Three principals, five assistants named at five Avoyelles schools for 2017-18 school year

Once again there is a “summer shuffle” of administrators in Avoyelles Parish public schools, but not as many as last year. School Superintendent Blaine Dauzat made three changes in principals and five changes in assistant principals, involving five of the district’s 10 schools.

Most of the changes came in the three schools with a Bunkie mailing address -- Bunkie Magnet High, Bunkie Elementary Learning Academy (BELA) and LaSAS, in the Bay Hills between Bunkie and Hessmer.

Chuck Normand was named principal of Bunkie Magnet, a move Dauzat said will provide stability the school has been lacking in recent years. He was assistant principal at Bunkie High this year and served as assistant principal at Marksville High the previous year. Normand will be the school’s fifth principal in six years when he takes over the position for the 2017-18 school year.

Current BMH Principal Laura Hargis will be transferred to LaSAS to fill the principalship vacated by the promotion of Dexter Compton to supervisor of secondary education.

Liza Jacobs will take the reins at BELA. She has been the instructional coach at Marksville Elementary for two years and held that position at Marksville High for three years prior to that.

Current BELA Principal Amy Volentine will be an assistant principal at LaSAS.

Contina Anderson will be assistant principal at Bunkie Magnet. She is moving from a classroom at Avoyelles High to the office at BMH.

Shalonda Berry and Nicole Gagnard will trade assistant principal offices. Berry will move from Marksville Elementary to BELA while Gagnard leaves her BELA position to take the MES assistant position.

Cindy Schaub will become the new assistant principal at Marksville High. She was the assistant principal at LaSAS this year and served as Marksville Elementary principal the year before that.

Dauzat said the change in principals is “a better fit at all three schools.”

He said Hargis “has an agriculture background, which is helpful at LaSAS. “Normand has a love for Bunkie High School and the communities that the school serves,” Dauzat continued. “At BELA, I was looking to infuse new blood that would give us a different look and ideas at the school.”

He said his decisions on assistant principal appointments were made to create “the best possible team at each school.”