Montegut Middle School History

History

Montegut Middle School opened its doors in the fall of 1972 with Mr. Frank Pugh as Principal and Mr. Earl Clement as Assistant Principal. That first year, MMS housed students in grades 5-9 with about 600 students and 30 teachers.

Between 1975 and 1983, Mr. William Colvin and Mr. Hayes Badeaux served as principals of MMS. In 1982, under Mr. Badeaux's direction, MMS was named as one of the country's top middle schools for educational excellence.

On February 16, 1985, a senseless act of arson destroyed almost the entire building and its contents. As a result, students were platooned with Lacache Middle School for 22 months while a new building was constructed. That new building was completed in September of 1987.

In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit directly to the west of Terrebonne Parish causing major flooding in our area. Because our new building was built 6 feet off the ground, no flooding damaged our building. However, according to the picture below (copied from the Houma Daily Courier), the building was surrounded by water.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Mrs. Louise Adams served MMS as Principal from 1984 until her retirement in the fall of 1999. Mr. Mack Ashner was the Assistant Principal from 1984 to 1997. Mr. Gary Smith was appointed as Assistant Principal in 1997.

In the fall of 1999, Mrs. Catherine Telford became the Principal of MMS. Mr. Smith continues to serve as Assistant Principal. Presently, MMS houses grades 5-8 with about 550 students, a faculty of 44 teachers, and about 25 support personnel.

In October of 2002, Hurricane Lily's tidal surge caused most of the town of Montegut to be under water. In a picture provided by the Houma Daily Courier, the extent of flooding to the town from the helicopter view is rather evident (even 3 days after when some of the water had drained off.)

Click on the picture for a larger view.

In July 2003, Tropical Storm Bill caused similar flooding problems to the town of Montegut.

From August 2003 to October 2003, a new levee system was constructed to prevent any further flooding to the town of Montegut.

In August 2005 and September 2005, Hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, tested the levees. Unfortunately, the levees were no match for Hurricane Rita's tidal surge because more water than ever swamped all of lower Terrebonne parish due to a breach of the levees. At the same time, all of coastal Louisiana was affected by tidal surge from Hurricane Rita.


Click on the above pictures to enlarge them. MMS after the water receded by 3 or more feet (Notice the grass on the fencing.) Water levels had reached the tops of the baseball field fences. Above pictures provided by Ms. J. Pitre At the end of August 2006, Mr. Gary Smith left MMS to serve as Assistant Principal at Elysian Fields School. Mrs. Debrah Allemand was assigned as our Assistant Principal at the same time.
Mrs. Catherine Telford, Principal from the Fall of 1999 to the spring of 2007, decided to retire.
In the summer of 2007,Mrs. Kim Vauclin was appointed to replace Mrs. Telford as principal. Mrs. Debrah Allemand continues to serve as our Assistant Principal.
In September of 2008, Montegut Middle's faculty and students could not access their school building because of flooding caused by Hurricane Ike which followed Hurricane Gustav in a span of two weeks. (See pictures below)
	a view from the air from the back of the building	September 16, 2008 from Houma Courier


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Updated 9/17/2008