EBR school leaders, Louisiana superintendent meet as district continues search for leader

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana’s schools superintendent has scheduled a meeting with leaders of the East Baton Rouge School District for Monday. He’s concerned that students there aren’t doing as well as others in the state and that the school board isn’t spending enough on education.

Cade Brumley wrote to the East Baton Rouge School Board on Friday, noting a looming deadline to appoint a new local superintendent. Adam Smith’s temporary appointment expires at midnight Tuesday; several attempts to appoint a new leader have failed, and two finalists dropped out of the race last week. The other withdrew on July 6.

“Your stalemate has created uncharted territory for students in EBR and Louisiana,” Brumley wrote to the nine board members. He said he was prepared to “exercise authority,” but he did not explain what he would do beyond notifying the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education of the vacancy.

“My loyalty lies with students who deserve far better than the collective leadership you provide,” Brumley wrote. “I suspect most of you agree with my assessment — I am confident our community does, too.”

Because Monday’s meeting will not have enough school board members to form a quorum, Brumley and the board leaders may meet in private.

East Baton Rouge is looking for a replacement for Sito Narcisse after he voted not to renew his contract last winter. Smith stepped into the role temporarily for the second time this decade. Four board members released a statement last week saying Smith had not performed well enough as interim superintendent to win the job outright.

Brumley’s letter last week said that student achievement in East Baton Rouge schools lagged behind the state average, competition for teacher vacancies was higher than average, and less than 70 percent of revenues were spent on education, suggesting that classrooms are under-resourced.

He also noted that the state should have appointed a special education teacher earlier and reminded the board that the transportation programs at the beginning of the school year created chaos that extended beyond the school community.