Classroom Ready: EBR Parish Superintendent discusses changes, new start times for new school year

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — As students and parents count down the days to the first day of school, East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent Lamont Cole says a lot is underway.

“I think the biggest change for some families will be, obviously, they’ll be in a new school building with better facilities, better resources, different teachers. Some students will be in the classroom with two educators,” he said.

As part of the new changes, start times and bus routes have been adjusted.

“We changed the way we have done routing in terms of transportation. We should see increased pick-up and drop-off times. Better pick-up and drop-off times for our families. We do have new drop-off locations in some of the areas of town that is going to improve our transportation efficiency,” said Cole.

If parents decide the bus route isn’t the best option, they can now choose to opt out. This allows routes to be more on track and provides another opportunity for more transportation access.

New security features are now in place on buses, including brand-new cameras, and new entryways at the schools for visitors. Cole said safety will always be a top priority.

“All of our school leaders have gone through some safety development training in terms of making sure they’re monitoring their campuses. We’ve deployed the new weapons detection systems. We learned a lot from students in terms of what we need to do as a school system and what school leadership teams need to do at their schools to ensure kids feel safe,” he said.

As Cole reached his first 100 days as Superintendent, he emphasized the need to introduce his realignment plan, which outlines his goals for reshaping the district.

“We’re about 92% complete with all of the moves because we had some big moves in terms of BRCVPA going into its new school, moving from Kenilworth into its new school and McKinley High School going from the current location to Kenilworth. So those are the last two moves that we’re working on to ensure we’re ready for the first day,” he said.

He said schools can provide students with more educational preparation to get them ready for the real world, such as different testing strategies. “What we’re doing in our new brand-new foundation and learning centers and we still want to make sure we’re preparing our kids to read. And then once we do that, we are putting them on a path to being successful. Still want to continue with our dual enrollment initiative that is allowing our students to be able to graduate with a high school diploma as well as an associate’s degree from BRCC,” said Cole.

Cole added he describes the new school year as exciting. With new partnerships to help students access more lunch opportunities and new testing measures to ensure student success, he said, boots will continue to be on the ground.

“I’ve had an entire year to assess, to evaluate, to meet with school leaders, to meet teachers, to meet with students, to meet with families, to meet with stakeholders in our community to understand what the expectations are. So, we have some really high expectations,” he said.

School starts Aug. 7 for East Baton Rouge Parish. For updated school start times, the bus opt out program and more click here.

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