Simmesport holds special place to SHS’s last principal

“Every job I’ve had, I’ve loved,” Kirk Guidry said. “I was never one of those who was always looking for the next opportunity. I loved doing what I was doing -- but God works in mysterious ways.”

Guidry was, for lack of a better term, a “superstar” teacher in Avoyelles in the 1970s and early ‘80s. He would disagree with that label, but he is too modest.

As might be expected of such a star, he became one of the youngest high school principals in the parish’s history when he stepped out of his science lab and into the front office at Simmesport High in 1984.

Although from Morgan City, he loved Simmesport and Simmesport High. His wife, Carolyn, was also a teacher.

In 1972 they were both looking for a job. Her uncle, Avoyelles Superintendent Charles Spears, told her Simmesport High was looking for two teachers. They applied and were hired. Carolyn’s mother’s family lived in Cottonport.

Guidry had a degree in chemistry with a minor in zoology. He was planning to attend medical school “but then I found out I had a problem being around blood,” he added with a laugh.

He became certified as a teacher after he was hired for the Simmesport position. If he weren’t so squeamish, he might be Dr. Guidry today -- and thousands of students would be the poorer for it.

SCIENCE COMPETITIONS

For 12 years he taught science at Simmesport High, with his students racking up numerous awards at regional, state and even national science fairs.

He was honored at the Louisiana College regional science fair for having more students participate and win awards over a 10-year period.

The Louisiana Science Symposium also presented him an award for having the most science fair winners over a four-year period.

In 1984 he was named Louisiana Science Teacher of the Year. That same year he became principal of SHS.

He loved his job, his students, the school, the community. Guidry had every intention of growing old and retiring from Simmesport High.

Then, in the summer of 1988, a federal court decided 11 high schools in Avoyelles Parish was eight too many. Two elementary schools were also closed.

Some schools lost their high school grades and remained elementaries. Simmesport High was closed and its students zoned to what was Moreauville High, renamed Avoyelles High. Simmesport Elementary -- where Carolyn worked -- was moved to the Simmesport High building and became Riverside Elementary. “We knew consolidation was coming,” Guidry said. “I also knew that as one of the newest -- and youngest -- principals, I would be cut.

“As luck would have it, Catholic of Pointe Coupee called me in June and offered me the job of administrator,” he said. “The Central Office had told me what was going to happen to me. I accepted the Pointe Coupee offer. The court decision was handed down in July.” Guidry accepted the new job with one hand but would have preferred to hold onto Avoyelles Parish and Simmesport with the other.

Carolyn remained at Riverside and eventually became principal there, leaving in 1995 to become principal of Our Lady of Mercy Elementary in Baton Rouge.

“I asked the School Board if they would grant me a one-year leave-without-pay, so just in case I absolutely hated the Catholic-Pointe Coupee job, I could come back to Avoyelles,” Guidry said. “They said ‘No.’”

MIGHT STILL BE AT SHS

If they had said “Yes,” Guidry just might have decided to come back to Simmesport. Had consolidation not occurred, Guidry would probably have stayed at SHS until retiring, depriving students elsewhere of his expertise and passion for education and depriving himself of work experiences that allowed his professional growth.

“If the school had not closed, I might still be at Simmesport High School,” Guidry said. “I loved that school.” Guidry was with the parochial school in New Roads from 1988-1999.

He then took a job with the state Department of Education as senior consultant for professional development/instructional technology.

He held that position until 2005, when he accepted the position of director of professional development/instructional technology for the East Baton Rouge School System, from where he retired in 2012.

In addition to his other titles, Guidry could also be called “teacher of superintendents.”

He taught former Avoyelles Superintendent Dwayne Lemoine at Simmesport High. He taught Pointe Coupee Superintendent Kevin Lemoine at Catholic-Pointe Coupee. He taught current Avoyelles Superintendent Blaine Dauzat in two courses he presented while at the state DOE.

REUNION WAS NEEDED

Guidry said the Simmesport “Mega-Reunion” this past August was something he and many other SHS alumni needed. “I told them we only see each other at funerals and wakes,” Guidry said. “I said we need to get together for something fun.”

He and his wife live in Baton Rouge, but he still misses Simmesport and Avoyelles Parish.

“It’s true what they say, ‘You can’t go anywhere without finding someone with a tie to Avoyelles Parish,” Guidry said. “In Baton Rouge, my dentist and pharmacist are both former students from Simmesport High.”

What he misses the most about Simmesport is the feeling that the faculty and students were all part of his family. “I tell people I can tell whether I taught someone at Simmesport or New Roads as soon as I meet them, even if I don’t recognize their face,” Guidry said. “If they say, ‘Hi Mr. Guidry,’ they’re from Pointe Coupee. If they say, ‘Hi Mr. Kirk, they’re from Avoyelles.

“That’s the difference between the two,” he continued. “Simmesport was more personal, more like family.”

He noted that in the early ‘80s, “the average age of our faculty was 33. That’s why we were so close. We grew up together both as teachers and as adults. We had children in the schools. We had an investment in the Avoyelles education system.”

With the end of the desegregation case, Guidry reflected on being one of the principals who not only lost an office, but a school, and what the consolidation meant to Avoyelles Parish.

“There were a lot of plans being presented about consolidating the schools,” Guidry said. “I believe reducing the number of high schools to three was too drastic. They could have left more high schools in place.

CONSOLIDATION ISSUES

“Consolidation has some advantages in that it can allow more academic opportunities,” he said, “but Simmesport was doing a heckuva job on academics. That wasn’t our problem. We might not have been putting out any professional athletes, but we were a good school.”

Guidry said the biggest advantage to a small, community high school “is that it provides more students the opportunity to be leaders.

“There were 11 class presidents, 11 FFA and FHA presidents, things like that,” he noted.

At the recent reunion many former SHS students “had fond memories of past involvement in student activities that they may not have been able to have at a consolidated high school,” Guidry said.

“The main thing is, they weren’t just a number at Simmesport High. They weren’t one of 1,000 or 2,000 students. They were part of the school family,” he said.

“Academic improvements made possible with consolidation are important,' Guidry noted, “but the social aspect of high school plays a big part in a person’s life and in what that person becomes.”