BATON ROUGE (AP) — Two of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s appointees to the state’s top school board announced Friday they are leaving, and the governor tapped his former chief of staff to fill one of the vacant spots.

Penny Dastugue of Covington and John Bennett of Port Allen said they are stepping down from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. They stayed for the first year of the governor’s second term to provide continuity while the board got new members and a new superintendent.

Their departures were effective Friday.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with so many dedicated and talented people who are so committed and focused on providing an excellent education for all of our children,” wrote Dastugue, who was an elected BESE member for four years before being appointed to the board by Jindal in 2008, in her resignation letter.

Jindal appointed his former chief of staff Stephen Waguespack, a Baton Rouge lawyer, and Judy Miranti, director of the Division of Education and Graduate Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, as their replacements.

The 11-member board includes eight elected members from districts around the state and three gubernatorial appointees who serve at-large. BESE oversees the crafting of education policy for the state’s more than 712,000 public school students and 70 school districts.

Bennett said he and Dastugue agreed to serve longer to provide stability.

Dastugue served as BESE president for two years, as the board oversaw the creation of a statewide voucher program, expanded charter schools around Louisiana and grappled with continued budget complaints from school districts. During her time on the board, she worked with three different state education superintendents.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. (Associated Press)

Michael Conroy