Irma Duplechain Trosclair serves as superintendent of the Lafayette Parish School System, a position she was appointed to full time in March 2020 after serving as interim superintendent the prior year. She is the first female to serve as superintendent of LPSS. Trosclair is an experienced educational administrator with a long record of school improvement and effective leadership.
Superintendent Trosclair earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education from McNeese State University and a Master of Education in Administration Supervision degree from Louisiana State University. After 18 years in the classroom teaching grades 1-12, Trosclair moved into administration as the principal of Eunice Elementary School and later, South Crowley Elementary School. Her successful tenure at both schools led to National Blue Ribbon status and earned her the Terrel H. Bell Award for outstanding school leadership from the U.S. Department of Education in 2015. Trosclair was one of only 7 administrators to receive the award and the only one from Louisiana.
Following this success, she was tapped by then-Superintendent Dr. Donald Aguillard to join LPSS as the first school improvement administrator in 2015. She was promoted to assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in 2018. Following the retirement of Superintendent Aguillard in 2019, Trosclair stepped in as interim-superintendent.
Known as much for her soft heart for students as for her tough-minded leadership, Trosclair is a strong leader with high expectations who emphasizes collaboration, communication, and accountability. An advocate for equity for all students, she credits her success to her unwavering commitment to student achievement and belief that every child deserves a high quality education. Trosclair’s “ whatever it takes ” philosophy has helped students receive the high quality education they deserve. Her experience transforming low-performing schools has helped her understand the importance of providing teachers, students, and staff with the tools and resources they need to succeed. She has served as a mentor to principals of high poverty schools statewide while working with the Louisiana Department of Education and its High Poverty/High Performing Schools Initiative.
During her tenure as superintendent, Trosclair has prioritized funding to address the needs of students, enabling her to increase the number of students receiving prescriptive tutoring services to decrease learning gaps, and has worked to improve college-readiness among high school students through increased dual-enrollment participation. She has established programs to support new or struggling teachers by creating the New Teacher Academy and AIM Academy, created the Lafayette Parish Leadership Institute to build a pipeline of future leaders, secured grants and private partnership funding to help pay for district needs, and created teacher and leadership advisory panels.
Ms. Trosclair is married to Paul Trosclair, a retired educator and coach. Together they have five children and five grandchildren.
