The Convent . . .

When I started school, I tried the public school, Poydras.  The teacher was one Miss Rita.  I do not recall her last name but I lasted one day.  I next went to the Convent, or St. Josephs Academy, the Catholic private school.  I never went back to school at Poydras.

We had two schools in New Roads at that time.  Poydras High School and St Josephs Academy, also a 12 grade institution.  The schools were rivals in sports.  St Josephs went to eleven man football the year I started playing the game for the school.  That would be 1954.  Poydras I do not think ever converted to eleven man football, at least not in the next 10 or so years.

Poydras, Julian Poydras, was a character out of Louisiana history.  He was from France originally.   He was a tinker, a seller of metal ware like pots and pans and coffee pots.  He was a self taught man and rose to prominence.  He owned a couple of plantations on False River and was a prime mover in getting Louisiana state hood.  He left a fund of money for dowries for the young ladies of Pointe Coupee Parish (and I think it is still in existence maintained by the Police Jury - the parish council).

Julian never married.  And he is interred in front of the school building on Main Street in New Roads.  The school has ceased to function, a new public school has been built outside of the town way out in the cane fields half way between New Roads and Morganza.

A rich benefactor left money for restoration of the Poydras building.  It has a fine auditorium  and today it is the site of much local entertainment.  Live musicals, shows, readings, all kinds of public entertainment.  The school building is made into an office building of sorts and there are law offices in the building now.  No more school buses, no children playing on the school grounds, just quite area now days.

New Roads now has two private schools.  One is a non-sectarian institution named False River Academy and the other is St Josephs Academy that has morfed into Catholic High School of Pointe Coupee.  Both schools draw students from a broad spectrum that extends outside the civil parish.  Both a successful educational institutions and rivals in sports.  Both schools are fully integrated though in their past they were not.  But time and reason has prevailed and if you can afford the tuition you can go to either one of the schools.  False River Academy has membership requirements but Catholic High does not and welcomes all students that can afford it.

At one time there was a black public high school and today it is a grade school, the only public school in the City of New Roads.  A burg of 5.000 or more souls.  There was a black Catholic grade school too but it is now part of the Catholic High School system.  There are no more single race educational institutions in Pointe Coupee Parish.

It took a century or more after the Civil War to get things evened out.  Racism is still a fact, still lives but it is a dying breed.  Public education has taken the burnt of integration and the Pointe Coupee High School is in disarray, does not meet the State of Louisiana standards and has been taken over by private company and run by them vice the school board.  Livonia High School is the remaining high school in the public school system.

In my day there was a high schools at Rougon, Livonia, Morganza and Innis.  At later time there was a high school at Batchelor but it is now a grade school such as the former black high school, Rosenwald.  Morganza High School where my father went to school is totally closed.  Innis has literally been torn down and plowed under.  Rougon High School is a grade school.

So education in Pointe Coupee ranges from the elite private schools to the substandard public schools.  Livonia is not substandard and stands out in Pointe Coupee Parish.  But it has had its troubles too.  The local families just would not let it decline like the other schools, good on them.

The Convent, and its heritage can boast of graduates that are Bishops and priests in the Catholic Church.  It has one graduate that was a Congresswoman and later Ambassador to the Vatican, Lindy Boggs.  Rosenwald can boast of at least one Lieutenant General, the savior of New Orleans after Katrina, General Honoree.   Pointe Coupee  has its share of generals like General Lejeune of whom the famous Marine Corps base of Camp Lejeune is so named.  Poydras High School can boast of DeLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, long time Mayor of New Orleans, Major General in the Army Reserves and late Ambassador to the Organization of American States.

New Roads just keeps plugging along.  And I am sure like my generation the old name, the Convent, will disappear.  Time moves on.