Episode 28 Dr. Ruby Scroggins - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Dr. Scroggins, Former Principal of JS Clark and Supervisor of Special Education Compliance, Complaint Management, and Parent-Community Involvement for Caddo Parish, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

 

0:37 1. Dr. Scroggins, you served as the Principal of Joseph Samuel Clark from 2013-2018 and are now the Supervisor of Special Education Compliance, Complaint Management, and Parent-Community Involvement for Caddo Parish.

 

Let’s start today with this quote of yours where you said in speaking about JS Clark the following:

 

“We are a very impoverished area, and I say that because I grew up in this area. I went to the same school. I graduated from the high school two blocks away. I’ve lived the lives that these students live every day in poverty.”

 

For the moneyed community of Shreveport-Bossier that may not understand what life looks like in the Lakeside neighborhood, can you describe it for us?

 

7:28 2. In 2016, you were one of ten Louisianians to receive the Angel Award presented by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation. In speaking about you, one of your supporters said the following:

 

“Ruby is an angel. What she’s doing here is what no other high school or elementary school or any school person is doing in this parish and that is helping their children at this school and their entire families by having a school pantry.”

 

Talk to me about the school pantry that you started with the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. How did it work and is it still in operation at JS Clark today?

 

15:58 3. In speaking about the Angel Award, another one of your supporters said the following:

 

“Principal Scroggins’ drive comes from her compassion to help people. She is always willing to go above and beyond to meet the need for a student and their family. It’s an unbelievable amount of time that she spends and will do whatever she can to help these families to achieve what they need.”

 

How do you explain your overwhelming compassion to help people? Or, in other words, how do you think you came to feel such a sense of service to others?

 

19:15 4. While you were the Principal at JS Clark, you started a school-based health clinic. Talk to me about why this was important and is it still in operation today?

 

24:43 5. As you look around at our community, what concerns you the most?

 

27:08 6. As you look around at our community, what makes you hopeful about the future?