Rodney Lloyd enjoyed his 17 years at Riser Middle School so much, he thought he would never leave.
He was happy staying for another 17 years, unless the next step in career was a perfect fit for him.
That perfect fit came calling at the end of this past school year when the Director of Child Welfare and Attendance position became open.
“There’s only one or two things that I would do in Ouachita Parish than be principal at Riser Middle,” Lloyd said. “I really wanted to do a job like this. It still involves helping people.”
Helping others is Lloyd’s passion. His mother noticed it from an early age too.
“I love doing for people more than to receive it for myself,” Lloyd said. “My mother said as a child from the beginning if I had something, I wanted someone else to have it as well.”
Lloyd grew up in Ferriday and earned a football scholarship to play and attend Louisiana Tech. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and completed his Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
He started his career as a Mental Healthcare Professional before moving into Education as a teacher and football coach. For the past 11 years, Lloyd served as the principal at Riser Middle School, a Title I school. Every stop he made along the way in his career prepared him for overseeing a school like Riser, located in one of the lowest-income neighborhoods in the parish.
“You immediately see the need to help,” Lloyd said. “You’re dealing with low socioeconomic kids, and some of these kids are so talented but just need someone.”
The Director of Child Welfare and Attendance has similar job responsibilities, but on a larger scale.
“You’re counseling. You’re growing. You’re advising our youth, trying to give them guidance and direction,” Lloyd said. “My goal is to make sure you can lead them until they’re successful enough to lead others, and that’s the cycle that you want to do.”
Lloyd and his staff will look at zonings for all schools and also zone waivers for unique cases, where a child may excel more in a specific environment. One of the biggest issues for the department will be attendance.
“Attendance was a huge problem before COVID,” Lloyd said. “It’s an even bigger problem since COVID. At the time, the state was around 22 percent of students that did not go to school before COVID. Now it’s at 37 percent.”
Lloyd said he and his staff will be proactive in attendance, and aggressively following up when a child misses more than three straight days.
“We aren’t going to wait until the end of the school year when you’ve missed 40 or 50 days to tell you what you should have done, and what we hope to see you do the next school year,” Lloyd said. “We are going to bring you in right away.”
Each school will have a truancy department with three to four people monitoring and addressing absences. Typically, the department will be an administrator, a secretary, a support person and the school resource officer. After three days, the parents or guardians of the student will receive a letter, then again at the 5-day and 10-day mark. After 10 days, Lloyd will hold an in-person meeting with the student and his or her parents or guardians. There will also be Saturday seminars offered for students to recover hours if they have missed more than 10 days. Lloyd will also be working with suspensions and expulsions, and how to help students succeed at the alternative school.
“Through this department you are helping people,” Lloyd said. “A lot of kids coming through maybe have made a mistake. One of my goals is to let them know not to let one or two mistakes define you. It’s about helping others. I always want to grow people and push people.”
Lloyd and his team recently completed a new discipline procedure manual with guidelines for elementary, middle school and high schools to create some consistency within the district on how to handle discipline. It is his goal to ensure every school is following the same procedures, and Lloyd believes it will benefit the district, especially with 10 new principals at the start of the school year.
THE LLOYD FILE:
1999-2000: North River Counseling, Mental Health Professional
2000-2003: Ferriday High School, Teacher & Coach
2003-2006: Northwest High School, Head Football Coach
2006-2012: Riser Middle School, Assistant Principal
2012-2023: Riser Middle School, Principal
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