Historical school happening:

Close to 75 people attended the first of many public meetings to talk about the first-ever charter school in Vermilion Parish.
Representatives from Williams Scholar Academy (WSA) were on hand to answer citizens’ questions about the school.
Until a new school is built, Williams Scholar Academy will have modular buildings on the old Lighthouse School campus in Abbeville. The school is expected to open its doors this August.
Monday night’s meeting was also a chance to enroll students for the upcoming school year. The academy will be a sixth through 12th-grade school with a limited enrollment of just under 300 students.
Dr. Twyla Williams-Damond, Tiffany Williams-Spraggins and Pastor Walter August are the three people helping to lead the charge for the new school. All three were at the meeting to answer questions.
Spraggins will be the principal of the school. The Abbeville High graduate informed everyone that the school’s colors would be gold and blue. The school will be known as the Warriors.

Will I have to pay tuition to attend?

There is no tuition because the school is a public school funded by Louisiana taxpayers.
The school can only handle 300 students because of the size of the campus. Spraggins informed the citizens to enroll sooner rather than later to guarantee a place in the school. If you wait, there could be students on a waiting list. Spraggins explained if there are more than 300 students enrolled, there will be a lottery drawing for those on the waiting list.

What about transportation to get back and forth to school?

If you live in the Abbeville city limits, the school will provide bus transportation. Outside of the city limits, parents will have to bring their children to school.

Is the school only for Abbeville students?

The good thing about WSM is that it does not have zones, explained Spraggins. Someone from Kaplan or Gueydan can attend the school.
Already, the school has received enrollment from students from Youngsville and Lafayette.

Students will also have to wear uniforms.

In high school, male students will have to wear blue blazer jackets, gray pants, along with a regular tie or bow tie. The high school female students will have to wear blue blazers, cross ties, and a choice of skort, shorts, or pants.
Middle school male students will wear navy vests, ties and a choice of pants. Female students are navy cardigans, cross ties, selection of skort, shorts or pants.
The staff will also have to wear blue blazers.
Friday will be a free dress day for all students.
Spraggins explained that when middle school students advance to high school, WSA will gift the young student their first blue blazer.
“The blazer is a right of passage,” Spraggins told the crowd.

What type of academics?

Spraggins said the teachers would teach the common core curriculum, and the students will take LEAP 2025.
Middle school students will be on the same one-hour per class schedule each day. When they get to high school, schedules will change. Some may be on a block schedule, and others may be on a different schedule, depending on their class.
Spraggins did say there will not be any need for after-school tutoring because she said students would be monitored throughout the school year. If there is a student struggling, the school will help the student during regular school hours, she explained.

Will there be athletics?

There will be. But what sports? No one is 100 percent sure. Spraggins introduced Graylin Campbell, who is a retired high school and middle school coach, as the new coach to begin an athletic program. Campbell is a 1979 Abbeville High graduate who taught and coached at Lafayette’s Paul Breaux Middle School and Comeaux High School for most of his 30-plus years in education.

When will the new school be built?

Marcus Williams, an architect from Baton Rouge, talked about what the cultural center and school may look like on the four acres at the old Herod High School grounds.
Williams did say he has yet to sit down with anyone to lock in details on how many students will be attending the school, so he was not 100 percent sure on the number of classrooms needed.
He brought a rendering drawing of what the school may look like. The drawing showed a two-story school building on the northside of the grounds and a James A. Herod Cultural Center on the southside of the grounds, facing Martin Luther King Drive.
Also in the drawing is a new gymnasium, around where the old Herod gym now sits.
Marcus Williams, who is not related to anyone from Abbeville, told the crowd that it would take six to eight months to draw a school and cultural center design. Once approved, it will take another 12 months to 18 months to build the school and cultural center.
If everything goes according to plan, the new buildings could be completed by 2023.