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→School board service
==School board service==
==School board service==
In 1994, Thibodaux was elected to the District 7 seat on the Lafayette Parish School Board. He was re-elected in 1998, 2002, and was unopposed for his fourth term in 2006. Thibodaux was elected by the board to serve twice as board president, and had been elected to serve as vice-president in January 2007, shortly before his death.
In 1994, Thibodaux was elected to the District 7 seat on the Lafayette Parish School Board. He was re-elected in 1998, 2002, and was unopposed for his fourth term in 2006. Thibodaux was elected by the board to serve twice as board president, and had been elected to serve as vice-president in January 2007, shortly before his death. As a board member he advocated for a reduction in teacher-student ratios, pay increases for teachers, and for additional construction and maintenance of parish schools. He was integral in procuring unitary status in the lingering 40-year-old [[desegregation]] lawsuit against the school board. He made an impassioned plea for unitary status before Judge Richard T. Haik of the United States District Court. Haikk is a brother of another Louisiana Republican figure, Suzanne Haik Terrell of [[New Orleans]].
As a board member he advocated for a reduction in teacher-student ratios, pay increases for teachers, and for additional construction and maintenance of parish schools. He was integral in procuring unitary status in the lingering 40-year-old [[desegregation]] lawsuit against the school board. He made an impassioned plea for unitary status before Judge Richard T. Haik of the United States District Court. Haikk is a brother of another Louisiana Republican figure, Suzanne Haik Terrell of [[New Orleans]].
Thibodaux stressed the need for money in the classroom, rather than expanded administration, which frequently placed him at odds with Lafayette Parish Superintenden James Easton. Soon after his death, at the request of Thibodaux's family, the Lafayette Parish School Board appointed Mark Cockerham (born 1976), a former student of Thibodaux's who had worked in his congressional campaign, to fill the District 7 vacancy until a special election could be held in conjunction with the regular [[primary]] elections scheduled for October 20, 2007. With the endorsement of Thibodaux's family, Cockerham was re-elected to serve a full term in the election that fall.
Thibodaux stressed the need for money in the classroom, rather than expanded administration, which frequently placed him at odds with Lafayette Parish Superintenden James Easton.
Soon after his death, at the request of Thibodaux's family, the Lafayette Parish School Board appointed Mark Cockerham (born 1976), a former student of Thibodaux's who had worked in his congressional campaign, to fill the District 7 vacancy until a special election could be held in conjunction with the regular [[primary]] elections scheduled for October 20, 2007. With the endorsement of Thibodaux's family, Cockerham was re-elected to serve a full term in the election that fall.
In 2011, the Lafayette Parish School Board announced the opening of the David Thibodaux Career and Technical High School, a facility designed to provide students with career and technical industry-based certification and college credit, which was a vision Thibodaux had fought for in the years before his death.
In 2011, the Lafayette Parish School Board announced the opening of the David Thibodaux Career and Technical High School, a facility designed to provide students with career and technical industry-based certification and college credit, which was a vision Thibodaux had fought for in the years before his death.