New administration for Jeanerette High

Published 6:00 am Sunday, July 28, 2024

The Iberia Parish School District introduced the new administration at Jeanerette High School for the upcoming year at Wednesday’s regular school board meeting.

Kristian Barbay, who has taught in schools all around Acadiana but started her education career in Iberia Parish, will be the new principal starting in the 2024-25 school year. Superintendent of Schools Heath Hulin said Barbay began her career at Jeanerette Elementary where she served as a master teacher until she transitioned to St. Mary Parish as an assistant principal at Hattie Watts Elementary.

She also served as principal of Lagrange Elementary in Franklin, which grew from a “F” to a “C” school under her supervision. From there, Barbay served as principal of J.W. Faulk Elementary in Lafayette.

Barbay said she will take the key principles of building relationships, investing in others and pursuing academic excellence as the cornerstone of her time in Jeanerette.

“I’m honored to be the principal of Jeanerette High School and being part of the Iberia School District family,” Barbay said.

Also named to the administration was Tiffany Spraggins, who has been serving as a teacher at Jeanerette High for two years and is being promoted to the role of assistant principal.

Spraggins is a founding member of Lighthouse Christian Preparatory School where she served for 17 years. She came to the Iberia Parish School District in 2022 as a geometry and algebra teacher and from there became a master teacher supporting middle and high school teachers.

Spraggins thanked the district and her family for supporting her goals, and said that although she expected to only been in Jeanerette for a year when she first started, she was excited to begin the chapter of her career.

“It is difficult to believe that only two years ago I answered a call to teach high school math in what I thought would only be one year,” she said. “Instead what I found was the next leg of my journey in education.”

Also introduced was Marva Wesley as the new assistant principal to the Alternative Center for Education in Iberia Parish.

Wesley, who was recently retired, said she felt the call to the position after serving 26 years at Anderson Middle School, a high school in Vermilion Parish and then worked with truancy for students at the GPAL Teen Court.

“I prayed for for God to send up the right person for this position because it’s very needed,” Hulin said.

Wesley said the position was a “full circle” moment after teaching students, learning about high school students and then working in Teen Court to serve at-risk students.

“I see the potential in them,” Wesley said. “The kids that I met in Teen Court during truancy, most of those students are good kids making bad decisions sometimes. I am so excited for this position.