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Lifelong Terrebonne Parish resident Nason “Tony” Authement has worked his way up the school board ladder in the last three decades, serving as a teacher, coach and principal at area schools, and the current secondary education supervisor has finally landed his dream job.
“The opportunity presented itself, and I have been preparing for this type of opportunity,” Authement said. “I never thought I’d leave Terrebonne Parish. I am a lifelong educator. People have been very encouraging, and that led me to this decision. It’s bittersweet. I’m excited but sad to leave. My family has been comfortable and rooted here.”
On June 1, Authement, who currently serves as the secondary education supervisor for the Terrebonne Parish School District, will begin his new career as superintendent of the Rapides Parish School Board, the state’s 12th largest school district.
“It’s a very large school district, like Terrebonne,” he said. “They’ve got 24,000 students to Terrebonne’s 19,000 and 52 schools to Terrebonne’s 41.”
“I hope my experience here in the parish has prepared me to meet the challenges there, and I will be in a better position to make changes that need to be made,” Authement continued.
In his 33 years as an employee with the TPSD, Authement worked as a classroom teacher for 12 years and an athletic coach for five years. He also served as principal and assistant principal at Evergreen Elementary and principal at three alternative schools, as well as principal at H.L. Bourgeois High School. Authement is also drawing his third year as secondary education supervisor to a close.
“We had three job candidates that were all equally qualified and certified,” said Dr. Steve Chapman, Rapides Parish school board president. “Ultimately, it was Authement who stood out to us for various reasons – his history, experience, philosophy and how he presented himself.”
Chapman anticipates that Authement’s leadership will help bring several of the parish’s low-performing schools up to speed.
“We hope he can help take our schools to a higher level,” Chapman said. “We already have a good system in place and have lots of successful schools, but we have some inner-city schools with high risk students. We would like to get the students, faculty and staff on the same level as our well-performing schools.”
With all of his experience, Authement is aware of and ready to meet the challenge of his new job head on, and he even shared his top tip for his TPSD predecessor.
“There are some struggles I will have to address in Rapides Parish,” he said. “There are very high performing schools and some very low performing schools. The biggest challenge will be to bringing these schools up to a more acceptable level of performance. We will also be working to implement the new core curriculum, but that is something every school district in the state is dealing with right now.”
“You should surround yourself with good, strong people to help ensure your success (in any job),” he added.
“Tony is a fine educator,” said TPSD superintendent Philip Martin. “We wish him well.”
