Dr. Angela Crumpton believes that people are born to be educators.
It’s not something you can teach, and she knew she had it in her blood.
Her mother Elois was an educator, and the teacher that Superintendent Todd Guice did his student teaching under.
Even though it was in her blood, Crumpton moved back to Monroe in 1999 with a degree in Marketing from LSU. When there were no jobs in her field, she made up her mind she was going to be an English teacher.
She put her name in to become a substitute teacher, while working other jobs, but Dr. Bob Webber, who was the Ouachita Junior High principal at the time, had other ideas.
He needed a self-contained special education teacher. The job would pay for Crumpton to get her Master’s Degree in a year, and it was a job in education.
“For the first two years, I learned how to pray, how to drink coffee, and just how much we take for granted, and that I believed teaching was in my blood,” Crumpton said. “I was meant to be there.”
This was in 2001 before the No Child Left Behind Act was passed, and there was no separation between moderately and severely handicapped students. It proved Crumpton’s theory that educators are born, not taught, even more.
“You’ve got to have it in you,” Crumpton said. “First of all to be in it (education). I believe everyone should have to have some form of special education training. It made me a better teacher. You don’t make assumptions in just dealing with people. I recognize my kids. You learn to communicate with people on a very basic level, and so that understanding can be generated. That’s what communication is.”
Crumpton jokes she is good at school, but it’s not a joke. From the time she left LSU with a Marketing Degree to her current job as the Director of High Schools, Crumpton completed graduate course work at ULM, Louisiana Tech, Grambling and Southern.
In that time, she earned her Master’s in Special Education, became certified to teach science, and then earned another Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership. She started to work towards her Doctorate in Educational Leadership, but the job to be curriculum coordinator at Ouachita High School opened up.
“Upon receiving that position as Curriculum Coordinator, I knew I needed some background understanding of what it meant to be a Curriculum Coordinator,” Crumpton said. “So I switched from Educational Leadership to Curriculum and Instruction. I learned so much.”
Crumpton earned her Doctorate in 2014, but two years prior, she moved to Student Support in Pupil Appraisal.
“Pupil Appraisal is the gatekeeper for either Special Education, 504 or not necessarily receiving the services they need,” Crumpton said. “You identify a child who might be struggling, but don’t need to be 1508 Special Education with an IEP (Individualized Education Program) or 504 with accommodations. They might just need extra attention.”
Crumpton called herself the clean-up woman. Every job she had, she would get everything organized, and then she would move to another job. In 2015, the Louisiana Department of Education introduced the Jump Start program. It was designed to prepare students to lead productive adult lives.
She spent the past 8 years at the Central Office, working with former High School Director Mickey Merritt.
“I came in green,” Crumpton said. “I’m so grateful for that opportunity. It’s not like any other job I had in my life. I cannot imagine having been anywhere else. It has been so Godly intentional. There’s no other way to explain the doors that have opened, and the knowledge that I have been able to acquire.”
It’s hard to put the High School Director’s job description into plain terms. Crumpton handles grants, dual enrollment, Career Development Fund, ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund), EEF (Education Excellence Fund), the Carl Perkins Technical and Education – just to name a few.
However, if she had to put it into the most simplest terms, Crumpton said her job helps high schools be successful.
“I help high schools coordinate the resources and the knowledge that is necessary to graduate students; and not just graduate them, help them become productive members of society,” Crumpton said. “I want you to graduate high school because you need a diploma in this world. Everything is so fast-paced. You need a diploma. You need something to show that you put in the work to be able to be eligible for an entry level position.”
With her experiences, Crumpton also recognizes that four-year universities is not for every high school graduate.
“We’ve identified that we are going to do a career exploration fair, which is going to be broader because it’s going to include kids who are learning about these opportunities, and then in the spring there’s going to be a job or career fair where we are actually placing kids,” Crumpton said. “So we will say, ‘You’re going to go to Delta. You’re going to go to Graphic Packaging, you go to Machine Works or go to this hospital. I’m really excited about that.”
It’s hard to ignore the passion in Crumpton’s voice as she talks about the ways to make our high schools successful. Her job trickles down and makes Ouachita Parish and the community we live in successful too.
“Our kids don’t just stay here, they go all over,” Crumpton said. “We want them to stay here, but when they leave here, and they say they were in Ouachita Parish, that means something.”
THE CRUMPTON FILE:
2001-2004: Ouachita Junior High, Special Education
2004-2010: Ouachita Junior High, Science Teacher
2010-2012: Ouachita Parish High School, Curriculum Coordinator
2012-2015: Student Services, Pupil Appraisal
2015-2023: Secondary Education Coordinator
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