LaMont Cole Makes Connections as Baton Rouge School Leader | Education

LaMont Cole remembers many of his teachers from his school days in Baton Rouge in the 1980s and 1990s, from age 7 at Fairfields Elementary to his senior year at Tara High.

“My entire K-12 experience was phenomenal. I had amazing teachers,” Cole told the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday, saying he was excited to go to school every day.

Cole spoke five days after his belated appointment and selection as the next superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. It was part of a series of efforts, both public and private, to tell people about himself, his educational philosophy and his vision for the parish school system, which serves more than 40,000 students. The three are closely linked.

“I want to talk about what our kids are missing in their K-12 experience. What they’re missing is a unique connection with adults,” Cole said, repeating himself. “What they’re missing is a unique connection with adults.”

“It’s an honor for me, a dream for me, a wish to bring back the human connection,” he said.

Cole was born in Brooklyn, New York, but moved south as a child. His mother, who grew up in Fayette, Mississippi, chose to move to Baton Rouge when she moved back south, sending young Cole to the first of four elementary schools in Baton Rouge before moving on to middle school, eventually attending Tara High.

Speaking Monday at Drusilla Place Catering, Cole rattled off the names of several teachers who stood out to him: Miss Kent, Miss Thomas, Mr. Haysbert, Mr. Brown, Mr. Bond, Miss Jackson, Miss Sept, Miss Phillips, Miss Jackson and Mr. Banks. He specifically mentioned his high school basketball coach, Larry Grant.

“He taught me civics and was the first person who got me interested in politics,” said Cole, who served two terms on the Metro Council.

Cole didn’t stop at teachers. He said he knew other adults at the school and he wants the same for today’s kids.

“Students can learn the most from a school janitor because he or she knows the most about what goes on at the school,” Cole said.

Cole said that making sure kids feel safe at school is key to creating those connections. But Cole’s idea of ​​student safety is a bit different from the modern rush to protect schools from the threat of an active shooter.

“They need to feel safe in their environment, be free and be themselves,” said Cole, who has been a teacher for 26 years.

He gave a few examples.

“They need to feel safe enough to express themselves if they have a different opinion than one of their classmates,” Cole said. “They need to feel safe enough to challenge their teachers if they feel like they’re not being educated to the highest level possible based on where their academic need lies.”

Schools are too often seen as a ‘job’ or a ‘chore’ as opposed to places where they make friends, have fun and, coincidentally, learn a lot too,’ he said.

Some of the current disconnect can be traced back to COVID, which has forced students to learn remotely from home for an extended period of time. He said the impersonal nature of such education remains.

“We learned a lot of bad habits, and we continued a lot of those bad habits when we came back to school,” he said.

Cole has little time to explain his position.

Bus tickets will be mailed Tuesday, addressed to the families of more than 29,000 students; parents with questions are asked to call their child’s school. The district’s annual Back-to-School Bash will be held Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Raising Cane’s River Center.

Employees will return to work next Monday and students will report to class three days later on Thursday, August 8.

To convince East Baton Rouge’s approximately 6,000 employees to pay more personal attention to the children they teach, Cole said he’s going to lead by example and model the behavior he wants to see himself.

Monday morning, he began by visiting various departments within the Central Office, introducing himself and telling employees how important they are in what they do. He plans a lot of internal outreach, including having breakfast next week with bus drivers, who took two sick days last year, along with cafeteria workers, to protest pay and working conditions.

“I think we take for granted the power of saying hello,” Cole said.

He said he plans to visit schools regularly throughout the school year and connect with students one-on-one.

“I want the students in the schools to know exactly who I am,” Cole said.

Cole said he has already told district leaders to expect to spend as little time as possible in the Central Office the first three days of school and to generally spend more time in school than at their desks.

“We who work at the Central Office do not have to spend our time there if we do not have to,” he said.