By: DONALVEON KENNEDY • Associate Editor • Focus SB News
It’s a beautiful Thursday afternoon, the building is bustling at the Caddo Parish School Board and newly appointed, interim Caddo Parish Public Schools' Superintendent Leisa Woolfolk is in and out of her office before heading to Huntington High School for a job fair.
In just a few words, one can conclude that Woolfolk’s schedule consists heavily of education, education and more education; the exact way she’s always envisioned it.
From the early days of teaching her dolls and teddy bears, Woolfolk came up in an environment grounded by education reflecting, “my mother was an English teacher, and my uncle was principal of Carroll High School in Monroe and I’ve always wanted to be an educator.”
Shortly after graduating high school, Woolfolk began her trek of diligent coursework by attending Louisiana Tech University. By winter of 1980, Woolfolk proudly walked across the stage to receive her Bachelor of Arts and she naturally elevated in her educational efforts.
She eventually gained her master’s in counseling from Tech, which led Woolfolk to Shreveport where immediately thereafter, she started her career in education stating, “…I began teaching from February until the end of the year at Hillsdale Elementary as a substitute teacher. That fall, I was hired as a 1st grade teacher at North Highlands Elementary.” She also clocked an additional 30+ graduate hours with the prestigious Centenary College!
Woolfolk graced North Highlands’ halls for nearly four years before starting work at Turner Elementary/Middle School. She quickly moved up the ladder becoming an Instructional Coordinator the following year. By her fourth year in this position, Woolfolk rose to new heights in her educational quest by becoming the Assistant Principal at Turner recalling, “I transitioned for a year as principal of Hillsdale where I started substitute teaching; Dr. Joseph Carter got a job at Grambling for a year and then I left to go be the principal for a year. He came back to his job; it was only for a year and then I transitioned to being the principal of Judson Fundamental Elementary School.”
Overseeing the entire school, supporting professional growth opportunities for her staff and generally encouraging the best, innovative practices in education, Woolfolk held down the role of Turner’s principal for six years before evolving to another area in the field.
Experienced, efficient and eager, Caddo now called on Woolfolk to fulfill duties as the new Executive Director of the schools in the parish!
Woolfolk explained, “Dr. Schiller came and wanted me to come and supervise other principals.” She separately administered elementary, middle and high schools before dealing with all three levels continuing, “…fast forward to Dr. Dawkins and Dr. Dawkins wanted the community so he put clusters together the high schools, middle schools and elementary feeder pattern schools.”
During the almost 20-year tenure in this seat, Woolfolk attained various certifications along the way including but not limited to guidance counseling, supervision of student teaching, facilitation of the National Institute of School Leaders and graduating from Cohort 3 of Louisiana Superintendent’s Academy!
Today, Woolfolk has the pleasure of seeing her own daughter, Ta’Carroll, excel in the field as she boasts, “I’m very proud! My daughter was inspired by her 4th grade music teacher at South Highlands Elementary to become an educator and now my granddaughter is graduating from LSUS and hopefully in the fall she’ll be working at one of our schools, so it’s something that’s just been in our family.”
In addition to beaming at the distinguished legacy she’s created with her own bloodline; Woolfolk sits in the prominent position as the Chief Human Resource Officer of Caddo Parish schools. In April of 2024, the CPSB selected Woolfolk as the district’s interim superintendent.
During her time in this role, she plans to continue preparing students, teachers, and CPSB personnel alike for the upcoming school year analyzing, “we have students that we’ll be working with this summer that have deficits, we want to catch them up and get them ready for the fall. This is the busiest time for HR, so we want to hire the best and the brightest, a diverse competent workforce; so, I want my legacy to be that it’s ‘one team, one mission’ our classified employees are just as important as our certified because it takes all of us to do the best for our boys and girls.”
Of this ongoing expedition of education, Woolfolk is very pleased with her work thus far declaring, “I tried, and I gave it my very best.”