Schooled in education

Three Jagneaux brothers and their wives have devoted their careers to instilling education in young minds. In the process, they have fulfilled their dying father’s wishes.
“It keeps our family close, and that was important from day one when I met Tracey’s parents,” said Tracey’s wife Yvette. “They always wanted us to be close. That was one of the last things that his dad asked me before he passed away. He asked me if I will keep them together. Teaching is one thing that helps do that.”
“When we have Sunday family dinners, it’s really fun at our house because we mainly talk about school,” she continued. “We compare things, and we laugh and pick on each other about our jobs. It’s unique, and it’s fun.”
Nick compared teaching to a family business and echoed Yvette’s description of the family get-togethers. “I think it’s pretty cool that the three brothers and their wives are all in education,” he said. “It’s kind of the family business. When we get together for family holidays and family get-togethers, the family business gets talked about. It’s kind of interesting because we teach at all the different levels. We have high school, middle school, and elementary, so we kind of cover the whole spectrum when we’re together.”
“I think it’s very unique,” Jason said. “I don’t know of too many other families where all of the siblings and their wives are teachers. In fact our mom was a teacher, and also my mother-in-law was a teacher.”
His older brother Tracey agreed. “I don’t think there are too many families that have that dynamic where three brothers and their wives are all teachers. My wife’s sister is also a teacher, so there’s a lot of educational backgrounds in the family.”
For Tracey, his reasoning for getting into teaching is what he described as selfish. “It’s kind of a selfish reason, but I wanted to coach,” he said. “If you wanted to coach back then when I was going to college, there were no Coach Education/Certification Program (CECP) coaches. You had to be a teacher, and so that’s the reason why I did it.”
Tracey graduated from McNeese State University in 1989 with a major in physical education and a minor in general science. His first teaching job was teaching chemistry and general science at his alma mater Ville Platte High School, under Principal Joe Tuminaro. While there he was an assistant football coach and head softball coach for the Bulldogs. He then pursued coaching and teaching opportunities at other schools in the parish before returning to Ville Platte High.
“This school year I’m going to be full-time in the Workbased Learning Experience,” he said. “What we do is take kids that are working their way toward their high school diploma on an alternate pathway. To get their diploma they have to have so many hours in different areas. We teach them job training skills to get them ready for the real world.”
His wife Yvette became a teacher because that was something she always wanted to do. “I knew from the time I was a little girl that I wanted to teach or I wanted to be a nurse,” Yvette said. “When I got ready to go to school, I kind of weighed both options. I decided on teaching because I wanted to teach little kids. When I got in it, I knew that was what I was meant to do.”
Yvette, like her husband, received her degree from McNeese State University in 1989. She spent 13 years teaching third graders at Mamou. She then spent some time teaching at Grand Prairie Elementary but was recruited back to Mamou by then principal Chris Fontenot. She stayed there for four years before coming to Ville Platte High where she will finish out her career.
Yvette will be teaching fifth grade math this year which is her favorite subject. “I love teaching elementary math,” she said. “It’s so much fun. There’s so many things you can do with the kids because it’s so hands on. To watch a kid understand and finally catch on what these numbers mean and how numbers work is a miracle. It’s just a blessing to watch.”
Teaching was not in Nick’s plan as he prepared to enter college. “Coming out of high school, I wanted to be a journalist,” he said. “I started working at The Gazette covering football, and I loved it. When I was 19, I was parish editor at The Gazette for a while. I didn’t have a degree at the time, so I decided to go back and finish my degree in journalism. In that period of time when I went back to school, I met the woman who ended up being my wife,” he added. She came here from Belgium with CODAFIL, and she was teaching French. Her plan was to always go back to Belgium during the summers to meet her family.”
“As a journalist you really don’t get long vacations especially when you’re beginning your career,” he added. “I realized she would have to go to Belgium pretty much by herself, and I didn’t want to be separated from her for that long. I thought I really loved the journalism because I loved the writing. It’s writing about current events, but in 10 years what I’m writing about will become history. I was covering history as it happened, so that kind of fed into my love for history at the same time. That’s what made me decide to get out of journalism and move into education.”
Nick received a degree in social studies education from McNeese State University with a minor in English. He is also certified to teach French and has been doing so for the past three years. His plan for this year is to get better and to bring down his lofty expectations.
“At this point I kind of have an idea of exactly what I’m able to do,” he said. “Even though I wasn’t a new teacher, I was new in the curriculum when I started. I went in there with these expectations of the kids being able to be let loose on the streets of Paris and being able to walk around speaking French. Then I realized afterwards that I kind of set a goal that’s a little bit too high. I had to start readjusting what my goals were and what my expectations were for my students.”
His wife Anne-Christine is also in the education field, but according to Nick, “she’s not in the classroom right now.” He said, “She’s at Sacred Heart where she serves as a religious administrator, and she still works hands-on with the teachers in the classroom making sure they have the materials they need.”
Jason, much like his older brother Tracey, got into education to be a coach. “I started out wanting to coach, and I think that’s how I got into education,” he said. Once I did get into it and started coaching, I realized that teaching can influence the lives of kids, and that’s a big part of it for me. I try to be inspirational and to motivate kids. That’s basically why I continue to teach.”
He deviated from the family plan and received a degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, where he finished in health and physical education. He teaches physical education at Sam Houston High School in Moss Bluff where he is the head coach of girls’ basketball and coaches boys’ and girls’ cross country.
His goals for the upcoming school year are to finish his Master’s degree in July and to make it through the year sane. “I teach PE all day long, so my goals are mainly coaching oriented. We’re coming off of a year where we were 29-5. Losing eight seniors off of that team it’s going to definitely be a rebuilding year for us.”
Jason’s wife Connie is also a teacher in Calcasieu Parish. She teaches fifth grade English-language arts and science at Gillis Elementary north of Moss Bluff.
Nick then shared some inspiration to anyone thinking about becoming a teacher. “I think any person who says that they may like teaching ought to look into it,” he said. “I am not down on the profession. There are some problems in the profession that need to be solved, but I think the future is really good for someone who wants to teach and who likes to teach. It’s a fulfilling profession, and it’s not something to stay away from.”