Stacy Bradford is starting his tenure as principal of Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Magnet Academy with a larger student body and a school identity built around engineering.

The district's current school page identifies Bradford as principal. The LAEdTribune contacted him twice to confirm the transition and ask about his plans, and later shared a draft of this profile for review. He responded with a correction, which has been incorporated, but did not answer questions about his plans, so this profile is limited to public records, published enrollment data, and priorities he has discussed publicly.

More Students After a Feeder-Pattern Change

Louisiana's published enrollment file counts 347 students at Scotlandville Pre-Engineering Academy in 2025-26, up from 206 the year before. The increase of 141 students amounts to 68.4 percent.

The increase is not a clean measure of recruitment or retention. East Baton Rouge Parish's realignment plan kept Scotlandville's grade band unchanged while assigning the school additional middle-grade students from Crestworth Elementary. A feeder-pattern change expands the pool of students the school is designed to serve.

That structural explanation matters because the surrounding district is moving in the opposite direction. East Baton Rouge Parish^↗ET enrolled 38,008 students in 2025-26, down 3,629 students from 2018-19, an 8.7 percent decline. The latest annual loss was 1,703 students, or 4.3 percent.

The school-level increase and districtwide decline are both real, but they answer different questions. Scotlandville's jump captures a larger assignment created in part by realignment. The parish trend describes the broader enrollment pressure Bradford must navigate.

For Bradford, the immediate task is therefore not merely to celebrate growth. It is to integrate more students into a specialized middle-school program without weakening the identity families were promised.

Engineering Is the School's Public Promise

The district describes Scotlandville's theme as engineering excellence and says its STEAM curriculum is designed to combine rigorous work with student collaboration and community partnerships. That description is direct evidence of the school's stated model, not proof of classroom outcomes or of priorities Bradford personally selected.

The model has recent external markers. The district listed Scotlandville among its 2026 Magnet Schools of America Merit Award of Distinction recipients. When East Baton Rouge Parish was later named National Magnet District of the Year, Scotlandville students helped represent the system with “Survival by Design,” an engineering-design project tied to The Diary of Anne Frank.

Those examples suggest what Bradford inherits: a program expected to make engineering more than a label. The challenge is to preserve project-based work and collaboration as enrollment expands, including for students newly entering through the feeder change.

Bradford's First Public Emphasis: Reading

The clearest public indication of Bradford's own agenda comes from a school reading event rather than an engineering showcase.

At Scotlandville's annual Drop Everything and Read day, according to WBRZ, Bradford said reading is the foundation of education. “Once you know how to read, you can do a lot,” he said.

That statement is direct evidence of one priority Bradford chose to discuss publicly. It is not a complete leadership platform, and it does not establish a cause for the enrollment increase. It does, however, connect the school's specialized mission to a basic academic premise: students need strong reading skills to work through technical problems, collaborate, and explain their designs.

The next question is how Bradford will join those two ideas in practice. Scotlandville has a visible engineering identity, a larger enrollment base, and public recognition for its magnet work. The leadership test is whether new and returning students experience those elements as one coherent program.

What Remains Unknown

Public sources reviewed for this story do not establish how Bradford was selected, when his appointment took effect, or which measures he will use to judge the transition. They also do not show how much of the enrollment increase came from the Crestworth assignment rather than other student movement.

What the record does establish is the starting point: 347 students, a sharp one-year increase, and a magnet program with an existing public reputation. Bradford's tenure begins with more students to bring into that program while the district around them continues to shrink.

How we reported this story

Enrollment figures come from Louisiana Department of Education files and are recomputed in the accompanying analysis. Leadership status, the feeder change, the magnet model, and school recognition are attributed to the linked East Baton Rouge Parish sources. Bradford's public reading comments are attributed to WBRZ. The LAEdTribune sent an initial message and a follow-up to Bradford and received no response before drafting this profile. After receiving a draft for review, Bradford responded with a correction to how the profile referred to him, which has been incorporated. No claim is made about his appointment process, biography, or private priorities.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.