Ouachita Parish Superintendent Dr. Don Coker will be the first to tell you that he does not want to be the center of attention.
Even when listing out his achievements from the past 8 years as Superintendent, the first line is a note to preface that all his successes are because of others.
However, the one thing he does want to be in the center of is God’s will.
“My prayer has always been, ‘Lord just put me in the center of your will and use me,’” Coker said. “Sometimes, I didn’t know where that was going to go, and other times it was so clear. I am exactly where I am and doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing.”
Coker spoke with a smile on his face from exactly where he was supposed to be – his makeshift office in the Ouachita Parish School Board Central Office. It may not be ideal for the Superintendent, but the humble Coker wanted to transition into retirement in the most modest way. He will officially retire on July 3 and hand the reigns over to Todd Guice, who was announced as his successor earlier this year.
“You will know when you are ready to retire,” Coker said. “I think I have fulfilled the mission that God has put in my life so far, but I think there is more to come. I don’t know what that more is, but I am open to whatever it might be.”
This is one of those times when God’s direction is crystal clear to Coker, and there is no fear about the unknown of retirement. He knows He will guide him, just as He did into the education field 43 years ago.
THE PATH TO EDUCATION
Growing up as the son of a landscaper and nursery owner, Coker planned to do the same. He started at Louisiana Tech on scholarship in Landscape Architecture, but he soon realized that was not his purpose.
“I thought, ‘Ya know? My heart is in kids and coaching and teaching and all of that,’” Coker said.
That calling led to meeting his wife of 42 years, Pat Richardson Coker. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education, Coker was serving as a graduate assistant when two of his students told him there was a girl, they wanted him to meet. Their first meeting was at a Lady Techsters' basketball game, and she would later follow him to his first job at Holly Ridge High School as his wife.
“Those people took me and Pat in and just loved us,” Coker said. “My first six years were absolutely great.”
Coker taught and coached basketball for 6 years before moving back home to Calhoun where he taught and coached at Calhoun Middle School for the next 3 years. One of his students and players is now just down the hall from him at the Central Office – newly appointed personnel director Jason Thompson.
“Who knew 1987 would turn into the seat I am sitting in now,” Thompson said. “As a high school kid, you admire those that are around you. I had a lot of admiration for him, a lot of respect for him. So when I got older and started to think about what I wanted to do, he certainly had an influence on that.”
Teaching and coaching was Coker’s niche, and he thought he would make a career out of it. When it came time for his retirement, he envisioned it as a celebration of a basketball coach with a few state titles under his belt.
But then God – along with Pat and Coker’s mother – said otherwise.
“I started thinking I can make a bigger difference affecting more people,” Coker said. “My mother always told me, ‘You want to be in charge. You’ve always wanted to be in charge.’ My wife says I’m controlling.”
Coker denied that last part, with a laugh, but it did prompt him to make the decision to pursue his Doctoral Degree in Educational Leadership.
THE JUMP TO PRINCIPAL
After 3 years at Calhoun Middle, he moved to West Ouachita High School, the year that it opened. After that first year, the Calhoun Middle School principal job opened up.
“And I got it,” Coker said. “I had never been an assistant. I came straight out of the classroom, straight out of coaching and into the principal position so that first year at Calhoun Middle as principal … that was a growing year for me.”
Coker spent 17 years at Calhoun Middle where he oversaw the building of a new school and started his slogan of “Building Bridges” that he later brought to the School Board Office.
“We were trying to bridge between our elementary kids coming to middle and our middle school kids going into high school, “Coker recalled. “We were the gap that was going to get them from one place to the other, and I just took it to another level.”
“Building Bridges to the Future” is now the slogan just under the OPSB logo. Coker said that became more about merging the west and east side of Ouachita Parish.
“HE’S JUST BEEN AN EXCELLENT SUPERINTENDENT”
He started at the School Board as former Superintendent Dr. Bob Webber’s personnel director, and later added assistant superintendent to his title and job duties.
“He was there to help me with everything I did,” Webber said. “He really wasn’t working for me; he was working with me. I gave him a lot of responsibilities because he wanted it. He was such a great educator and people person. He’s a good friend and just a great person.”
