Donna Ardeneaux, a kindergarten teacher, prepares to hang curtains in her classroom as she gets ready for the first day of school at North Lewis Elementary School.

Classrooms still are mostly empty in Iberia Parish, with the exception of teachers moving desks and pinning up banners in preparation of the new school year. 

North Lewis Elementary School kindergarten teacher Donna Ardeneaux said she has enjoyed the process, which will end when children go to orientation Thursday. The first day of school for Iberia Parish public schools is Friday. 

“Once the summer starts I’m usually ready to get back into it,” Ardeneaux said.

Ardeneaux’s classroom was full of products to educate and entertain her future students. Ardeneaux pointed to a calendar on the wall that gives students basic information about dates and seasons.

“Everything I put in is appropriate to their age group,” she said. “I try to go over time, like yesterday, today and tomorrow, which they usually have trouble with.”

Down the hall, NLES French immersion first-grade teacher Mandy Desormeaux was preparing her room as well, a scene being repeated across the parish this week. Desormeaux said she had been doing classroom preparation since early July.

“It hasn’t been too hectic,” she said.

Desormeaux said the biggest problem had been controlling her children, Drew and Zack, and their cousins Preston and Olivia Cestia, who had accompanied her while she worked.

“They love being here while I work,” she said.

Desormeaux had received several donations for her classroom, including crayons and other items for students to enjoy while learning.

North Lewis Elementary School Principal Tim Rosamond jokingly said his teachers begin preparing for the next school year the week after the last one ends. However, the amount of work the teachers put in for the next year is “no joke.”

“I have meetings with them all the time; discussing the new year and the curriculum and all of that,” he said.

Ardeneaux and Desormeaux are among dozens of Iberia Parish teachers preparing for the 2015-16 school year. Iberia Parish Schools Superintendent Dale Henderson said Iberia Parish has 27 school total that employ approximately 900 teachers. Among those, there are approximately 93 teachers who will be teaching in the parish for the first time. 

Henderson said the Iberia Parish School Board held an orientation for new teachers on Monday in which teaching standards were discussed in terms of classroom management, discipline and other aspects of the profession. 

“We stress it among new teachers. Teachers who have been here a while already know what to expect. There’s a lot to go over,” he said.