Advocates planning to rally for interim EBR superintendent at school board meeting

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Supporters of interim superintendent Adam Smith are planning to show up at the Thursday evening East Baton Rouge Parish School Board meeting.

Step Up Louisiana and community advocates are rallying for Smith to become the permanent superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.

All of the three finalists for the superintendent position have bowed out. Andrea Zayas withdrew on Thursday morning.

“We have so many challenges facing this school district, with possible school closures, school mergers, the possibility of charter school expansion, the possibility of a new school district emerging by way of St. George—there are a lot of serious decisions that will have to be made that could impact this school district,” said Maria Harmon, Step Up Louisiana co-director. “We also have a leader who has proven himself: Adam Smith. We don’t need instability in our school system; we need someone invested and ready to learn. We have the community from all nine districts backing Adam Smith, and I have to be honest, it’s very paternalistic when the community says they want to go in this direction and the School Board says they know better. Where is the community wisdom being considered in all of this?”

The school board meeting is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. at 1050 South Foster Drive.

East Baton Rouge school board members announce why interim superintendent Adam Smith was not selected

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