New Caddo Schools Superintendent Begins Work This Week

A new superintendent takes office this week in the largest school district in Northwest Louisiana. The Caddo Parish School Board approved the hiring of Keith Burton last week, a former teacher, principal, and chief academic officer. Burton becomes the 14th superintendent in the board’s history, for a school district of roughly 33,000 students on 53 campuses across Caddo Parish. “We will address what matters most and that’s improving student outcomes. We also want to ensure that we’re addressing any challenges that we’re seeing in attendance, truancy.”
Burton begins his new role as the superintendent of Caddo Schools on Tuesday. He spoke of his highest priority will be centered around early childhood and primary education. “Accelerating our literacy skills and insuring that teachers not only have the very best resources. They also have adequate time within their school day to have uninterrupted, focused opportunities to teach literacy, so that we’re giving them the very best resource to curricula to use. And then we’re also providing them the time.”
Such support, Burton emphasized, is critical, whether that be through professional development, by coaching or mentoring, and developing their expertise.
Burton also addressed one of the larger challenges ahead, which he described as the importance of community and stakeholder support, which he insists must be at the forefront. “I told the board, immediately I will begin one-on-one conversations with them. And one of the first requests I will have is please schedule a community meeting where I can go with you into your community and not tell them what we’re going to do, just sit and listen to them.”
Burton said perhaps the biggest challenge is right-sizing, especially when you consider the significant decline in enrollment over the past decade. The numbers appear to be stabilizing. “But still,” Burton concluded, “we have too many buildings and we’re going to have to be more efficient with our resources. We also need to right-size the enrollment because if we’re really going to have effective schools, we need to be able to ensure that there’s an adequate number of students in those schools to be able to then to provide all of the experiences the child needs.” That includes a proper number of students to provide a robust support structure and opportunities for extra-curricular activities.
On Friday, May 3, the Caddo Parish School Board voted 9 to 3 and approved a recommendation by the Louisiana Department of Education, which included the closure of Werner Park and Sunset Elementary Schools. The plan also included converting Fair Park Middle School to a charter school operated by Third Future Schools, to open next school year.