A standing room only crowd packed its way this afternoon into the Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Parish’s Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon to hear new East Baton Rouge Parish School Superintendent Warren Drake’s enthusiastic take on the state of EBR schools since taking the helm about five weeks ago.
Speaking to a crowd that included parents, public school teachers and former students, as well as St. George supporters, small business owners and political candidates vying for various state positions, Drake discussed his work in the first half of his first 100 days on the job and his next goals moving forward.
“Our schools will look completely different on Aug. 6 than they did last year when school ended,” Drake told a discouraged but hopeful audience.
“I think there is a lot of interest and a lot of enthusiasm for Warren Drake being superintendent,” said Woody Jenkins, the Republican Party chairman of East Baton Rouge Parish. “He’s probably the best hope we’ve had in 40 years to turn the school system around.”
Drake was unanimously selected in May by the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to take over the superintendent’s post from Bernard Taylor. Since then, he has visited about 30 of the 78 schools in the parish system.
Based on those visits, Drake said he has identified specific ways to implement change through improving customer service in schools and fostering leadership and a sense of school ownership among parents, students, teachers and faculty. He also discussed the need for private partnerships between businesses and public schools throughout the parish and touched on support he has received so far from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, Baton Rouge Area Foundation and small business owners.
“A lot of people said, ‘You are here to save the schools or fix the schools,’ but I don’t look at it that way at all,” Drake said. “I think there are beacons of greatness in our school system.”
However, despite Drake’s optimistic plans for East Baton Rouge schools, it may not be enough to assuage the appetite of city of St. George supporters, who have fought for years to incorporate their own city due to concerns about the lack of quality parish schools.
“People in St. George need a city and a school system,” Jenkins said. “I think in terms of neighborhood schools, (Drake) could resolve some of the problems there, but I don’t think he could resolve the problems with the need for a city.”
Dwight Hudson, a real estate agent and St. George supporter, said that while Drake’s plans were encouraging, the parish has seen many previous superintendents tout their new plans and ultimately fail.
“While I’m excited, education is the one thing in this parish that keeps us from being America’s next great city, and I still think an independent school district is the best way to go,” Hudson said.
While Drake described recent improvements to both the exteriors and interiors of East Baton Rouge schools, he still faced questions and criticism from attendees about their desire for neighborhood schools and concerns with charter and magnet schools in the area.
“You see charter schools here because our schools don’t live up to what parents expected,” Drake said. “I don’t want to see the state take any more schools from EBR, and I think we can provide better schools than the state can. … I am not against them. I am for us.”
Attempting to offer an olive branch to St. George supporters, Drake said one of the six points on the school system’s strategic plan is to create neighborhood schools, which was a point received with much applause.
“My personal feeling is our schools are going to be so good that they are not going to want to separate and make their own,” Drake told Daily Report about St. George supporters following his address. “The reason they are separating is for good schools. I am not against that. They are for good schools. I am for good schools.”
See Drake’s complete plan for his first 100 days on the job.
—Gabrielle Braud
