Ouachita Parish School Board President Tommy Comeaux recently joked that he knew when he was flying into Monroe because he could see the bright colors of Sterlington Elementary School located at the north point of the parish.
New principal Kambra Wilkes is proud to be at the helm of the bright landmark off Highway 165, but she also wants people to know it’s just as colorful on the inside.
“My favorite thing is when I give a tour is the kids’ faces when they walk in,” Wilkes said. “They just think it’s the most wonderful place, and that’s what you want an elementary school to feel like. You want them to feel happy and comfortable, and you want them to have that feeling that it’s going to be fun, and that learning is fun, and they can do all kinds of fun things here.”
Wilkes is also the new leader of the largest elementary school in the parish. In fact, Sterlington is adding four new classrooms to accommodate the nearly 800 kids and more than 70 faculty members. However, Wilkes, who grew up going to private school, said Sterlington still has that tight-knit, close community feel to it.
“That closeness and everything that people think you lose when you’re a big school, but it’s not,” Wilkes said. “Our parental involvement and community involvement is just wonderful. They care about their kids’ education, so it makes our job a lot easier to help serve them and just having that closeness.”
Wilkes started her career in education almost 20 years ago and has stayed in Ouachita Parish with every stop. After one year at Swayze Elementary, she moved to Jack Hayes for 9 years and taught all grades but Kindergarten and 5th.
Wilkes was hesitant to make the move to Sterlington in 2014 after growing such a strong love for the students and faculty at Jack Hayes. Something made her take the leap, though, even if it meant moving to a school where she only knew one teacher on staff.
“That is so out of my comfort zone,” Wilkes said. “But now I know why.”
That “why” put her on the path to becoming principal. Former principal Katy Wheeler and assistant principal Allison Keyes encouraged Wilkes to go back to school for Educational Leadership, pointing out it would be a good fit for her.
“I hated grad school, every second of it,” Wilkes said with a laugh. “But I knew when I started that’s what I wanted to do. I can see myself doing this.”
Wilkes graduated and became the assistant principal to Wheeler for the next four years.
“She was wonderful,” Wilkes said. “We worked as a team from Day 1. At a lot of schools an assistant principal is hired to only do discipline or only do this. It was never like that with us. She knew eventually she would want to retire or move to a different position, so she just kind of took me under her wing, and everything we did she included me in every decision.”
Wilkes said she was a sponge, soaking in everything she could from Wheeler in meetings and conversations. So when Wheeler decided to move to the Central Office as Supervisor of Elementary Schools at the end of this past school year, those meetings and conversations over the past four years made the transition even easier as Wilkes moved into the principal position.
“I honestly could not do anything without everyone in this building,” Wilkes said. “It’s not just me or the administration. It’s everyone in this building, so that’s what makes it so wonderful. It’s not a one-man show at all.”
As Wilkes enters her first school year as principal, she will have a three-way vision – students, faculty and community. Her focus with students includes growing academically. For faculty, it’s growing closer together.
“Because we are a larger campus, we don’t have time to visit the green hall or yellow hall, so I think that’s important because our building is our best resource for everything, so I think building that relationship within is good,” Wilkes said. “Also, I want to help our faculty and students to become more involved in the community. Just because Sterlington is a small, homegrown community, there are a lot of opportunities for us to show the kids how to be involved in a better way.”
THE WILKES FILE
2004-05: Swayze Elementary
2005-2014: Jack Hayes Elementary
2014-2019: Sterlington Elementary
2019-2023: Sterlington Elementary, Assistant Principal
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