How Toyua Watson-Bacchus offers internships in her rural district

Concordia Parish’s schools are not a neighbor to a lot of industry. Still, Superintendent Toyua Watson-Bacchus and her team are committed to providing all of the rural Louisiana district’s students with internships and other work-based learning opportunities.

“We feel we are ahead of the game,” says Watson-Bacchus, who is entering her fourth year as superintendent of the Concordia Parish School Board. “We have a lot of farmland and small, family-owned businesses. We will be able to form partnerships to ensure every last one of our students is on a pathway.”

Watson-Bacchus and her team have found a creative solution to help the local grocery and hardware stores and other small businesses afford student interns. Instead of paying the students, the businesses make a tax-deductible donation to the district and then the district pays the interns.

The district’s largest partnership is with Syrah Technologies, which assembles parts for electric car batteries. The company has built training centers in Concordia Parish‘s three high schools. One district high school also houses a welding training program while students at the other two high schools are learning the trade at a local community college.

Like many districts, Concordia Parish’s aggressive CTE expansion represents a shift from steering all students toward dual enrollment and higher education. Even students who are college-bound are encouraged to participate in work-based learning programs and explore the trades, Watson-Bacchus notes.

Business partners have convinced the district’s educators about the importance of adding instruction in soft skills—such as time management—to the classroom. “We’re just super excited about teaching them to be prepared for the real world—the real real world,” she says.

Keeping skilled graduates in the community is another challenge for a rural district where the population is decreasing. The key, Watson-Bacchus notes, is often convincing students to return after they’ve experienced life in other parts of the country. A graduate of Concordia Parish schools, she spent 14 years teaching in another part of Louisiana.

“We say, ‘Leave, get the skills you need, get the skills that can help our community be better and come back and contribute,'” she adds. “‘We say, ‘You could be the change that we need for this community.'”

Watson-Bacchus is also looking forward to continued academic growth in her district. In each of her three years of superintendent, Concordia Parish has reached the top 10% for growth in the state and surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

“We still have so far to go. But sometimes you have to step back and breathe and say, You know what we’re doing it,” she observes.

On the other hand, she is concerned about funding cuts. For example, the district this year lost out on about $500,000 in literacy funding it had been receiving annually from the state’s department of education. Concordia Parish is also waiting for its Title I allocation.

She is also wary of the competition for students created by school vouchers. Because she cannot hire a marketing director, she relies on her employees to tell the district’s stories.

“I tell my people, ‘You are the marketing directors,'” she concludes. “‘You have to shout to the top of your lungs the great things going on in the Concordia Parish Public School System.’ We are fighting to keep students every single day.”