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Lindsay Smythe, School Leader and founder of Ecole Saint-Landry in Sunset, a free, public French Immersion elementary school, joins Discover Lafayette to discuss her journey in offering a quality educational experience to our youngest students.



Lindsay is a bilingual educator with 17 years of experience in education at the elementary, high school, and university levels. She always knew she wanted to be a teacher, and she brings a sense of joy and adventure to the classroom.



She received a Master’s in Education from LSU. Upon deciding that she wanted to pursue a Doctorate in Education, Lindsay learned that she would have to be fluent in a foreign language to earn her doctorate. She had never studied French and to accomplish this task quickly, she registered at "Débutant Une" (level one) to attend one of the only French Immersion universities in the world: Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, Canada, which is also the original home of the Acadiens who were deported from the region in 1755.



Lindsay fell in love with the French language, as well as the Nova Scotia landscape. She describes it as a beautiful area...."There is no better place than this, with warm, friendly people. Picture the most beautiful Festival weekend here and that is Nova Scotia in the summertime."



Lindsay Smythe quickly became fluent in French by attending Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, Canada. She recommends the experience to others who want to experience a wonderful education as well as a beautiful cultural experience. The university is situated where the Acadiens were deported in 1755 and therefore has many things in common with Acadiana. Summertime French immersion programs are offered twice each year and for those over 60 years old, tuition is half-price. Louisiana residents are accorded the additional benefit of qualifying for the Canadian price of admission. For more information, visit https://www.usainteanne.ca.



She stayed on two years teaching French at Université Sainte-Anne and then returned to the United States to teach French at Lafayette High. During her tenure there, she was named the 2016 Lafayette Parish Teacher of the Year and also nominated as the Louisiana Foreign Language Teachers Association Teacher of the Year.




Lindsay Smythe is a passionate spokesperson for a great public school system as well as for compensating teachers at a level that will entice the best and brightest students to enter the profession. She learned while teaching in Canada that teachers are paid at a much higher level than in the U. S. and the demand for jobs is incredibly competitive. Teachers typically have a wait time of five years to qualify for a permanent role as a teacher, having to first work as a long-term sub to earn their stripes.




In December 2016, Lindsay was summoned to an exploratory meeting called by Stephen Ortego and Sunset Mayor Charles James to discuss the possibility of starting a French immersion elementary school. The building that used to house Sunset High had been sitting vacant, owned by the Town of Sunset, and Ortego had realized its potential as a site for a French Immersion school. As a French teacher and resident of Sunset, Lindsay immediately saw the value of the idea and jumped in headfirst. Local teachers and education doctorates Michelle Haj-Broussard and Nicole Boudreaux drafted the Charter language, and Ecole Saint-Landry was officially approved by the St. Landry School Board as a Type 1 Charter school in 2018.



Ecole Saint-Landry is in month five of its inaugural school year at this point, with 55 students in Kindergarten and 1st Grade. There are five teachers, all fluent in French necessitated by the fact that no English is spoken in the classrooms.