Vermilion Superintendent Puyau interviews for Ascension Parish job

Jerome Puyau is now one of four finalists for the superintendent job at Ascension Parish School District.
A week ago there were six candidates and on Tuesday, two dropped out, including one from Louisiana.
Wednesday night the Ascension Parish School Board interviewed Puyau and another candidate. The interview was conducted over Skype (using a computer) at the Instructional Technology Center at Central Middle School in Gonzales.
Puyau was scheduled to interview between the hours of 4:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. Stacy Scott, a superintendent from Massachusetts, was scheduled to follow him at 6:30 p.m.
Tonight two more candidates will be interviewed. One is from Iowa and the other is an assistant superintendent from Brownsville, Texas district.
What Puyau has in his favor is that he is the only candidate from Louisiana, plus, Vermilion Parish School District ranks No. 11 in the state.
Ascension Parish School District, like Vermilion Parish, has high standards. The district has 22,000 students in 27 schools (four high schools).
The district is an A-rated school district since 2011-12 and its school performance scores have grown 69 percent over the past four years, according to its web site.
Also, the district ranks fourth in Louisiana.
Former Ascension Parish Superintendent Patrice Pujol was named 2015 Louisiana Superintendent of the Year and one of four finalists for National Superintendent of the Year. She retired last year.
In the next two weeks, Ascension Parish School Board will name the new superintendent. On the Ascension Parish School website, it states it wants to have a new superintendent in place by July 1.
If Puyau would get the job, he would begin work on July 1. The School Board will have to appoint someone as interim superintendent until a new one is hired. His contract with the school board expires in January of 2017.