Cecil J. Picard - Appointment As Superintendent

Appointment As Superintendent

Picard was named superintendent by the elected Board of Elementary and Secondary Education with the support of his former senatorial colleague, then Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster of St. Mary Parish, a Democrat turned Republican. At the time he became superintendent, Picard headed the Senate Education Committee and had just lost a bid to become president of the state senate, the position having instead gone to fellow Democrat Randy Ewing of Quitman in Jackson Parish in north Louisiana.

Foster said that his friend Picard "made a lot of headway . He did a good job, and I never heard anyone say he didn't."

Picard was succeeded in the state Senate by Democrat Gerald Theunissen of Jennings, who defeated the Republican state party chairman Mike Francis of Crowley. Theunissen himself later switched to Republican affiliation.