LIVINGSTON PARISH - Last fall, Livingston Parish Superintendent Joe Murphy announced he would not be renewing his contract once it ends in June 2024. Last week, the board began the search to fill the soon-vacant job.

Murphy has been a part of the school system for over thirty years, with the last five as superintendent.

During his tenure in that position, Murphy has dealt with the aftermath of a natural disaster as well as a global pandemic that plagued the country.

While Murphy was only assistant superintendent when the flood of 2016 occurred, he was at the forefront of getting schools back running only twenty days later- despite being told it would take months for that to happen.

In 2019, Murphy became the official superintendent. Upon taking that position, he was still dealing with the damage the flood caused years prior. Three schools in the parish were damaged to the point they could not reopen. In response, three temporary campuses that would accommodate five hundred students each were built.

Those campuses were fully functional 108 days later.

Murphy began to get emotional when talking about the determination and willpower everyone in the parish showed when rebuilding everything that was destroyed. With tears down his cheek, he praised them all, saying "it was never about a building. It was about the people."

Getting through the flood and COVID-19 was major for Murphy and the parish, but his proudest achievement was being able to pay all faculty and staff fairly during the most difficult times. He says not a single check was missed.

Livingston Parish has been through a number of battles through the past decade and has still managed to thrive each time. Murphy says the parish now has 27,000 students - the largest population the district has ever had.

Murphy has many accomplishments to look back on, but he wasn't shy to bring up what he considers his biggest failure of being unable to pass the one-cent sales tax. That tax would have increased all employee pay in the parish.

Livingston Parish employees are not compensated as much as surrounding parishes, and with that failure to raise their pay, Murphy said, "That's probably the most disappointing part of my tenure as a superintendent."

Once the proposed tax failed, Murphy, as well as others, expected a mass exodus of teachers, but he said that was not the case.

Murphy's final days as superintendent are near, but he is certain the next superintendent will be the right person for the job. He says the Livingston Parish School System is in great hands.