the superintendent in St. Landry Parish since 2016 and is a former Zachary schools administrator.
Whoever wins the job will be only the third superintendent in the history of the Zachary Community School District, which got off the ground in 2003 under the leadership of inaugural Superintendent Warren Drake. Interestingly, all three candidates worked under Drake at some point in either Zachary or East Baton Rouge Parish schools; each included a letter of support from him in their applications.
The new superintendent will be tasked with maintaining the system’s rating as No. 1 in the state. He or she will oversee a district serving 5,600 students at seven schools, 650 employees and an annual operating budget of $60 million.
On Tuesday, the candidates were interviewed separately, with the board spending about an hour and a half with each person. The interviewees were allowed to give a 10-minute opening statement introducing themselves and their plans. Each of the board’s nine members then asked questions.
Necaise, Marangos and Jenkins offered similar responses to many questions.
They all vowed to improve and increase communication with board members, other elected officials, parents and the community. They agreed that out-of-school suspensions should be limited in favor of on-campus detentions or other punishments that don’t sacrifice instructional time, and they all want to expand industry-based certification programs for students who aren’t interested in attending college. And they said the district should work to recruit more diverse faculty and offer teachers more professional development opportunities.
One area where the candidates differ is in their experience. Marangos, who grew up in Zachary and has worked in its schools since becoming assistant principal of Zachary Elementary School in 2001, said she knows the district better than her fellow contenders.
Jenkins and Necaise, however, are also familiar with the Zachary system, having both sent their children to its schools. Jenkins also was principal of Zachary Elementary School, the Port Hudson Career Academy and Copper Mill Elementary School before becoming the district’s operations director and later departing for St. Landry Parish.
Necaise acknowledged he is the only finalist who has never worked in Zachary schools, having spent most of his educational career in another highly rated district, West Feliciana Parish.
As Zachary’s population grows, many are concerned about the school system maintaining its quality.
“We see that there are thousands of households that are going to be joining our community shortly. … We need to keep that specialness of a small-town community,” Necaise said.
Jenkins suggested conducting a demographic study of the area to “determine what the population of our schools is going to look like in the future.”
“We’re the biggest show in town,” he said, adding that he believes the school system should speak up more about the effects of development because education is a factor drawing many new residents to Zachary — a point echoed by Marangos and Necaise.
But “we have to be prepared” for continued residential growth, Necaise said. A big question, he said, is whether Zachary will need to add schools later or adjust which grade levels are housed at certain facilities.
Marangos said a school impact fee should be considered for new developments outside Zachary city limits but within district boundaries. But she pointed out that enrollment figures have not changed as dramatically in recent years as some think.
Still, “some people say Zachary’s gotten too big, the classes are too big,” she said, and it’s important to listen to people’s frustrations and see what can be done about them.
She and Jenkins noted that some families have left Zachary for smaller, private schools as well as online options. They both said leaders need to figure out what changes could be made to retain those students.
Keeping teachers is a challenge, too, in Zachary and many other places. So is hiring teachers in the first place as fewer people decide to enter the education field.
The candidates agreed that pay could be made more competitive but, because doing so depends on the budget, other ways of rewarding teachers must be considered. Fostering a positive work environment, ensuring teachers have planning periods during the school day and providing training in leadership and for specialization in certain subjects are ideas the interviewees all floated.
Application materials for Necaise, Marangos and Jenkins are available on the school district’s website at www.zacharyschools.org/superintendent-search.
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