Monday, Iberia Parish will see a new superintendent. 

Back in March, the Iberia Parish School Board voted for Carrie Laviolette to become the new superintendent. She’s been working with the current superintendent, Dale Henderson in a transition process for the past four months. 

“She’s well acquainted with the board and with the policies and procedures and the day-to-day operations of the school system. She is really going to do well,” says the outgoing superintendent, Dale Henderson. 

Henderson is retiring from education after a long career in the Iberia Parish School System. Laviolette has served as the assistant superintendent for the past 11 years. 

She says, “He’s always been my mentor so now that we are going through the transition process it’s just a matter of getting acquainted with some of the things that were not so common in the area of curriculum instruction which is where I worked predominantly as the assistant superintendent. But he tells me that he’s only a phone call so we’ll see about that.”

Laviolette has worked in Iberia Parish schools for 39 years. She’s worked as the assistant superintendent, a teacher, a guidance counselor, and assistant principal. 

“We are in education because we want to improve student achievement and we want to prepare them for the real world. So certainly that is the highest priority of all priorities and then, unfortunately, we have society and we have the challenges of society. So safety and security have become a very high priority as well,” says Laviolette. 

She says summer is a busy time for educators in the parish, and she’s ready to take office as superintendent. “I am thrilled. Our parish is in very good shape, we are a B district. Mr. Henderson works very closely with the school board. We have amazing teachers, principals, and district staff so it is quite an honor and I’m quite excited to be working in line with all of them.”