Harlan Kirgan
Roger Young, District 11 St. Landry Parish School Board member, said Tuesday he does not intend to run for re-election.
Young, 94, said he will have served 32 years on the parish School Board.
The educator began his career in teaching at Hackberry in 1949 and 1950. He then came to Eunice as teacher for another eight years. He was named principal at Glendale Elementary and stayed in that job for 26 years.
Young was the first principal at Glendale.
“I was the luckiest guy in the world,” he said of being Glendale principal.
The brand new school didn’t have air condition he said. It didn’t even have fans, shades, typewriters or copy machines, he said.
“We had to make do,” he said.
“I guess money was tight,” he added.
The parents held a gumbo fundraiser to buy fans for the schools, he said.
“The experience I had back there, it is good,” he said.
Young served the St. Landry Parish school system as an administrator during desegregation and a Board member when the district was released from federal oversight.
Desegregation troubled almost everyone, he said.
“They couldn’t accept it, but it was the best
decision we ever made,” he said about desegregation and decisions made concerning Eunice schools.
The Eunice schools were divided into four schools for grades one to four, Central Middle for grades five to six, junior high for grades seven to eight and the high school for grades nine to 12, he said.
“It worked out well,” he said.
A similar plan was proposed for Opelousas schools, but was rejected, he said.
Young, a native of the Savoy community, attended a country school near Chataignier where the hogs ran under the building feeding on the children’s lunch scraps.
After school in Eunice, he trained for his education career at what is now the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
“I think teaching is one of the great professions ... as far as serving people and being what we should have to be as Christians, there is no better profession,” he said.
“I enjoy the Board, The School Board was good. In fact, I enjoyed meeting the others. I enjoyed visiting the schools,” he said.
Young said at one point School Board members went to conventions and seminars before finances tightened.
“I’ve enjoyed meeting other board members from other parishes because they had different ideas,” he said.
Young said the School Board needs to look at maintaining its current property and if possible selling unused property.
“There is no sense in keeping schools open when there are no kids going there,” he said.
Young said Lanny Moreau was his favorite superintendent.
“He was loved by everybody ... He always had time to talk to you and he was never in a hurry. He never made you feel like ‘I only have a few minutes and then we have to finish this.’
“He was a very professional person,” he said.
In second place of superintendent favorites for Young was Raymond Fontenot.
“He was a good superintendent. He did a lot of good,” he said.