The Lafourche Parish School Board used its Dec. 4 meeting to honor staff, students and volunteers with awards and recognitions, including a new-teacher award series and multiple student team honors.

The board recognized Valerie Bourgeois for her service as the board’s 2024 president and outlined accomplishments during her tenure, including district stipend programs and safety investments. The board’s summary of accomplishments said the district approved multiple employee stipends in 2024 (including a May stipend of $3,000 for teachers and $1,500 for support staff, retention stipends in September and a November one-time stipend), used ESSER funding for some costs, installed weapons-detection equipment at high schools with middle-school installations underway, purchased mobile video surveillance systems for school buses with remote access, implemented transportation routing software with a parent app, and approved the design for a new elementary school building. The board attached a resolution to the recognition.

Valerie Bourgeois thanked family and staff. "They truly are the wind between, beneath my ways," Bourgeois said, during brief remarks thanking her family and colleagues for support.

The district also introduced a new Louisiana Department of Education new-teacher awards program for teachers with less than one year of experience. The district reported nine nominees and said it selected division winners at the elementary, middle and high school levels who will represent Lafourche Parish at the state level.

Presenters named several individual and team recognitions, including elementary and middle-level rising-star winners and high-school honorees. The board highlighted student achievements in music (a Louisiana Music Educators Association district jazz educator award), and career-development events such as the FFA environmental and natural resources team that placed sixth nationally and agricultural/4-H dairy and livestock teams with state-level finishes.

Board members praised students and staff for academic and athletic balance, and the meeting included multiple rounds of applause and remarks thanking family and coaches. The awards program concluded before the board moved to regular business.

Notable recognitions (as recorded in the meeting):
- District recognition of Valerie Bourgeois for service as 2024 board president and listing of district accomplishments during her tenure.
- New-teacher nominees (nine total) with division winners selected to advance to the Louisiana Department of Education state-level program.
- Student honors including LHSAA all-academic composite team members, LMEA district jazz educator recognition, and several Central Lafourche and South Lafourche FFA and 4‑H teams with top state and national placements.

The board chair closed the recognition portion thanking families and staff and transitioned to the meeting’s regular-business agenda.