Bayou Blue students return to new dig

After years of lobbying for a community middle school, the residents of Bayou Blue will finally get their wish.

More than 300 of the Raceland Middle School students will walk into the halls of Bayou Blue Middle School for the first time on Jan. 4. For the past two decades, the Bayou Blue community has voiced its concern about having a middle school in Bayou Blue because the students have to travel so far to get to school.

Floyd Benoit said the Lafourche School Board of Education passed a $13 million bond issue in 1997. He said the money was allocated for renovations and restorations of the parish schools.

“We renewed 17 mills of property tax to fund the construction for the parish schools. We needed to expand the high school and restore some of the middle and elementary schools in the parish. Before, there were 17 different grade configurations with the Lafourche Parish school system,” he said.

The school board’s plan was to do all the work in three phases, the first, expanding the high school to add the ninth graders. Benoit said Bayou Blue Middle School signals the completion of the second phase.

The Bayou Blue community has always had an elementary school. The older students were being bused to Raceland Middle and Central Lafourche High schools. Although, the student can now attend pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in their community, the Bayou Blue students will once again return to Matthews to attend Central Lafourche.

Former assistant principal Sharon Dugas and Raceland Middle School teacher Sonja Dowling will lead Bayou Blue Middle School into the future. The new school’s mascot is an alligator and the colors are blue and orange.

“Sharon was appointed as principal of Bayou Blue in the summer. She is being housed at Raceland Middle. Her responsibilities are to get the scheduling and personnel ready for the new school,” Benoit explained.

Dugas said that Raceland Middle School Principal Ann Danos met with Lafourche Parish Superintendent JoAnn Matthews and went ahead and hired the staff for both schools, which meant Bayou Blue Middle and Raceland Middle schools had their own full staff of faculty working together by each grade level.

“The teachers were separate, but the students weren’t,” Dugas said.

Over the past few months, Dugas, Danos and Superintendent Jo Ann Matthews have discussed what the students and faculty will need to make the transition from Raceland Middle to Bayou Blue as easy and painless as possible. Much of the move has taken place over the Christmas/New Year break.

This is Dugas’ first years as a principal. She has dedicated seven years of her life to education, as an assistant principal at Central Lafourche for three years and a teacher at Central Lafourche for three years.

“I expect things to go very smoothly. The Bayou Blue community has been wanting this for many years,” she said.

The Bayou Blue principals said the students are very excited about going to the new school. However, some of them are pretty apprehensive, she said because they don’t want to leave their friends and teachers at Raceland Middle.

“The Bayou Blue community is probably the luckiest people at this time because we are opening a new school n you can’t ask for nothing better than that,” Dugas said.

The students will move to Bayou Blue Middle School in the middle of the school year because hurricanes Katrina and Rita slowed construction work last year. “During the Christmas break the two administrators and 35 faculty and staff members will be moving classroom equipment, furniture and materials to the new school,” Benoit said.

Stanford Construction Company from Springhill has been in charged of construction for the past two years. The school building is approximately 56,420 square feet. It will be located at 196 Mazerac St. in Houma.

“The building has been built to expand. There are 12 classrooms, a cafeteria, gymnasium, library and administrative offices,” he said. “When the spring semester starts in January everything will be in full function.”

The students also have some athletics to look forward to. Dugas said most of the fall sports are over, but the students will have opportunities to engage in all the spring sports. She said the athletic staff has already been hired.

Danos said smaller schools are always more effective because the students and faculty get to know each other well. She said she will miss the students and staff because some of the staff has been at Raceland Middle for more than 13 years.

“We will stay in close contact. Sharon and I will work together as principals to give our staff opportunities to plan together which will benefit the students. It is not often that a new school is built in a parish,” Danos said. “It’s time for Sharon to begin her own tradition at Bayou Blue Middle School.”

Staff photo by Sophia Ruffin • Tri-Parish Times/ Bayou Blue Middle School will open tomorrow, lightening the student load at Raceland Middle School. Officials said about 300 students will attend the new school.