By T. Scott Boatright
It was a foregone conclusion with only one candidate being considered, but now it’s official.
The Lincoln Parish School Board unanimously elected current Assistant Superintendent John Young as the successor to Superintendent Ricky Durrett during Tuesday’s LPSB meeting held at Ruston Junior High School’s STEM Center.
Young will take over the parish school system following Durrett’s final day on June 30 before his retirement becomes official.
Durrett was hired Jan. 1, 2021, and had one year remaining on his contract, but after coaching basketball for the previous 20 years, Durrett said he realized the time was right to step away from his role as superintendent.
Young, a 45-year-old Ruston native, previously served as principal at I.A. Lewis School for three years and Ruston Junior High School for three years after coaching, teaching science and even driving school buses.
“I’m passionate about serving the kids in this community,” Young said. “I can think of no other place than here to do it.
“We have an A-rated school system. But along with that rating, we’ve got accountability coming on the horizon. We have metrics of moving kids that have been historically underperforming, and we’re charged with helping them perform better. Not only that, we have high-performing kids that have been scoring mastery and advanced, but our challenge is to get all of our students to go past what they believe they can do and what they’ve already done.”
Young said that heading into his new role, he has three goals.
“My first goal is related to school and district performance,” Young said. “One of the things I am is a competitor. I like challenges. And at the end of the day, I want to see Lincoln Parish rated as the top school system in the state of Louisiana.
“Goal No. 2 is improving our operations and also campus safety. Being a principal, I know what a secure campus means. There’s a lot going on in our society today where people do bad things, and I think that as a school system, our most precious commodities are our teachers, employees and students. So making improvements toward campus safety will be one of my biggest goals.”
Young said his third goal is enhancing public trust in the school system.
“I see applications every day where home-schooled students want to play on our athletic teams, they want to participate in our cheer and dance organizations. I plan to use that as an avenue. You can try out for our team, and if you make it, parent, how about you let us educate? That’s one thing I want to stress as well.”
Young said organizational efficiency is something he will stress.
“Are we being good stewards of the public’s money?” Young said. “Are we being financially transparent? And are we making the correct staffing decisions? Because as a superintendent, there’s only a few things you can leverage. It’s money — are you doing the best thing financially to get the best outcome?”
Young said he believes his biggest challenge will be getting Lincoln Parish ranked as the top school district in the state.
“You have a lot of schools that rank above us that don’t have the same demographics or socioeconomics that we have,” Young said. “But that’s not an excuse. When you look at how many of our families are socially or economically disadvantaged, we’re not going to use that as an excuse. I think we owe it to our students to help provide the best outcomes and get to being ranked No. 1 in the state for all of our students, and not just a few.”
Young said that heading into the 2026-27 school year, his biggest priority is making sure the reconfiguration of Ruston schools goes smoothly after the LPSB approved the transition to a PK-5 neighborhood school model for Ruston’s elementary schools.
“Since I’ve been at the Central Office, we’ve never had a challenge as big as this,” Young said. “I have to make sure those schools are staffed right and funded right, but also that they’re set up to achieve. Those are my biggest priorities right now.”
During the meeting, the LPSB also received an Independent Audit Report from Amy Tynes of Allen, Green and Williamson, with auditors issuing an unmodified report.
The LPSB also gave permission for distribution of instructional monies from the 1979 sales tax collections for 2026-27, adopted millages for the 2026 tax roll while keeping those rates the same as 2025, and granted permission to sell obsolete equipment.
