Avoyelles superintendent retiring mid-school year
The Avoyelles Parish School Board is holding a special board meeting tonight to accept a notice of retirement of Superintendent Dwayne Lemoine.
He issued his notice by email last week after seven and a half years at the helm of Avoyelles public schools. He cites a disconnect with the School Board as one reason behind his decision to retire at the end of the semester.
"The board's decision last night not to support my recommendation (to terminate an employee) was an indication to me that the time is right for me to retire," Lemoine wrote in an Oct. 8 email to the board. "I do believe that this decision has weakened my ability to hold employees to a standard that I can be proud of while keeping my integrity intact. While I can accept this decision, it signals to me that my time as superintendent has reached an end."
Lemoine is referring to his recommendation to terminate a bus driver that allegedly had a minor accident involving a tree while students were on the bus and did not address the issue. Parents reportedly took the children to the hospital later.
The superintendent said in a phone interview that it's time for both he and the district to move on to what's next.
"You've got to gauge where you are in your career," he said. "This is my time. ... You have to have that really strong connection with schools and the community. ... I think it's time for them to maybe move on, too. Maybe they're ready."
His email also cites a strained relationship with the U.S. Department of Justice, which Lemoine and the district have worked with in the quest to obtain unitary status in a decades-old desegregation case. An Oct. 8 order from Louisiana Western District Judge Dee Drell postponed a hearing in the case from December to May 2015.
"With the extension of time, granted by Judge Drell to the DOJ, it would also provide some time for the new superintendent to become acclimated to the district's unitary status case," Lemoine wrote. "My relationship with the DOJ has been strained recently and this change will be beneficial to this case."
Lemoine said he plans to help the School Board transition to a new superintendent and to wrap up the district's desegregation case.
"I still have work to do," he said.
The School Board also is to set the parameters for the search for the next superintendent. Board President Darrell Wiley said he will recommend forming an ad hoc committee of five members for that task.
A consulting firm was used when Lemoine was hired in 2007. Wiley said he is not in favor of using a search firm, but added that he is only one of nine members on the board.
Lemoine said he isn't sure what's next for him, but plans to include some golf and fishing while he figures it out.
"I'm just to the point in my life where I can (retire)," he said. "I'm very apprehensive and excited about the opportunity. (Apprehensive because) any change can be scary. I've taught since I was 21. (I feel) the uncertainty of what's out there."