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Mr. Burnell Lejeune began his career as a vocational agriculture teacher at Franklin High in 1976. A year later, he transferred to the Lafayette Parish School System, where he continues his dedication to agriculture and career preparation to this day. He has served in the role of assistant principal, principal, and instructional supervisor for vocational education.In July of 2000, he began a new chapter serving in the position of instructional supervisor for career and technical education, where he oversaw the Lafayette LSU AgCenter component of the Lafayette School System budget. In 2004, the local contribution of the LSU AgCenter Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service budget was $30,000.During Mr. Lejeune’s tenure in the central office, he worked with the school board to increase the budget by $70,000. He was awarded the Louisiana 4-H Superintendent of the Year award in 2015. As director of career and technical education/schools of choice in Lafayette Parish, he has worked closely with the AgCenter staff to build and strengthen relationships in schools with the 4-H Youth Development program.
Much of the youth development programming in Lafayette Parish overlaps, which gives students a great opportunity to participate in both an FFA event and a 4-H event.Mr. Burnell’s philosophy has been to give youth every opportunity to learn, grow and explore what the programs have to offer.In these cases, the youth are more prepared and have greater opportunities to travel the country through enriching experiences that enable students to become productive and capable leaders.He remains keenly aware and supportive of the program. He works to ensure that there is a presence in all the parish schools. Annually, he has welcomed the 4-H program to present to the board a showcase of the many accomplishments of the members and to provide program updates. He has offered stipends to teachers to attend parish leader training, where he provides the welcome and always stresses the importance of life skills that the program offers. Beyond the 4-H Club program, he is an advocate of several 4-H school enrichment efforts, including the Youth Wetlands Program, Smart Bodies and School Gardens. He also served as the Lafayette Parish interim superintendent during the last eight months of his career.His support is obvious as he worked to secure additional funding to further support the LSU AgCenter and 4-H Youth Development.Under Mr. Lejeune’s leadership, a new cooperative agreement was also approved to increase the local support by $30,000 to hire a third 4-H agent in Lafayette Parish.Mr. Lejeune has continued to work to increase local support to the AgCenter over his career by over $100,000. The Lafayette 4-H Youth Development program and the LSU AgCenter are fortunate to have had an advocate like Mr. Burnell Lejeune! Please join us in welcoming him to the Louisiana 4-H Hall of Fame!
