A group of business leaders is urging the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to rethink its recent decision to name career administrator Adam Smith as interim superintendent of the school system.
The board tapped Smith in mid-October to temporarily fill the position vacated by former Superintendent Leslie Brown, who stepped down for unexplained health reasons after just two months on the job.
In a letter to the board and media outlets, more than 65 local business leaders urged the board to immediately reconsider for the position two of the top educators who made the short list during the board’s interview process earlier this year: Marshall Tuck—a charter school advocate, who turned around one of the lowest-performing school districts in California, and Nakia Towns, an administrator from the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area.
Business leaders preferred both Tuck and Towns over Brown during the interview process last summer.
At its October meeting, the school board voted along split racial lines not to offer the job to Towns, who is Black, but to once again conduct a national search.
“For many in the local business, civic, and philanthropic community this was the last straw,” says the letter, signed by Richard Lipsey, Mike Polito and Brian Haymon, who have since secured the signatures of dozens of other local business leaders. “We are tired of wallowing in excuses, failing schools, and propping up a system that is more about protecting the status quo than about giving every child an excellent education. We are fed up with the pettiness, name calling, and accusations of racism that make a mockery of board meetings and embarrass our community. The frustration we feel is palpable and unprecedented.”
The letter goes on to say that Smith, who originally applied for the position early this year but was not named a finalist, is a good man but lacks the “bold new vision” the failing school system needs.
“There is a reason the board did not select him as a finalist the first time,” the letter says. “He is a product of the very system board members claim they want to change. What a missed opportunity for our children and our community.”
While the letter is passionate and strongly worded, it’s not clear what kind of leverage, if any, the business leaders have with the board, which is deeply divided along racial lines, not facing reelection next week and has been resistant to public pressure on a number of issues.
But Lipsey is optimistic the letter will send a strong signal and make a difference.
“I think this letter is going to have a lot of influence, I really do,” he tells Daily Report. “And we’re planning a follow-up if we don’t get reasonable answers.”
He declined to say what, exactly, that follow-up might entail.
“We’re trying so hard to keep Baton Rouge together,” he says. “Everybody should be working together to improve the school system. They had two top people (first time around) who applied to be superintendent. They chose number three. Now, they can pick one or two or go back to the drawing board. The question is, will one or two still want to come?”
