Richard ends 37-year career with district

“The school system has been very good to Ed Richard Jr.,” said the outgoing superintendent at his final school board meeting last Tuesday night.

“I love the system, and it has loved me back,” he added.

Richard, 60, received a plaque and a standing ovation from the board in recognition of his 37-year career in the school system.

It was an upbeat end to Richard’s four-and-a-half year tenure as superintendent. However, his relationship with the board had deteriorated over the final two years.

On Oct. 22, Richard announced his retirement, with six months left on his contract, due to what he called a “negative atmosphere” and obstructionism by several board members.

One of his fiercest opponents, board member Rickie Pitre, was absent from the meeting.

Both supporters and detractors on the board put their differences aside to acknowledge Richard’s contributions to Terrebonne Parish public schools.

“Mr. Richard is an educator, and to me that is the highest honor anybody can give him,” said board member Donald Duplantis. “Mr. Richard was my friend before he became superintendent. He will be my friend once he is no longer superintendent.”

“Sometimes we disagreed, but at least we shared visions,” said board member Roger Dale Dehart. “I think it takes a lot of leadership to deal with nine guys, and before that it was 15 board members.”

Board member Greg Harding, who did not originally support Richard’s March 2007 contract renewal, thanked him for remaining cordial and deferential to his point of view.

“You never changed with me,” Harding said. “It takes a bigger man to do something like that knowing somebody was against you initially, and you never showed animosity towards me.”

One of Richard’s last acts as superintendent was to accept a $100,000 donation from Houston-based Apache Corporation to help hurricane-damaged schools recover.

Tim Allen, general manager of Apache’s Houma office, and Donna Callahan presented the check to Richard and board members. But the initiator of the donation was Cheryl LeBoeuf, a traveling speech therapist who works with two students at East Houma Elementary School.

The roof on the building housing the school’s library and kindergarten classes was completely blown off during Hurricane Gustav. LeBouef also taught at Grand Caillou Elementary School when it flooded in 2005 after Hurricane Rita. The school was inundated with 51 inches of Hurricane Ike’s storm surge in September.

“When all this happened and I saw the kindergarten teachers had lost everything, I really felt bad for them. I felt I needed to help them,” LeBouef said. “I talked to my dad (Danny, an Apache maintenance coordinator) and asked if he thought his office would donate any money.”

LeBouef and former East Houma Elementary Principal Sylvia Champagne composed a letter of request, which was given to Allen and submitted to the Houston office.

“I didn’t find out the amount until tonight,” LeBouef noted. “I was quite shocked.”

Richard said he was humbled by the entire evening.

What he will miss most when his last day, Dec. 31, comes is being around the students and teachers.

“I still haven’t accepted it yet,” he said. “On January 5, I need to be doing something other than sitting at home. I need to find a place to go fishing or something.”

Richard even takes a positive analysis of his often-strenuous time dealing with the board, drawing an analogy to former British Prime Minster Winston Churchill.

“Different positions call for different types of leadership. Churchill was an outstanding leader during World War II,” he recalled. “But as soon as the war was over, they threw him out of office.”

Richard added, “The good Lord puts you in places for a reason, and he knows where you need to be. Sometimes we doubt him and think we know better. In actuality, the good Lord knows where we need to be and also when to hang it up.”

School board president Hayes Badeaux (right) reads the inscription on a plaque given to outgoing school superintendent Ed Richard Jr. commemorating his 37 years in the school system. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF