Caddo Parish Public Schools is sad to announce the passing of Dr. Sandra McCalla, a legend in local education whose name had become synonymous with Captain Shreve High School and who profoundly impacted our community. Dr. McCalla passed away Friday at the age of 84.
Dr. McCalla dedicated 55 years of her life to the field of education and was most known for her
extended career as Captain Shreve High School’s principal, a role in which she made history in 1979 as Caddo Parish’s first female high school principal.
“Women just weren’t high school principals at the time. I will never forget sitting in (then Caddo Schools Superintendent) Walter Lee’s office and him saying more than once that he couldn’t believe he was going to recommend a woman for principal of a high school,” McCalla recalled in 2015 as she was prepared to retire. “After I was hired, I remember walking into my first high school athletic meeting and the only women were me and a few nuns, but other than that it was a room full of men. That’s when it began to sink in.”
After graduating from Northwestern State University in 1960 with a degree in mathematics, Dr. McCalla started teaching math at Oak Terrace Junior High in Shreveport before moving to Captain Shreve High School in 1967 where she became the school’s go-to math teacher for subjects including Advanced Math, Algebra I and Algebra II. She served as a teacher, math coordinator, and assistant principal at Captain Shreve in the 1970s.
Dr. McCalla served as the Captain Shreve principal twice. She left the Caddo school system to take a leadership position at Northwestern State University for six years. During that time, she also taught math at LSU Shreveport as an adjunct faculty member and worked as an educational industry specialist for IBM. She returned to the principal’s job at Captain Shreve in 1994 and remained there until her retirement in 2015.
Under Dr. McCalla's leadership, Captain Shreve was recognized as a U.S. Department of Education National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Her commitment to academic excellence, as well as athletic and extracurricular opportunities for students, provided avenues for students to explore their interests during their time in The Swamp.
Although Dr. McCalla retired in July 2015, her contributions did not cease. She remained an active and cherished member of the Captain Shreve family and the greater Shreveport community. She attended fundraisers, football games, and alumni events, always cherishing the connections with her Captain Shreve family. She also actively promoted careers in education and professional development for educators.
Dr. McCalla’s love of education was palpable from an early age. The child of a teacher and avid learners, her thirst for knowledge sometimes got Sandra Ann into trouble. At the age of four, she found herself on the wrong side of a principal’s attention after following older children to school and hiding behind an elementary school’s shrubs to hear a teacher’s lesson – all while donning her pajamas.
“In my mind, that was just a lesson that I couldn’t go in my pajamas so if I was going to do it again, it had to be other clothes,” she laughed as she recalled during an interview in 2015.
The story had become family lore as Dr. McCalla was found time and time again going back to the schoolhouse only in better apparel, but still to the chagrin of her parents and the school’s faculty. The result of these adventures was a deal which allowed her to start school early. That same tenacity and determination stayed with her for a lifetime.