Meador named new principal at North Vermilion High School

There are many great places in the world, but there’s really “no place like home.”
Casey Meador received an opportunity last week to return to a place close to his heart. 
The Vermilion Parish School System named Meador the new principal at North Vermilion High School. Meador will follow Denise Lotief, who announced her retirement earlier this month. Meador spent the past two years as principal of Rene Rost Middle School in Kaplan.
“It’s an exciting thing,” Meador said. 
Meador is undoubtedly no stranger to North Vermilion. A 2002 graduate of the school, Meador served as a teacher, coach, disciplinarian and assistant principal at NV during the nine years prior to going to Rene Rost. 
“It was hard to say no on going back,” Meador said. “My wife (Meaghan) is an
assistant (principal) at North Vermilion Middle. We have four kids. Two are going into middle school there; one is at Cecil Picard (Elementary), and the youngest one is in daycare and moving out of daycare within a year. We’re all within that North Vermilion feeder program. 
“To go back for them, and it’s home, is a no-brainer.”
That’s not to say that Meador didn’t appreciate his time at Rene Rost, a time that presented an excellent opportunity to learn.
“That was a significant move,” Meador said of what brought him to Kaplan two years ago. “Having taken over from where I was as an assistant, then having gone and served as principal, I think the details of the job are much more clear. That will allow me to do things more effectively.”
Meador values the connections he made in Kaplan as well.
“Rene Rost is amazing,” Meador said. “There is a lot of pride and tradition. To get into that and be effective can sometimes be difficult when you’re coming in from outside the town. The staff there helped me hit the ground running at all levels. Everyone bought into a vision. For two years, we really had a culture that was a positive for everybody.”
Meador wants to bring that positive culture with him back to North Vermilion.
“That’s really the goal,” Meador said. “In our day of education, with public school, charter school, private school, home school and virtual school, there are multiple choices that parents have to put their kids in the best environment to build their foundation for life. We must build and maintain a successful culture, similar to the one North Vermilion has had for many years, that competes in that world. We want to have people in our community say that they’re not going to consider something else because North Vermilion is where they want to be.”
When he graduated 23 years ago, the principal at his alma mater was not what Meador would have said he wanted to be.
“There would have been no the way,” Meador said. “It’s amazing how some things in life carry you down a path. I started in college as a business major for a year and didn’t enjoy it. Playing basketball at the time was what I knew, and it’s what I loved. That carried me into coaching and carried me down this path.”
Meador now follows in the footsteps of NV leaders that date back to Mike Guilbeaux, the principal during Meador’s time as a student. Meador knew Greg Theriot as a coach. He worked under Tommy Byler, now the superintendent in the parish, and Lotief.
“Having good leaders is important in education,” Meador said. “That is a variety of people there to take ideas from and try to build some energy out of those ideas. I took something good from each one of them.”
Byler said there is a sense of enthusiasm about what Meador brings to the role.
“As a district, we are excited to have some with knowledge of the North Vermilion community and principal experience to take over and lead our largest school in our district,” Byler said. “Casey has been a vital part of North Vermilion for many years, and I am excited to see where he will lead the school.”
Meador will be leading a school that will be different from his time there and the years that followed, specifically in terms of numbers. 
“I graduated with a class of 110,” Meador said. “At that point, the school was still 7th through 12, and we had around 500 students. Now, the school is 9th through 12th, and you’re looking at about 180 per grade level.”
However, Meador said he feels a larger student body is not a negative.
“There will always be those traditional things,” Meador said. “Now, there are more opportunities. You have more sports and opportunities because you have more teachers and students. Hopefully, you have 60 to 70% of the campus involved in some type of activity.
“That can 100% be a great thing for campus morale.”
Meador helped bring pride to the campus at Lacassine High several years ago, leading the school to an appearance in the Top 28 in basketball and a state title in track and field. In the wake of those big moments, someone asked if he would ever consider returning home to North Vermilion.
“I always said it would depend on timing and how things work out,” Meador said. “I said I would love to if the timing worked out. Through Lacassine, through coming back to North Vermilion, through going to Rene Rost, and now coming back home, the way that timing has worked out is pretty incredible.”