The Alliance has strongly advocated that the EBR School Board prioritize working across lines of difference to ensure every Baton Rouge student has access to a high-quality school. Over the last four years, the school board has started work toward policy goals that have contributed to a significant reduction in the number of children enrolled in struggling schools. The incoming board should continue to hold schools accountable for serving students well, increase access to high-quality options to serve the almost 15,000 students currently enrolled in D and F schools and drive deeper levels of policy progress to help families access the schools that best fit their children's needs.
Create a “common performance framework” to serve as guardrails for all public schools, setting minimum quality standards and outlining targeted action steps for schools that don’t meet them. Great schools should be supported to grow and serve more students, while schools that do not deliver on the promise to serve students and families should receive urgent and targeted interventions, up to and including a whole new staff and/or school model.
EBR must continue to grow both the number of high-quality schools and the diversity of program offerings to allow families to choose an excellent school that best fits their child’s needs. The school board must use every tool it has – including replicating successful direct-run schools and approving promising charter schools – to create and grow higher-performing options for the children enrolled in D and F schools and to become the preferred schools of choice for families across Baton Rouge.
The EBR board and superintendent have taken meaningful steps to ensure more children go to school in a clean, safe, and modern building with highly-resourced classrooms, including adopting and implementing the 2025 realignment plan and contracting for a facilities’ use master plan. To expand these goals to every child in Baton Rouge’s public schools, there is more work to be done, including pursuing a district-level funding formula that allocates resources based on student need and adopting a facilities use plan that is comprehensive, accounts for all public school models, centers school quality to drive decision-making, and prioritizes neighborhood input regarding the re-use of realigned school buildings.
The board has recently refined its salary schedule and provided a significant salary increase to EBR’s educators. The positive momentum must continue, or the district risks finding itself behind the curve once again. The district should develop and implement a talent strategy that prioritizes keeping the very best educators in front of EBR students. This will require the board to develop a plan for recruitment, development, and retention of high-quality educators and ensure that schools are staffed in a way that provides proper support for student success. Strategies should leverage existing best practices to address national challenges in educator pipelines.
True good governance requires fostering parent and voter participation in meetings, supporting the preparation and professional development of board members, and ultimately leads to a board and administration that intentionally and diligently work with staff and the community to drive excellent education outcomes for Baton Rouge’s students. The administration and board must work together as a team to demonstrate a shared vision in the best interests of students that inspires public confidence in public education in our city.
Learn more about the educator workforce challenges here.