About Us

The town is governed by a Mayor and Alderman. Currently, Mayor Shaterral Johnson is in office.

Sales tax is 9.55% and is broken down in the following way:
4% to state, 3.55% to parish, 2% to the Town of Grand Coteau
Hotel/motel occupancy tax is 13.55%
Population as of the 2010 census: 1,040

Schools:

Academy of the Sacred Heart -Independent, Catholic, single gender (girls), PreK3-12th www.sshcoteau.org

Berchmans Academy of the Sacred Heart - Independent, Catholic, single gender (boys), PreK3- 12th

St. Ignatius School – private, catholic school Grades Kindergarten-8th

Grand Coteau Elementary – public, Grades Kindergarten – 6th

Interesting History:

In the early 1800s, Grand Coteau served as a stopping point for travelers between Washington in St. Landry Parish and St. Martinville in St. Martin Parish. The thriving community had two bakeries, a cobbler, millinery, and blacksmith shop, a post office, and an inn where stagecoaches changed horses.

In 1821, Mrs. Charles Smith, widow of a wealthy planter in Opelousas, donated land, a two-story building, and funds to pay for the travel expenses of two nuns from St. Charles, Missouri. The two nuns of the Religious of the Sacred Heart founded a convent and a school that became the Academy of the Sacred Heart.

The Jesuits arrived in 1837 when St. Charles College, a Jesuit boarding school, was built. The settlement that grew up around the schools was called St. Charles Town before it was changed to Grand Coteau. Although thousands of Federal troops were encamped in the fields surrounding the Academy during the Civil War, the school was not touched. Union General Nathaniel Banks had a daughter in school in New York run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, and he was asked to look after the Grand Coteau sisters and their students.

The first Jesuit rector of St. Charles College planted the alley of oak trees that runs from the front of the Academy to the town of Grand Coteau. The Jesuit priests served as chaplains for the cloistered nuns and the Academy students, and the trees were planted to protect them from the intense summer sun as they rode back and forth between the two schools. Today, the college is used as a Jesuit seminary and spirituality center. The lovely grounds include the dairy barn, one of the town's landmarks.