Lafayette Parish School System Announces Interim Superintendent, New Southside and Comeaux Principals

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) - The Lafayette Parish School System has named its interim superintendent and new leadership team in the district - including new principals at Southside High School and Ovey Comeaux High School.

Francis Touchet, who previously served as Associate Superintendent, will now head up the district until a permanent replacement is named. Touchet began his career in the field of education in Vermilion Parish as a teacher and a coach before moving into administrative roles at Abbeville High and Erath High, ultimately serving as principal of Erath until moving to LPSS in 2019.

He will be taking over for former superintendent Irma Trosclair, who recently announced she was stepping down. She has since taken a job at Eunice High as the principal there.

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Moving into the position of Associate Superintendent is Dr. Mark Rabalais, who began his career as a social studies teacher at Pineville High School. His administrative experience began in Lafayette Parish. He served as an assistant principal at Ernest Gallet Elementary School, principal of Ridge Elementary School, and assistant principal of Southside High School before moving to the central office.

Two area high schools, Southside and Comeaux, will have new principals starting this year.

Allison Bloomer will take over as the principal of Southside High School after previously serving as Assistant Principal there. Her experience in LPSS also includes stints as a teacher at Youngsville Middle School and instructional leader at Scott Middle School.

In 2015, Bloomer was named Lafayette Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year.

Over at Ovey Comeaux High School, Louisiana National Guard retired Command Sergeant Major and educator Gerald Comeaux will serve as the next principal. He stepped in as interim leader of the school following Renee White’s transfer to lead Edward J. Sam Accelerated School of Lafayette.

He previously taught at Lafayette High School, as well as served as an assistant principal at Lafayette High School and Ovey Comeaux High School.

LPSS also announced other leadership changes in their press release Friday. Those announcements are below:

Ms. Janine LaFleur
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction
Stepping in as lead of the district’s instructional team is Ms. Janine LaFleur. Ms. LaFleur began her career as a science teacher and softball and volleyball coach at Acadiana High School. She then taught at Paul Breaux Middle School for 10 years as a science and physical education teacher. While at Paul Breaux she earned the honor of Teacher of The Year.

She then served as an assistant principal and then principal of S. J. Montgomery Elementary School. During her time as principal, the school moved its performance score up 19.6 points and LaFleur was named LPSS Elementary Principal of the Year.

At the district level she has served as an academic specialist for social studies, health and physical education, and English language arts. For the past 4 years LaFleur has served as the Director of Elementary Schools.

LaFleur holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s in education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In addition, Lafleur completed the Louisiana Principal Fellowship program (NISL).

“I am honored and humbled to serve the Lafayette Parish School System in this capacity. Interim Superintendent Touchet is a strong academic leader that will continue to move our district in a positive direction. We are very fortunate to have such focused school leaders and teachers that work every day to keep the focus on students and their success,” states LaFleur.

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Ms. Ginger Richard
Director of Elementary Schools
Ms. Ginger Richard has been an educator with the Lafayette Parish School System for 20 years. She most recently served as the supervisor of language acquisition overseeing the district’s immersion, world language, and ESL programs. Upon receiving her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Richard began her career at Ridge Elementary School where she taught first grade before becoming an ESL teacher.

After receiving her master’s degree in educational leadership, she went on to serve in many capacities including lead teacher and instructional leader at Milton Elementary Middle School and assistant principal of Green T. Lindon Elementary School.

While serving as principal of Green T. Lindon Elementary School, Richard was recognized as a semifinalist for the Louisiana Principal of the Year while also being selected as the 2021 Lafayette Parish Elementary Principal of the Year.