East Baton Rouge Parish School System Superintendent John Dilworth says he’s looking forward to meeting with a parents group that is looking into the idea of forming a new school district in the southern part of the parish. The group requested a meeting with him a few days ago, and the meeting is being scheduled, he says. While the group is concerned about a number of issues, a proposal to cut direct bus routes for gifted and magnet school students has been the primary spark. Dilworth says the problem is caused by a lack of space to offer classes for those students. “We will add buses if we need to,” he says. “But we also have a problem where we’ve got two or three kids riding buses with direct routes that we just can’t afford to run right now. … If we had the money, we could solve this by building about three schools out there.” Tuesday evening, a group of school board members, community activists and businesspeople held the first meeting of the EBR–Committee for Educational Excellence, which is creating a new strategic plan for the school system. Dilworth attended, but mostly did not participate; he says it’s important that the community own the plan, since superintendents come and go. The meeting’s participants were divided into small groups and came up with goals to shoot for, such as making the district one of the top 10 performers in the state. —David Jacobs
Today’s poll question: Do you support efforts by south Baton Rouge parents to set up an independent public school district serving children in that part of the city-parish?