When Webber decided to retire in 2014, Coker felt God’s guidance once again. He officially took over in July 2015.
Current school Board Member Jerry Hicks was also serving as the School Board President at that time. Neither knew what the next 8 years would hold in education and for Ouachita Parish School System, but Coker proved to once again be in the right place at the right time.
“I’ve seen him in a few situations, but I’ve never seen him lose it,” Hicks said. “He may have thought, ‘I don’t know what to do here,’ but he always thought things out and made good decisions. He’s just been an excellent Superintendent.”
“THE TOUGHEST YEARS WE HAVE EVER SEEN IN EDUCATION”
Less than a year after taking the position, Ouachita Parish suffered through a flood of massive proportions. Some called it a 1000-year event as more than 16 inches of rainfall fell within a 48-hour period. Four years later, COVID hit the nation, and Ouachita Parish suffered a tornado and a hurricane in addition to trying to navigate through a global pandemic.
“The last 4 to 5 years have been the toughest years we have ever seen in education,” Coker said. “We were meeting on Sundays … when the pandemic started, it was Saturdays and Sundays and Mondays and trying to figure out just how are we going to educate our kids from March to May to finish the school year, because we weren’t prepared for it.
“I really think that it’s the unknown that is sometimes the biggest challenge. If you can plot a path out there and pray it up and make sure we are going in the right direction that makes things a little bit easier to navigate through.”
In this case though, Coker said there was no textbook for how to get through it. The only thing he could lean on was teamwork from his staff. They held daily Zoom meetings with school and district leaders, the State Department of Education, and the Louisiana Department of Health.
Schools provided hard copy lessons for parents to pick up and created Virtual Instructional Program (VIP) to provide hybrid and virtual classes to students with internet access. Once the 2020-2021 school year started, the district had to follow the state mandates of social distancing, masks, 50 percent capacity of students riding buses, among others.
“That was a situation where you’re not going to please all the people,” Hicks said. “We didn’t want kids to wear masks. It was tough. They had to have them on school buses even, but he made very good decisions. We followed the protocol coming down and did what we had to do to combat the problem, and he (Coker) led the charge.”
One of the most unique situations that Coker had to navigate happened one weekend in the spring of 2019 when lightning struck Boley Elementary, sparking a fire that consumed the whole school. Coker has the date, April 13, written in his Bible. He and Hicks stood there, helpless, as the fire destroyed the building.
“We crossed the road from Wal-Mart because they wouldn’t let everyone come over, and I am watching the firemen work so hard,” Coker said. “I saw a fireman down spraying into the office area and then an explosion came out the window. It blew two windows out and picked him up and blew him about 10 feet back. That’s when I told Jerry and the fire chief, I said ‘Let it burn.’ It is not worth anyone getting hurt over. It’s gone out of control either way. I will never forget that.”
Once again, there was no textbook on how to get through it. Coker and his team moved quickly, and the Boley students only missed 4 days of school before moving to George Welch Elementary and the pre-K class to Crosley Elementary for the remainder of the school year. Coker then worked to secure a space with The Assembly for the next 3 years before opening the new Boley School in August 2022.
Current School Board President Tommy Comeaux’s first year as a school board member was the same year Coker became Superintendent. He joked that they were bad luck together with all of the events that came during their tenures. However, on a serious note, he applauded Coker for the way he carried himself through every hardship.
“He has a tremendous work ethic,” Comeaux said. “He has a genuine concern for not only the students, but the employees and the community. He was dedicated to getting the best for our system.”
More than 60 construction projects have been completed or in the process of being completed under Coker’s tenure. In addition to Boley, East Ouachita Middle School opened in 2017 and Sterlington Middle School will open this fall. Included in the construction projects is one of Coker’s proudest accomplishments – moving the Ouachita Parish Central Office in 2019 from Bry Street in Monroe to the current location on North 7th Street in West Monroe.
“I think anywhere that we can look back and say he made a difference – this can be from one individual kid or one individual employee to having the vision to put this whole thing into our central office,” Coker said. “This is really broad but just making the difference in the lives of individuals. I can’t tell you how many times I go into Wal-Mart or a restaurant, and it may be my past students or employees, but just letting me know, ‘Yeah I have that purpose. I have made a difference in your life.’”
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