Lafayette High Announces Northside's Williams As New Principal

UPDATE: November 22, 2022

LAFAYETTE (KPEL News) - The Lafayette Parish School System has made it official: Julia Williams will leave her role as principal of Northside High School to take the vacant principal job at Lafayette High School.

"Williams is committed to building a culture of high expectations and rigor, establishing professional learning communities at the heart of instruction, and strengthening relationships between staff, students, and the community," LPSS said in a statement.

Credit: Lafayette Parish School System

“Ms. Williams has a proven track record of exemplary school leadership," LPSS Superintendent Irma Trosclair said, "and I am confident in her skills to lead Lafayette High School to the next level of excellence and high performance."

In its press release, LPSS notes that Williams received the 2011 Louisiana State Teacher of the Year award and was honored at the White House by President Obama with all the 2011 State Teacher of the Year honorees, and she was named Lafayette Parish School System High School Principal of the Year in 2022. She was also an adjunct instructor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and at the University of Phoenix.

Original Story

Just weeks after the sudden resignation of its principal, Lafayette High School has a new leader coming to take the helm.

Julia Williams will take over the vacant position, returning to her alma mater as the principal of the Mighty Lions. The outgoing principal, Dr. Rachel Brown, who held the top administrative at the school since 2019, resigned early in November.

But, the hiring comes at a cost to Northside High School - Williams has been the principal there for the last eight years.

Williams is leaving a Northside that looks vastly different from when she took over as principal in the spring of 2015. It had an "F" rating after the 2013-2014 school year, the year prior to her taking on the role of principal there.

In the most recent school scores, Northside was graded as a "C" school - up several points from 2019, before the pandemic, when it was rated as a "D" school.

She'll take over the A-rated Lafayette High with a mission to continue pushing the school higher.

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"I am really excited to have Julia Williams come aboard and be the leader at Lafayette High School," said school board member Justin Centanni, whose district covers Lafayette High. "She was a great leader at Northside, and I think she'll do a fantastic job at Lafayette High."

The Lafayette Parish School System has a job opening for principal at Northside High, and the district is likely to move quickly to fill that spot by the time students return from Christmas break at the latest.

What Lafayette Schools Have an "A"?

Several schools earned an "A" rating in the 2021-2022 school year, including Lafayette High. Here are the top performers.

Early College Academy

Credit: Early College Academy/Facebook

ECA was the highest-scoring school in the parish, picking up a 131.5 in school performance score. That is a slight dip from 2019, when the school earned 131.9. The school's score in 2022 was in the top ten among schools in the state.

Myrtle Place Elementary

Credit: Myrtle Place Elementary

Myrtle Place was overall the top-scoring elementary school in the parish, with an SPS of 105.2. The school was also named a Blue Ribbon school for its growth last year.

David Thibodaux STEM Magnet Academy

Credit: David Thibodaux STEM Magnet Academy

The district's only combination school, David Thibodaux STEM Magnet Academy was the third-highest performing school, picking up a score of 102.8, which is up 5 points from where it was in 2019. The magnet school serves students in grades 6-12.

Ernest Gallet Elementary School

Credit: LPSS

Ernest Gallet Elementary has also shown growth from 2019 to 2022. Their current score is 100.8, which is up from around 96 SPS in 2019.

Southside High School

Credit: KATC

Southside High School has shown a lot of growth since 2019. Their score three years ago was 85.2, but they have since jumped to 100.4, coming in at No. 5 overall in the district.

Also Earning an "A"

The following schools also earned an "A" grade in school performance score.

Green T. Lindon Elementary School, 97.1
Woodvale Elementary School, 96.3
Lafayette High School, 96
L. Leo Judice Elementary School, 93.7
Milton Elementary School, 93.4
L.J. Alleman Middle School, 92.2
Broadmoor Elementary School, 91.5
Martial Billeaud Elementary School, 90.9

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