VERMILION PARISH, La. (KLFY) -- Vermilion Parish School District celebrates a win by maintaining its "A" District status, leading Acadiana in school performance by being the only "A" District in the area.

Vermilion Parish Superintendent Tommy Byler said there are 11 "A" Districts in Louisiana and being one of the districts is exciting and a huge accomplishment.

“Every year about this time, the school performance scores come out. We were right there on the bubble. We weren't sure if we'd remain in A or not. We were very excited. I mean, it's the hard work of our teachers and students and the support of our stakeholders,” Byler said.

The school performance score is a combination of various tests, such as the LEAP test, how much students improve each year, and how students score on the ACT, among other things.

“We tell people all the time, kids are more than a score but when you do get that score, the result of the hard work is exciting," he said.

"We teach more than just the test but when it all comes to fruition and the kids see success and all of our schools can celebrate that, that's always a big thing for us and we're excited as a district to keep moving forward and to lead the Acadiana area for the 12th year in a row. We're excited," Byler continued.

Twelve of 20 schools improved in performance, including Eaton Park Elementary, Cecil Picard and Meaux Elementary.  

Erath High ranked No. 4, North Vermilion High ranked No. 7 and Kaplan High ranked No. 8, which were three of the parish's five high schools in the top 10 of traditional schools.

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Byler said "traditional high schools" means you take everybody who walks into the front door.

"It's not a magnet school. It's not a not a program to early college academies. Therefore it was a huge achievement," Byler said, although they saw a slight drop in their score, which was disappointing. 

“It actually did drop a little bit, not because of the academics and testing. We had a couple of areas where some graduation rates weren't as high as we normally used to and some other things and people don't realize that happens, “ he said.

“You’re recovering from COVID. I mean, last year's graduating class was the group of freshmen when COVID started. So, you know, we lost a lot of kids and lost track of some kids. So all those factors together," he continued.

He said the 2025-2026 school year will begin with a new accountability system, which is different from their current system. 

“You won't see as many A districts, you won't see as many A schools and that's part of the reason Bese Board changes and so we want to go out with a bang on this accountability system before we start working on the new accountability system for 25, 26,” he said.

“We're going to continue doing what we do. We feel like we have a strong curriculum process in place. Our leaders need to transform that information to our teachers. Our teachers need to transform it to our students," he continued.

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