Last Modified: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 11:36 AM

BY DORIS MARICLE / AMERICAN PRESS

HATHAWAY — As assistant principal at Hathaway High School for the past four years, Sharon Phenice Ardoin’s focus has always been on the students.
“I love being with the kids,” Ardoin said. “Even though I am the assistant principal, I still go in the classrooms and I do duty.”
She can also be found reading books to elementary students, picking up litter on the school campus and patrolling the halls.
Ardoin, 41, has been recognized by the Louisiana Association of Principals as the state secondary assistant principal of the year.
She was nominated by Hathaway Principal Mona Miller and competed on the national level during a trip to Washington, D.C.
Ardoin has been a teacher and administrator in Jeff Davis and Calcasieu parishes for more than 13 years.
She began her career as a teacher at the former Northside Junior High School in Jennings and taught at Moss Bluff Middle School. She earned several degrees in education from McNeese State University.
Ardoin said her philiosphy has always been to work hard, which she does “for me, not to receive recognition.”
Her associates say she can often be found working at the school on weekends and after hours.
Ardoin, a 1988 graduate of Hathaway High School, said teaching was not always her career choice, even though her aunt and sister were teachers.
“It was kind of like a backup plan,” she said. “Even after that first year (of teaching), I didn’t know if this was what I really wanted to do.”
She said she has now found her niche and plans to stay there.
“I don’t want to because a principal right now,” she said. “I love being an assistant principal and will continue to do the best I can.”
Ardoin attributes the person she has become to growing up in Jeff Davis Parish.
“I wasn’t your straight-A banner roll student,” she said. “I was the one who had to study, and my dad was a farmer, so I learned the value of hard working, and that is what has enabled me to continue to get my (educational) degrees.